Gender critical feminism emphasizes that the sole political subject of feminism are cisgender women. In other words, only those who were biologically born with female genitalia encounter patriarchal oppression and, thus, must be the focus of the feminist fight. Recently, this wave of feminism has gained popularity because it has become the centre of some public debates, especially in Spain, which highlight the rupture with the sexual and gender diversity movement.
This wave explains that feminism has historically used the categories of sex and gender to highlight the inequality between men and women. Sex refers to the biological characteristics that people are born with and that are used to classify men and women. For example, a person is considered a woman if they are born with female sexual and reproductive organs. Gender, in turn, is the cultural and social construction based on sex. For example, legal and social norms are imposed on women in relation to their sex, which put them in a condition of inequality and subordination.
In contrast, the sexual and gender diversity movement, especially transfeminism, includes the idea that, to be a woman, one need only recognize themselves as such. This is the case of trans women.
Gender critical feminism rejects this perspective and draws attention to the risk of using gender as an identity category to assert the subjectivity of being a woman. Activists within this wave of feminism use the example of legislation to illustrate this point. Laws on domestic violence normally protect women and punish their aggressors (men). As a result, if self-recognition is enough to be a woman, in cases of domestic violence an aggressor need only identify themselves as a woman for the victim to be left unprotected.
This wave of feminism sees trans activism as an expression of patriarchy and capitalism. It emphasizes that it eliminates the category of women and, therefore, feminism’s political subject. Trans women, for their part, assert the fact of being considered women and that they can participate in the feminist movement. They also denounce gender critical feminism’s transphobia and lack of empathy. This is a very current debate.
A controversial term used by some sectors to refer to gender critical feminism is trans-exclusionary radical feminism (TERF).
Finally, the term gender critical feminism is also used in plural to reflect the diversity of approaches and the heterogeneity of the members of this social movement.