Feminism, Through the Eyes of Men and Women
By Madison Darmstadt
Stonehill College Journalism
As vice president of her high school’s women empowerment club, In Her Element, Mason Jupinka, wanted to recruit boys to join as well as girls. Despite her best efforts, Jupinka was only able to recruit a few, as most other boys felt uncomfortable joining a club that was perceived to be for girls only.
“We really wanted to get more guys involved to make them aware of minority issues but it was hard to do so,” said Jupinka, who attended Phillipsburg High School in New Jersey and is now a freshman at Ohio State University.
The recruitment process highlighted for her the complicated differences between the ways men and women view the feminist movement as well as gender equality. Recent research further exemplifies this idea.
The 2020 Pew Research Center survey found that men, more consistently than women, think that the feminist movement actually harms demographics of women rather than helping them.
This was determined by polling 1,582 U.S. male citizens and 1,561 U.S. female citizens. These adults were questioned about the feminist movement and how effective they perceive it to be in helping different demographics of females.
Both men and women were asked what impact feminism had on white women, Black women, Hispanic women, lesbian and bisexual women, poor women, wealthy women and transgender women. They were given these answers to choose from: feminism helped a lot, helped a little, hurt a lot, hurt a little, neither hurt nor help or the choice of not answering at all.
Megan Mitchell, a professor of gender and sexuality studies at Stonehill College said that the findings of this poll are not surprising. It is difficult for men to take into account female experiences when they have never dealt with anything similar.
“They don’t have any way of understanding what it is like in a woman's body or to inhabit space as a woman,” said Mitchell.
Using sexual harassment as an example, she said, although most men agree that sexual harassment is wrong, they do not realize how monumental the term sexual harassment existing even is.
“70 years ago, there was no concept of sexual harassment,” Mitchell said, “that was just a part of what going to work was.”
The results derived from the Pew Research Center study also shows that the largest percent of men (31%) and women (33%) believe that feminism benefits white women. The second demographic they thought feminism most benefits is wealthy women.
Mitchell said that mainstream feminism tends to benefit able bodied, white, wealthy, straight women. She said that this version of feminism is bad and that it should ideally benefit all demographics of women.
“Mainstream liberal feminism has approached feminism by abstracting women from all other categories, they are privileged except for being a woman,” said Mitchell.
Mitchell made it clear that, in her opinion, for feminism to be successful, justice needs to be redefined for all types of women not just females who are otherwise privileged. She said that women can be minorities in other aspects unrelated to gender and “good feminism” should recognize this.
Jupinka shared similar views with Mitchell regarding mainstream feminism. In order to ensure that all types of minority women were being empowered and represented, In Her Element would make posters for crisis hotlines in English and translate them into Spanish as well.
“The term feminism is rooted within the 1920s Women’s Rights Movement, which was strictly for white women. Feminism needs to include all women,” Jupinka said.
The Pew Research Center’s study showed that men and women share similar views on gender equality and the benefits of feminism.
As an example, when asked how feminism impacted the lives of white women, 31% of men said feminism has helped them a lot and 33% of women said the same. When asked about the impact on lesbian or bisexual women, 23% of men said feminism had helped that demographic a lot with 23% of women agreeing. When asked about transgender women, 35% of men said that the feminist movement neither hurt nor helped this demographic compared to 34% of women who said the same thing.
Mitchell provided one hypothesis for this, saying that the terms “feminism” and “gender equality” used throughout the study and within society are subjective.
This subjectivity can lead to confusion and miscommunications when the topic of feminism is involved.
One could consider gender equality as women being treated the same as men in a social setting, while another could consider it as taking action by creating policies that would benefit females.
An example Mitchell used is the funding of collegiate sports. One person could verbalize their support for gender equality, but when faced with a policy that would match funding of a female college sport to a male college sport despite the difference in revenue these sports produce, that same person may not agree with the policy.
Without a baseline definition for feminism in this study and within society, each person could have been interpreting it in a different way. These varying interpretations may have skewed the research resulting in inaccurate views men and women hold in regards to feminism.
“Feminism is any movement that seeks justice for women,” said Mitchell.
Seeking justice is exactly what In Her Element is all about. While in the club Jupinka volunteered at the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault Crisis Center (a local shelter), ran a peer mentoring program called “Girls Night In” and painted the walls of the girls bathroom with crisis hotline numbers and inspirational quotes in varying languages.
Jupinka hopes the club will continue its productivity, its empowerment of women and raising awareness of issues that all minority groups may face. Simultaneously, Mitchell will continue to teach within the gender and sexuality field hoping to achieve similar goals by educating her students on the importance of gender.
I really enjoyed how I was able to gain a new perspective on this topic. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting story about the true meaning of feminism and all of the roles of feminism in today's society. I thought it was interesting to hear the human-interest aspect of the story as well. Great Job!!!!!!
ReplyDelete