Antifeminist Movements Research Articles

Conflicted Membership: Women in Fathers’ Rights Groups

Women who participate in mixed‐gender, antifeminist movements are not a homogeneous group of actors who face no identity‐based conflicts when they mobilize for these causes. Using 23 in‐depth interviews with women involved in the American fathers’ rights movement—which has as its goal the reformation of child support and child custody laws in ways that are more favorable to men and less favorable to women—I argue that mixed‐gender, antifeminist activism has the potential to produce high levels of tension for female participants between their various social identities and their collective movement identity. Indeed, almost half of these women elaborate on how two particular manifestations of their social identities—as simultaneous members of other feminist groups and simply as women—clash with the collective identity generated by the fathers’ rights movement. Ultimately, these women coped with these competing allegiances in a variety of proactive ways. In contrast, the other half of the sample experienced no such tensions. These differential patterns of identity‐based conflicts are suggestive of the hazards associated with a social movement's efforts to attract a wider membership base over time.

Abortion, Antifeminism, and the Return of Daniel Ortega

In Nicaragua, the convergence of two regional trends—the resurgence of the electoral left and the emergence of significant antifeminist movements—has important implications for our understanding of left-wing parties and gender politics. An alliance between the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (Sandinista Front for National Liberation—FSLN) in the days before the 2006 election banned abortion even to save the woman's life. This can only be explained though the relationship of four long-term processes: (1) the FSLN's becoming a less ideological party, advocating reconciliation rather than revolution, (2) nearly a decade of pact making with the right, (3) the alienation of the feminist movement from the FSLN and divisions within it, and (4) the increasing sophistication of the antifeminist movement. The events of this period demonstrate the importance of examining gender politics in terms of the dynamic and sometimes unpredictable relationship between state, party, and civil society.

Resisting the Feminist Threat: Antifeminist Politics in Post-Sandinista Nicaragua

In this article I note that one important result of the last several decades of social upheaval in Nicaragua has been the emergence of active feminist and antifeminist movements. Since there has been significant analysis of feminist organizing, and very little on antifeminist organizing, the focus of this paper is antifeminism. I argue that the emergence of this backlash movement can be explained in terms of both domestic and global politics. From a domestic perspective, the movement can be seen as a reaction against the Sandinista revolution and its aftermath. From a global perspective, it is a response to what antifeminists see as the challenges of globalization such as feminist successes in international development agencies and the loss of sovereignty due to neoliberalism. It is also a response to the opportunities provided by globalization such as the emergence of a global antifeminist movement with strong links to like-minded organizations in other countries. This article analyzes the historical roots of the movement and then considers the worldviews of the participants in the movement.

State of Struggle: Feminism and Politics in Alberta (review)

Reviewed by: State of Struggle: Feminism and Politics in Alberta Lisa Young (bio) Lois Harder. State of Struggle: Feminism and Politics in Alberta University of Alberta Press. xiv, 192. $34.95 Alberta occupies a peculiar place in the Canadian political landscape. Its politicians cultivate myths of rugged individualism, fiscal austerity, and small government while simultaneously engaging in substantial, even profligate, public spending in order to ensure that their political hegemony continues uninterrupted. The result is a one-party political system that uses the province's oil-derived wealth to co-opt potential dissenters and ensure that the citizenry remains complacent. It is against this backdrop that Lois Harder traces the history of second-wave feminism in Alberta. As she wryly observes in her preface, the common assumption is that a book about feminism in Alberta would necessarily be brief. But, as Harder shows in her thorough account of [End Page 462] feminist activism in the province from the 1970s through the 'Klein Revolution' of the 1990s, feminist organizing has not been absent from the province's political landscape. It has, however, been faced with a better-organized and more vociferous anti-feminist movement than found elsewhere in Canada. Perhaps even more significant, Alberta feminists have focused their attention on a government not well disposed towards equality-seeking groups. That said, Harder makes the essentially important point that even in a province where the party forming the government does not change from election to election, there have been very different provincial administrations in Alberta over the past three decades. Animated both by the individuals in government and underlying economic conditions, the Alberta government has taken several different state forms over the three decades included in Harder's study. The Alberta government was most receptive to feminist claims in the 1980s, as Don Getty's government struggled to cope with the breakdown of social consensus resulting from low oil prices. In an effort to maintain its electoral support, Getty's government simultaneously tried to respond to feminist claims and cast itself as a supporter of the traditional family form. This ambiguous stance broke down, according to Harder, in the face of Ralph Klein's neo-liberal revolution. Constructing the province's financial situation as one of crisis, Klein launched an attack on the public sector in the province. Given that women disproportionately staff the largest aspects of the provincial public sector - health care and education - and are left to pick up the slack when the government pulls out of early childhood education, health care, and social services, this neo-liberal state form had a disproportionate impact on women. But, because resistance to Klein was not constructed in gendered terms, the eventual outcome of the Klein revolution was to reduce the presence and voice of feminist activism in the province. Like many works in the Canadian political economy tradition, State of Struggle is long on critical political analysis and short on economic fact. The reader is left wondering whether the particular difficulties of feminist advocacy in the province result in greater gendered economic inequalities, lower female labour force participation, or greater rates of violence against women. That said, State of Struggle makes an important contribution both to our understanding of Alberta politics and to knowledge of feminist organizing in Canada. In terms of the former, Harder's conceptualization of state forms is an important corrective to the notion of the Alberta provincial government as Conservative hegemon. Like any other state, its permeability changes with changing social, economic, and political conditions. In terms of the latter, Harder's careful history of feminist organizing in the province is a model for the kinds of provincial-level studies that are [End Page 463] necessary to understanding the diversity of feminism in our highly decentralized federation. It is required reading for anyone with an interest in political economy or provincial politics. Lisa Young Lisa Young, Department of Political Science, University of Calgary Copyright © 2005 University of Toronto Press Incorporated

