Contemporary British Feminism: Opening the Door to Men?

Abstract

In the UK, the ‘second wave’ feminist movement, which began in the 1960s, was largely a women's movement. In contrast, recent feminist mobilisations have included a growing number of mixed-gender feminist groups, although the role of men in feminism remains controversial. This research, based on qualitative interviews with members of four mixed-gender feminist groups in England, investigates the views of some contemporary feminists on men's relationship to feminism. The research explores activists' rationale for including men in feminism, their beliefs about the role that men should play in the movement and their views on women-only spaces. It identifies three models of men's participation in feminism and suggests that activists' views about men in feminism may be underpinned by particular understandings of feminism, gendered power relations and specific concepts such as equality. It also situates contemporary feminist beliefs and practices in the wider sociopolitical context, arguing that the decision to include men in feminist activities may be a response to a ‘postfeminist’ context characterised by ambivalence towards feminism.

Keywords::

• Feminism
• profeminism
• masculinities
• activism
• UK
• men

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Mat Baily for his help in compiling information about feminist groups and Victoria Robinson, David Phillips and Jennifer Kettle for their feedback on earlier drafts. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Notes

^1. UK Feminista is a national organisation that runs feminist campaigns and supports feminist activism.

^2. All names are pseudonyms.

^3. The White Ribbon Campaign is a male-led campaign against violence against women which began in Canada and is now international (see Kaufman, 2001). For discussion and critique of the campaign, see, for example, Goldrick-Jones (2002) and Luxton (1993).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) [grant number ES/F023685/1].

Notes on contributors

Jessica Baily

Jessica Baily recently completed her Ph.D. on mixed-gender feminist activism in the Department of Sociological Studies at the University of Sheffield.