Introduction: New Developments in Gender Research: Multidimensional Frameworks, Intersectionality, and Thinking Beyond the Binary

Abstract

In this chapter, I summarize the main contributions of this handbook. By comparing the chapters in this volume with those included in Chafetz’s (1999) first edition of the Handbook of the Sociology of Gender, I highlight three areas where research on gender has developed considerably. First, it is now common practice for gender researchers to position their work as multidimensional across the individual, interactional, and macro areas of social life. Second, researchers have become increasingly adept at using intersectional theory to consider how multiple systems of inequality affect the opportunities, rewards, and disadvantages available to particular groups as well as how systems of inequality can be co-constitutive. Third, research on gender has devoted more attention to the lived experience of those who identify as trans and genderqueer, which has shed light on the problematic nature of considering gender a strict binary. Throughout this chapter, I also consider how these developments in gender research are shaped by the lineage of feminist scholarship as well as social events that have occurred in recent history.