Judith Butler: ‘We need to rethink the category of woman’

The author of the ground-breaking book Gender Trouble says we should not be surprised when the category of women expands to include trans women

It's been 31 years since the release of Gender Trouble. What were you aiming to achieve with the book?

It was meant to be a critique of heterosexual assumptions within feminism, but it turned out to be more about gender categories. For instance, what it means to be a woman does not remain the same from decade to decade. The category of woman can and does change, and we need it to be that way. Politically, securing greater freedoms for women requires that we rethink the category of women" to include those new possibilities. The historical meaning of gender can change as its norms are re-enacted, refused or recreated.