Are you a feminist?
Considering five misconceptions about feminism
Christina Hoff Sommers | American Enterprise Institute
June 12, 2013

    Download

  • Title:

    Freedom Feminism

  • Paperback Price:

    9.95

  • Paperback ISBN:

    978-0844772622
  • 138 Paperback pages
  • Buy the Book

Article Highlights

  • Are you a feminist? Considering 5 common misconceptions.

    Tweet This

  • 70 percent of women rejected the label “feminist.” Find out why. @CHSommers

    Tweet This

  • The success of Western feminism provides a road map for women’s movements in the developing world.

    Tweet This

Download the PDF

 

Learn more about Freedom Feminism

 


Are you a feminist?
Considering five misconceptions about feminism

CLAIM:

 

REALITY:

 

Feminism has become a marginal movement that is irrelevant to the concerns of contemporary men and women.

 

It is true that in recent surveys, 70 percent of women rejected the label “feminist.” Fair or not, in the public mind, feminism is associated with hardline gender politics and male-averse attitudes. But the current marginal state of feminism should not be taken as an argument for its demise; rather, it should be taken as a call for reform. A moderate, judicious, male-respecting alternative, which I call “freedom feminism,” could greatly help women both in the United States and throughout the world.

 

 

CLAIM:

 

REALITY:

Western women won their rights because of activism by progressives and radicals.

 

Women’s emancipation is both a progressive and conservative achievement. During its formative period in the 18th and 19th centuries, the women’s movement had both a radical “egalitarian school” as well as a conservative “maternal school.” The egalitarian school is well known today: suffragist leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony are familiar names. But the maternal school has been lost to history. Its early leaders, including Hannah More and Frances Willard, were influential writers and educators who galvanized the women of their times. A successful feminist movement needs both a conservative and liberal wing.

 

CLAIM:

 

REALITY:

Feminists, by definition, are pro-women and male-averse.

 

The current women’s lobby thinks of men as a rival camp. Not only are men denigrated, but their problems are also ignored or explained away. A reformed women’s movement would acknowledge that the health, education, and welfare of males are pressing public issues. Our fates are inextricably tied—if one sex is in trouble, so is the other. Freedom feminism is not at war with femininity or masculinity, and it does not view men and women as warring tribes. Put simply, freedom feminism affirms for women what it affirms for everyone: dignity, fairness, and liberty.

 

CLAIM:

 

REALITY:

All who accept the term “feminist” must subscribe to the same political views.

 

Freedom feminists can be liberal, conservative, or libertarian. What freedom feminists must share is respect for considered differences of opinion and choice, insistence that debate and scholarship be reasoned and evidence-based, commitment to improving the lives of women, recognition that the sexes are equal but different, and devotion to Enlightenment democratic principles.

 

CLAIM:

 

REALITY:

Feminism has completed its work, and now the movement is irrelevant.

 

The equal citizenship and social status that Western women have won should not be taken for granted. We need to understand how the women’s movement succeeded in order to preserve and build on its achievements. Across the developing world, women are struggling to survive in the face of genuine oppression. Western women have a responsibility to help and much to offer. The success of Western feminism provides a tried-and-true road map for women’s movements in the developing world.

 
 

Based on Freedom Feminism: Its Surprising History and Why it Matters Today by Christina Hoff Sommers (AEI Press, 2013)
   
Learn More
www.aei.org/freedomfeminism
    Download
Also Visit
AEIdeas Blog The American Magazine
About the Author

 

Christina Hoff
Sommers
  • Christina Hoff Sommers, a former philosophy professor who taught ethics, is probably best known for her critique of late-twentieth-century feminism. She is also known for her extensive writings, among them Who Stole Feminism? (Touchstone Books, 1995), The War Against Boys (Touchstone Books, 2001), One Nation Under Therapy (St. Martin's Press, 2005), and The Science on Women and Science (AEI Press, 2009). Her textbook, Vice and Virtue in Everyday Life, a bestseller in college ethics, is currently in its ninth edition. Her new book Freedom Feminism—Its Surprising History and Why it Matters Today will be published in spring 2013 by AEI Press. A new and revised version of The War Against Boys: How Misguided Policies Are Harming our Young Men will be out in August 2013 (Simon and Schuster).


    Follow Christina Hoff Sommers on Twitter.
  • Phone: 2028627180
    Email: sommers22@gmail.com

  • Assistant Info

    Name: Caroline Kitchens
    Phone: 2028625820
    Email: Caroline.Kitchens@aei.org
Show More | See Full Profile

What's new on AEI

image The Pentagon’s illusion of choice: Hagel’s 2 options are really 1
image Wild about Larry
image Primary care as affordable luxury
image Solving the chicken-or-egg job problem
close

Join the AEI Media List

AEI's press office frequently sends press advisories highlighting the availability of scholars to discuss particular news topics, as well as recent AEI products (such as studies, articles, and testimonies). Please enter your contact information below to be added to our media list.
JOIN MEDIA LIST
AEI on Facebook
Events Calendar
  • 29
    MON
  • 30
    TUE
  • 31
    WED
  • 01
    THU
  • 02
    FRI
Monday, July 29, 2013 | 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Squaring the circle: General Raymond T. Odierno on American military strategy in a time of declining resources

AEI’s Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies will host General Raymond Odierno, chief of staff of the US Army, for the second installment of a series of four events with each member of the Joint Chiefs.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013 | 12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership and 21st Century Trade Agreements

Please join AEI for a briefing on the TPP and the current trade agenda from 12:00 – 1:15 on Tuesday, July 30th in 106 Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Thursday, August 01, 2013 | 8:10 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
International conference on collateral risk: Moderating housing cycles and their systemic impact

Experts from the US, Europe, Canada, and Asia will address efforts to moderate housing cycles using countercyclical lending policies.

No events scheduled this day.
No events scheduled this day.
No events scheduled today.
No events scheduled this day.
No events scheduled this day.