Do Current Ameliorative Accounts of Gender Adequately Consider the Gender Experiences of All People?

This paper argues that contemporary ameliorative accounts do not adequately consider the gender experiences of all people. To do so, it sets three desiderata for an adequate account of gender: (i) that it must consider valid the identities of and enable one to explain the experiences of all cis and trans individuals, (ii) that it must be (at least in part) social positionist, and (iii) that it must be as identity-based as it is based in social position. It demonstrates that current ameliorative efforts – the ones carried out by Haslanger (2012a) and Jenkins (2016; 2018) – have been unsuccessful in meeting the three desiderata. Lastly, it attempts to describe an account of gender that can possibly satisfy all three desiderata set by the paper, drawing from Barnes (2020) and Bettcher (2007).