Abstract
The chapter presents feminist approaches in social science and particularly in social geography. It introduces to the Czech readers still not much established movement which in Western science has managed to move from the study of gender inequality and especially unequal positions of women to the study of all marginalized groups, multiple identities and expressions of the body.
The chapter focuses on the history of feminist thinking in the social sciences and illustrates how it has pervaded into social geography. Authors show how these approaches can develop geographical thinking and what new concepts can enrich geography.
Feminist approaches are not homogenous and they are often criticized for fragmentation. However, we can find common features like the belief in the existence of patriarchy, empathetic attitude, focus on the individual and his or her experience, highlighting the diversity and respect for it and breaking stereotypes.
The main contribution of feminist approaches is the introduction of gender theory, which is based on social constructivism and which understands the differences between men and women not as biologically given but as socially conditioned. It introduces into research the social category of gender distinct from biological sex.
Feminist geographies deal with the relationship between gender and spatial relations. They are interested in the role of space and spatial organization of society in shaping gender relations.
Despite considerable thematic diversity, feminist approaches have been penetrating Czech social geography very slowly, which is apparent from only few scientific publications and almost no courses on feminist geographies.