Does the use of binary indicators reify difference and inequality?

Scholarship has noted the omnipresence of gender and has revealed persistent devaluation of women and their bodies. Illuminating the limitations of our existing gender order, feminist scholars have focused on the problem of gender duality. In doing so, questions about the validity of binary gender and sex categories have been raised. Calls to “undo gender”, however, are met with an acknowledgement of institutionalized accountability structures, which perpetuate gendering and reinforce sex and gender as containing discrete, dichotomous categories. While recognizing the socio-political necessity to eliminate this dualistic understanding of gender, I argue using binary indicators remains an important part of the feminist research agenda. I acknowledge the tension between these two positions but suggest that the continued use of existing binaries does not preclude calls for a degendering movement. •Research has established clear and persistent patterns of gendering and disparate value and treatment of women and their bodies.•Feminist scholars often call for dismantling binary sex-gender categories, suggesting that classifications reify difference and inequality.•I argue that the use of existing sex-gender categories (male/female; men/women) is an important part of the continued feminist research agenda.•I suggest that relying on these discrete categorizations does not necessarily preclude calls for a socially just degendering movement.