Who Speaks for American Women? The Future of Antifeminism

The defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in 1982 raised many questions about the viability of American feminism. The antifeminist movement has largely escaped critical inquiry, despite its close relationship with the New Right, a coalition that experienced several setbacks in the late 1980s. This article examines the antifeminist movement in the post-ERA period. It presents a historical overview of American antifeminist movements, examines their bases of support among both sympathizers and activists, and details the organization and activities of the two largest antifeminist organizations, Eagle Forum and Concerned Women for America. Concluding comments speculate on the future of the antifeminist movement and suggest that there are both internal and external barriers to its continued success.

Relevance or Reinforcement: Teaching about the Anti-Feminist Movement

Relevance or Reinforcement: Teaching about the Anti-Feminist Movement

IN THE FACE OF THREAT:

This article develops a cross-cultural and historical theory of antifeminist movements. Such movements are composed of two elements, which often involve very different types of people: vested-interest groups and voluntary associations. Five predictions concerning the social composition of antifeminist vested-interest groups and voluntary organizations and antifeminist movement ideology are derived from the theory. Evidence taken from existing literature pertaining to both first-wave (nineteenth to mid-twentieth century) and second-wave (since 1968) antifeminist movements in a variety of nations is reviewed. Substantial support is found for all five predictions. We conclude that antifeminist movement adherents are responding to realistic threats. For men and vested-interest groups, the threat is primarily class based, but also extends to their status as family head; for women, it is primarily status based as wives and mothers, but also class-based inasmuch as their husbands' economic interests are threatened.

Ladies against Women: Mobilization Dilemmas of Antifeminist Movements

This study compares the resource mobilization dilemmas of the antisuffrage movement which was most active between 1912 and 1918 and the anti-Equal Rights Amendment movement of 1972–82. I argue that the problems confronted by both countermovements were caused in part by their predominantly female constituencies and their opposition to feminism. Using historical documents, I identify common rhetorical, tactical, and organizational solutions to these dilemmas. I also identify differences between them which help to explain their divergent outcomes. These findings suggest that both countermovements adopted rhetorical strategies sharply differentiating opponents from proponents of women's rights, but their exaggeration of traditional feminine traits created additional mobilization dilemmas which were more effectively resolved by Phyllis Schlafly's leadership of the national campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment.

Ladies against Women: Mobilization Dilemmas of Antifeminist Movements

Ladies against Women: Mobilization Dilemmas of Antifeminist Movements

Christian Feminism: A Review of Volumes by Scanzoni & Hardesty and Jewett

The controversy between the pro and antifeminist movements continues to develop with a growing cleavage between the two groups in evangelical Christendom as a whole. Two influential books, All We're Meant to Be and Man as Male and Female, are examined in light of content and style from a scriptural and psychological point of view. The evangelical community is confronted with the challenge of application of biblical teachings on women to the 20th century.