The “gender” category in Brazil and in the countries of the Southern Cone had a very different trajectory from that known from the French and North-American historiographies. Associated to the instrumentation by the NGOs and the institutionalization by the democratic governments which came after the military dictatorships, this category is many times thought to be apart from feminism and women’s history. Political disputes in the academic and activist fields echoes on its usage. The aim of this article is to debate the criticism and the ways the “gender” category has been utilized in the history texts from the Southern Cone countries.