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Gender feminism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gender feminism is a term coined by author Christina Hoff Sommers in her book Who Stole Feminism? (Simon & Schuster, 1994). She uses the phrase to describe feminism which criticizes contemporary gender roles and aims to eliminate them altogether. In current usage, gender feminism may also describe feminism which seeks to use legal means to give preference to women in such areas as spousal abuse, child custody, sexual harassment, divorce proceedings, and pay equity. Supporters assert that such activity leads to further equality among the sexes, while critics argue that this amounts only to reverse discrimination and encourages political, legal, social and economic rent-seeking activity based on gender.
Hoff Sommers claims that gender feminism characterizes most of the body of modern feminist theory. Hoff Sommers prefers what she calls equity feminism, the goal of which is to establish full legal equality of women and men, and equality of opportunity. Hoff Sommers argues that while the feminists she designates as gender feminists advocate preferential treatment and portraying women as victims, equity feminism provides a viable alternative form of feminism. She uses the terms to critique the contemporary academic and middle-class feminist movement, which she felt was obsessively gynocentric and misandric.
The appellation "gender feminist" can be thought of as an epithet, since the feminists who Hoff Sommers would describe with this term would generally not identify themselves as "gender feminists".
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