The construction of gendered subjects in Ecuador

Abstract

In this essay I analyze the birth registration law issued by the Civil Registry of Ecuador that establishes the obligation to register the sex of people at the time of birth. I start from the premise that sexual identity is a socially constructed category, and that, like gender, it is imposed on us at birth. In the development of the essay I address the way in which medical conceptions around sex reinforce the idea that people are made up of two sexes, male and female. Therefore, what I propose is that both the birth registration law (articles 28-32) and medical concepts build gendered subjects and that to be citizens we must first be determined, in an identity. This identity is always gendered and aside from it we do not acquire the status of a person, nor are we considered citizens, therefore subjects of law within the Ecuadorian state.