ABSTRACT
The feminist debate between gender essentialists and anti-essentialists is a deep and enduring one that ranges over broad topics in metaphysics and epistemology, including realism vs nominalism, nature vs nurture, individualistic vs relational conceptions of the self. This chapter aims to distinguish and to contrast two ways of thinking about essences, which yield two very different pictures of what gender essentialism is. The first understanding of gender essentialism is of central importance for feminist theory because it intersects with questions of the self and identity, and with our social agency. The second understanding of gender essentialism while philosophically interesting, is not particularly important for feminist theory. The connection between essentialism and agency lies in the intimate relationship between essence and causal power for Aristotle. Feminists miss an important conceptual resource if they remain within the Lockean framework in considering the value of gender essentialism for feminist thinking.
