This book investigates the core question of how social categories, such as gender and race, are constructed and maintained within human society. Ásta Sveinsdóttir, a philosopher specializing in social ontology, utilizes a framework of 'social constructionism' to analyze how these categories function as tools for organizing social reality. She examines the relationship between individual identity and the broader institutional structures that define social roles, arguing that these categories are not merely descriptive but are actively constitutive of the social world.

Experts in the field of social ontology recognize this work as a significant contribution to the understanding of how social categories function in contemporary discourse. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which requires a foundational understanding of philosophical terminology to fully grasp the author's arguments.