From Praising Differences and the Criticism of Inequality to the Ethics of Similarity

Abstract

This work aims to present what could be called a second order critics. It takes a number of concepts which use is generalized in the sociology of gender, in order to show them not only as the instruments to question the patriarchal nature of social ord e r, but also as its symptom. The author holds thad some aspects of the conceptualization made of sexism and women's social inequality are the manifestation of gender identity under patriarc h a l conditions. Pa rticularly the tendency to consign the convenience of making visible the w o rk of women, the need for and evaluation of domestic work, and the use of the term re p roduction, when apllied to the domestic work of housew i ve s .