List of conservative feminisms
Encyclopedia
Some feminism
s are considered more conservative
than others.
Almost any feminism can have a conservative element. This list does not attempt to list feminisms simply with conservative elements. Instead, this list is of feminisms that are primarily conservative.
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
s are considered more conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
than others.
Almost any feminism can have a conservative element. This list does not attempt to list feminisms simply with conservative elements. Instead, this list is of feminisms that are primarily conservative.
List
This list may include organizations or individuals where a conservative feminism is more readily identified that way, but is primarily a list of feminisms per se. Generally, organizations and people related to a feminism should not be in this list but should be found by following links to articles about various feminisms with which such organizations and people are associated.- backlash feminism: see new conservative feminism in this list
- balanced feminism: see right-wing feminism in this list
- domestic feminism: see old conservative feminism in this list
- equity feminism
- Evangelical Protestant ChristianEvangelicalismEvangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
profeminism ("Karen .... articulates the Evangelical [Protestant] profeminist position particularly well. Like profeminist Catholics and Jews, she feels that the women's liberation movement was a necessary response to the oppression of women. She praises the achievements of feminism in society as well as in Evangelical communities and insists that sexism persists and that further changes are necessary. Yet Karen, too, criticizes the movement for seeking to eliminate gender differences, devaluing motherhood and homemaking, and being led by extremists who do not represent ordinary American women, particularly with respect to the issues of homosexuality and abortion. Her comments on the latter two issues ... resemble ... closely the statements made by antifeminist Evangelicals.") - individualist feminismIndividualist feminismIndividualist feminism is a term for feminist ideas which seek to celebrate or protect the individual woman....
, including concepts from Rene Denfeld and Naomi WolfNaomi WolfNaomi Wolf is an American author and political consultant. With the publication of The Beauty Myth, she became a leading spokesperson of what was later described as the third wave of the feminist movement.-Biography:...
, essentially that "feminism should no longer be about communal solutions to communal problems but individual solutions to individual problems", and concepts from Wendy McElroyWendy McElroyWendy McElroy is a Canadian individualist anarchist and individualist feminist. She was a co-founder along with Carl Watner and George H. Smith of The Voluntaryist in 1982.-Sex-positive:... - libertarian feminism: see individualist feminism in this list
- National Woman's PartyNational Woman's PartyThe National Woman's Party , was a women's organization founded by Alice Paul in 1915 that fought for women's rights during the early 20th century in the United States, particularly for the right to vote on the same terms as men...
, in the U.S., led by Alice PaulAlice PaulAlice Stokes Paul was an American suffragist and activist. Along with Lucy Burns and others, she led a successful campaign for women's suffrage that resulted in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.-Activism: Alice Paul received her undergraduate education from...
, described as "[articulating a] narrow and conservative version of feminism" - new conservative feminism, or backlash feminism, arguably antifeminist, represented by Betty FriedanBetty FriedanBetty Friedan was an American writer, activist, and feminist.A leading figure in the Women's Movement in the United States, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the "second wave" of American feminism in the twentieth century...
in The Second StageThe Second StageThe Second Stage is a 1981 book by American feminist, activist and writer Betty Friedan, best known for her earlier book The Feminine Mystique....
and Jean Bethke ElshtainJean Bethke Elshtain-Biography:She is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School, and is a contributing editor for The New Republic. She is, in addition, newly the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Chair in the Foundations of American Freedom at...
in Public Man, Private Woman and anticipated by Alice Rossi, A Biosocial Perspective on Parenting. These authors do not necessarily agree with each other on all major points. According to Judith Stacey, new conservative feminism rejects the politicization of sexuality, supports families, gender differentiation, femininity, and mothering, and deprioritizes opposition to male domination. - old conservative feminism or domestic feminism, from the 19th century
- postfeminismPostfeminismPost-feminism is a reaction against some perceived contradictions and absences of second-wave feminism. The term post-feminism is ill-defined and is used in inconsistent ways...
- right-wing feminism, or balanced feminism, including the work of Independent Women's ForumIndependent Women's ForumThe Independent Women's Forum is an American conservative, non-profit, non-partisan research and educational institution focused on domestic and foreign policy issues of concern to women...
, Feminists for Life of AmericaFeminists for LifeFeminists for Life of America is a non-profit, pro-life feminist, non-governmental organization . Established in 1972 and now based in Alexandria, Virginia, the organization describes itself as "shaped by the core feminist values of justice, nondiscrimination, and nonviolence." FFL is dedicated...
, and ifeminists.net headed by Wendy McElroyWendy McElroyWendy McElroy is a Canadian individualist anarchist and individualist feminist. She was a co-founder along with Carl Watner and George H. Smith of The Voluntaryist in 1982.-Sex-positive:...
