Almudena Hernando
is a Professor at the Department of Prehistory and a member of the Institute of Feminist Research at the Complutense University, Madrid. Her research focuses on the theoretical basis underlying identity construction, with special attention to oral societies and women in the Western World. She has carried out field work among the horticulturalists Q'eqchí (Guatemala) and the hunter-gatherers Awá (Amazonas, Brazil), and currently she is developing a research project among the hoe agriculturalists Gumuz and Dats'in from Ethiopia. She has been invited as a researcher in the Universities of California (Los Ángeles and Berkeley), Chicago and Harvard. She has written several books as "Los primeros agricultores de la Península Ibérica" (Ed. Síntesis) o "Arqueología de la Identidad" (Akal), and she has coedited and participated in others as "La construcción de la subjetividad femenina" (Instituto de Investigaciones Feministas, Madrid), "¿Desean las mujeres el poder? Cinco reflexiones en torno a un deseo conflictivo" (Minerva) o "Mujeres, hombres, poder. Subjetividade en conflicto" (Traficantes de Sueños).

Goes beyond simplistic and mechanistic gender dualisms and biological-based explanations, considering culture as the result of complex dynamics of conscious and unconscious processes

Unveils the reasons behind differences between men and women identities in the 21st century, helping women to understand their 21st century conflictive personhood

Explains how the Enlightenment's values did not produce a more balanced and less unequal society

Includes supplementary material: [...]

1: General approach.- 2: Sex and gender.- 3: The Origin.- 4: Relational identity or identity when one has no power over the world.- 5: Individuality or identity when one has power over the world.- 6: Relational identity/ Individuated identity. The appearance of things.- 7: The fantasy of individuality. Part I: women and gender identity.- 8: The fantasy of individuality. Part II: men's (unconscious) performance of relational identity.- 9: Dependent individuality and independent individuality.- 10: Sex and gender all over again. 11: Conclusion.