“Understanding Men's Participation in Contemporary Feminist Movements”
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“Understanding men’s participation in contemporary feminist movements” Payal Soobug Department of Sociology Bachelor thesis in Sociology, 15 h.p Spring Semester 2017 Supervisor: Daniel Ritter Abstract Contemporary feminist movements are mixed gendered but men’s participation in them remain low. Many sociological studies have neglected to study men’s role and participation in feminist movements and focused mainly on women’s position. This thesis builds on social movement theories and previous research conducted within this field. This study aims to reveal factors that motivate men’s participation and roles played by them in contemporary feminist movements. Qualitative interviews are used for data collection. The data indicate that men’s role in feminist movements is designated to support the movements. Factors that motivated them to participate in the movements include; rational, network and political motivations. Key words Feminist movement, men’s participation, men’s role, role, motivations, social movement, feminism and political participations. Table of content Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………….………………………….1 Purpose and research question……………………………………………………………………….2 Outline…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….2 Definition of social movement and feminist movement…………………………….……3 Previous research……………………………………………………………………………………………..……..3 Theory………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…..8 Demand and supply……………………………………………………………………………………………8 Instrumentality…………………………………………………………………………………………………..9 Identity……………………………………………………………………………………………..……………….9 Ideology……………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….9 Rational Choice…………………………………………………………………………………………………..10 Framing………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………10 Political engagement…………………………………………………………………..……….…………..11 Network and participation………………………………………………………………………………..11 Methodology…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….12 Sampling……………………………………………………………………………………………………………13 Ethical concerns…………………………………………………………………………………….……….…15 Data analysis………………………………………………………………………………………………….….16 Result and analysis……………………………………………………………………………………………………17 Men’s role in feminist movements……………………………………………………………………19 Support……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..19 Motivations behind men’s participation…………………………………………………………….21 Rational motivations …………………………………………………………………………………..…….21 Network…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….23 Political motivations………………………………………………………………………….…………….…25 Concluding discussion…………………………………………………………………………………………........27 What are men’s role in feminist movements………………………………………………………27 What motivates men to participate in feminist movements……………………………….28 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….29 Appendix 1………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….33 Appendix 2………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….35 Introduction Feminist movements were founded with the idea to question men’s privilege and alter patriarchal structures in society (Holmgren & Hern, 2009). These movements received both support and retribution from men. Some men found it important to support feminist movements while others responded by forming ‘men’s rights’ movements (Messner, 1997). Holmgren and Hearn (2009:412) mean that men’s inclusion in feminist movements puts them in a contradictory position. Men’s practices are so much ingrained in social relation that their practices are often regarded to reproduce gender inequality and are not gender-conscious (Holmgren & Hern, 2009:404). On the other hand, men’s gender-conscious activities have grown significantly during the past decades and in recent years, international institutions such as the European Union and United Nations have vouched for men’s involvement in gender equality policies (European Institute for Gender Equality, 2002; United nations, 2008). During the second-wave of feminism a minority group of men fought alongside with women, thereby altering its image. Prior to that, feminist movements were thought as a women’s movement only and by allying with men the movement soon became mixed group. It also alluded to the idea that gender equality is not a women’s fight alone, it is a men’s issue as well. However, men’s role in the feminist movements became contested and received both criticism and praise from the feminist groups. Some feminists thought that by having men on board would help spread feminist consciousness. This eventually prompted many men to join feminist movements and organising men’s gathering to discuss feminism. Thus, the notion that gender roles are destructive to all genders started to gain approval among male members too. On the other hand, other female feminists were sceptical and thought that by including men in feminist movements would lead to men becoming the centre of feminism. Although men started showing an interest in feminist movements, they still remain a minority. Additionally, none of them would have started a feminist group on their own (De Wolf, 2015:78-79). Today men’s involvement in feminist movements contains several factors: from questioning their privilege as men in personal and public spheres to participating in collective mobilisation alongside women. This essay does not seek to understand men’s position in feminism but to figure out what motivates them to participate and what are their role in a social movement that 1 questions their own benefits. This subject is relatively unexplored and this thesis wishes to contribute to the existing corpus. Purpose and research question Using qualitative interviews, the purpose of this thesis aims to understand men’s role and their motivations to participate in contemporary feminist movements. What are men’s role in feminist movements? What are the main reasons that motivate them to participate in feminist movements? Outline Following the brief introduction and the purpose of the thesis a definition of social movement and feminist movement is provided. The previous research section gives an overview on studies that were conducted on men’s role in feminist movements. The previous research section mainly covers men’s role, but De Wolf’s study slightly touches on motivation behind men’s participation. The theory section underlines theories such as; instrumentality, identity, ideology, rational choice, political motivations and network. These theories are relevant to understand factors that induce individuals to participate in social movements. I consider that the selected theories might help understand motivation behind men’s participation in feminist movements. The fourth section describes the method of data selection that the study has opted for. I also describe how I sampled respondents and ethical issues surrounding qualitative interviews. In the same section a detailed explanation of how the coding process was carried out is given. The analysis and discussion chapter are divided in three parts. The first sums the set of data obtained during the study. The second part discusses men’s role in feminist movements and the third part explores motivations. Lastly, the concluding discussion section consists of a summary of the findings and guidelines are provided on how further research can proceed in this field. 2 Definition of Social Movement and Feminist Movement Snow, Soule and Kriesi (2004) define social movement as a collective group driven or unified by one goal which aims to challenge local or international institutions by either bringing or resisting change (Snow, Soule and Kriesi, 2004:10). Social movements are known for germinating collective action, which is essential for their survival. As much emphasis is placed on them, they are also called the benchmark of democracy (Meyer and Tarrow, 1998). Many movements are “episodic” and rarely long-lasting (Snow, Soule and Kriesi, 2004:10). On the other hand, some movements such as the feminist movements which started in the 1920s have persisted across generations and are still seeking change. Many scholars still debate on which movement can be described as feminist movement. feminist movements defined by Lerner are characterised by “The awareness of women that they belong to a subordinate group…that their condition of subordination is not natural, but societally determined…they must and can provide an alternate vision of societal organisation in which women as well as men will enjoy autonomy and self- determination” (Lerner, 1993). Previous research Social movement is a popular topic, however, very few research has studied motivations behind men’s participation and roles played by them in feminist movements. Therefore, two previous research grounded on gender and psychological theories done by Demetrakis Demetriou and Jokin Azpiazu Carballo are also referred to. I am aware that even their corpus are useful in analysing men’s role and participation in feminist movements by including previous research other than social movement might increase the risk of rendering social movements theories secondary. I should ascertain that this present study is mainly based on social movement theories and gender and psychological theories are not central in this study. 3 Women’s right activism was originated as a women’s movement and was mainly organised by them (De Wolf, 2015:78). De Wolf (2015) studies how men contributed to women’s movements in Belgium and France from the late 1960s until the early 1980s. His research shows that men who were enthusiastic about women’s emancipation were usually university educated, had personal contact with feminist movements