Women's Bodies

Recent decades have seen unprecedented scholarly interest in the body, particularly the gendered body. This interest has been fostered by critical work emanating from the fields of philosophy, sociology, gender studies, cultural studies, medical humanities, and politics. Traditional concepts such as sex and gender have also come under scrutiny outside of the academy, where feminists and LGBT activists have drawn attention to the conceptualisation of the body in social and political milieus. 

Given this widespread appeal of theorisations on the body, the Society for Women in Philosophy Ireland is organising a conference on the topic ofWomen’s Bodies. Papers  address philosophical considerations arising from t

• biological and social constructions of sexual difference.
• essentialism regarding sex and  gender,
• embodiment
• pornography
• pregnancy, biotechnologies
• sexual violence and harassment
• the phenomenology of pregnancy, birth and parenthood
• technologies and the gendered body
• social movements, activism, and the gendered body