. It generally draws on principles of first-wave feminismFirst-wave feminismFirst-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity during the 19th and early twentieth century in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. It focused on de jure inequalities, primarily on gaining women's suffrage .The term first-wave was coined retroactively in the 1970s...
and against both postfeminismPostfeminismPost-feminism is a reaction against some perceived contradictions and absences of second-wave feminism. The term post-feminism is ill-defined and is used in inconsistent ways...
and academic or radical feminismRadical feminismRadical feminism is a current theoretical perspective within feminism that focuses on the theory of patriarchy as a system of power that organizes society into a complex of relationships based on an assumption that "male supremacy" oppresses women...
, the latter being defined to include left and progressive politics, not only feminism based on gender oppression. Right-wing feminism supports both motherhood and women having careers and both individuality and biological determinism; it accepts gender equality in careers while believing that numerical equality will naturally not occur in all occupations. - state feminismState feminismState feminism is feminism created or approved by the government of a state or nation. It usually specifies a particular program. The government may, at the same time, prohibit non-governmental organizations from advocating for any other feminist program....
- Womansurge: see Women's Equity Action League in this list
- Women's Equity Action LeagueWomen's Equity Action LeagueThe Women's Equity Action League, or WEAL, was a United States women's rights organization founded in 1968, during the feminist movement. The Women's Equity Action League was founded in Ohio and headquartered in Washington, D.C., as a "spin-off" of the National Organization for Women by more...
(WEAL), formed originally by some of the more conservative members of the National Organization for WomenNational Organization for WomenThe National Organization for Women is the largest feminist organization in the United States. It was founded in 1966 and has a membership of 500,000 contributing members. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S...
(NOW), when NOW was viewed as radical. The members who founded WEAL focused on employment and education and shunned issues of contraception and abortion. Its founders called it a "'conservative NOW'". Its methods were "conventional", especially lobbying and lawsuits. The departures from NOW left NOW freer to pursue reproductive freedomReproductive rightsReproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as follows:...
and the Equal Rights AmendmentEqual Rights AmendmentThe Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time...
. "[T]he fragmentation process, as organizations broke up and reformed, .... retained women within the movement who might otherwise have left it. This is what happened in the case of NOW, when it split up over internal divisions, and new feminism was nevertheless able to retain the most conservative elements through the formation of WEAL. At first, in fact, WEAL called itself the 'right wing of the women's movement.' Another NOW spinoff, Womansurge, tended to attract older women, who felt more comfortable in it than in NOW, which was becoming more politically radical under the influence of a new younger generation of militants."
Further reading
Not necessarily authored by conservative feminists, these illuminate conservative feminisms.Books
- Dworkin, AndreaAndrea DworkinAndrea Rita Dworkin was an American radical feminist and writer best known for her criticism of pornography, which she argued was linked to rape and other forms of violence against women....
, Right-Wing Women: The Politics of Domesticated Females (N.Y.: Coward-McCann (also Wideview/Perigee Book), 1983) - Young, CathyCathy YoungCathy Young is a Russian American journalist and writer whose books and articles, as well as columns which appear in the libertarian monthly Reason, and also weekly in The Boston Globe, primarily espouse equality feminism and libertarianism.-Life and Career:Born in Moscow, the capital of what was...
, Ceasefire!: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality (N.Y.: Free Press, 1999 (ISBN 0-684-83442-1)); she argues for a "philosophy" (id., p. 10 (Introduction: The Gender Wars)) and "do[es]n't know if this philosophy should be called feminism or something else" (id., p. 11 (Introduction))
Articles
- Grant, JaneJane GrantJane Grant was a New York City journalist who co-founded The New Yorker with her first husband, Harold Ross.-Her life:...
, Confession of a Feminist, in The American MercuryThe American MercuryThe American Mercury was an American magazine published from 1924 to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured writing by some of the most important writers in the United States through the 1920s and 1930s...
, vol. LVII, no. 240, Dec., 1943, pp. 684–691. - Kersten, KatherineKatherine KerstenKatherine Kersten is a conservative columnist who writes for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.-Background:Kersten, a graduate of Notre Dame and Yale universities, began her career as a financial analyst for a Chicago bank. Subsequently, she worked as a budget planner for the University of...
, What Do Women Want?, in Policy Review, issue 56, Spring, 1991 - Lee, Martha F., Nesta Webster: The Voice of Conspiracy, in Journal of Women's HistoryJournal of Women's HistoryThe Journal of Women’s History is an academic journal founded in 1989. It was the first journal devoted exclusively to the field of international women's history. It explores multiple perspectives of feminism rather than promoting a single unifying form...
, vol. 17, no. 3 (Fall, 2005), p. 81 ff. (biography including on feminism)