Gender blindness

Professional practice or intellectual attitude that disregards the distinct gender conditions, identities, roles and attributes in any field of human activity. In the field of literature, it occurs when studies or criticism of a literary work, for example, do not acknowledge the agency of female characters. Gender blindness is particularly pronounced in the writing of war stories; the literary representation of war events has traditionally obliterated the role of women. One author who exposed this traditional gender blindness is Svetlana Alexievich in The Unwomanly Face of War (1985).