Towards an Integrated Meta-Theory of Gender: Thoughts on the Potential Use of Ken Wilber's AQAL Model to Develop an Integral Gender Theory

Abstract

This paper explores the potential development of a postdisciplinary framework that can be used to improve the efficacy of current approaches to studying gender and support the development of an integrated meta-theory of gender (or an Integral Gender Theory).

This framework is based on Ken Wilber's Integral Theory and draws on existing work to apply Wilber's AQAL model to sex, gender and gender studies. The resulting framework allows for the integration of biological, psychological, social and cultural perspectives and promotes the use of eight distinct methodological perspectives outlined in Wilber's Integral Methodological Pluralism when studying gender and gender issues.

The paper also examines the ways in which the male and female experience of gender in the 21st Century is different, diverse, open to adaptability and shaped by choice.