This is an assignment I submitted for a class last year and I find it interesting when revisiting it.

Bibliography entry:

Anderson, J. K., Kanner, M., & Elsayegh, N. (2009). Are feminists man haters? Feminists’ and nonfeminists’ attitudes toward men. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 33, 216-224.

Summary of the Article

       This research article reported the results of an empirical study on feminists’ and nonfeminists’ attitudes towards men.  To provide a social context of this topic, the researchers began with introducing the negative stereotypes of feminists.  According to the researchers, feminism has been blamed for being responsible for a variety of social problems.  In the mass media today, specifically, “feminism is situated culturally as an identity that depends on active hostility toward men” (Anderson, Kanner, & Elsayegh, 2009, p. 216).  The researchers argued that such “empirically unexplored” misrepresentations of feminism have resulted in young women’s unwillingness to identify as feminists.  The purpose of their study was thereby to investigate the empirical accuracy of this stereotype.

       Despite the popular belief that feminists dislike men, previous research on this issue (e.g., Henderson-King & Stewart, 1999) has actually showed that feminists may not differ in their feelings toward men from nonfeminists.  In addition, the role of ethnicity has also been found to be influential.  For example, White (2006) suggested that African American women may shy away from the feminist label because they perceive feminism as a White middle-class women’s movement.  

To further explore the interactive effects between gender, ethnicity, and feminist identification on attitudes toward men, Anderson et al. (2009) chose the quantitative approach and analyzed data drawn from a comparatively large and diverse sample.  In this study, the Attitudes Toward Men Scale (Iazzo, 1983) was used to measure two types of attitudes toward men: Hostility toward Men (HM) and Benevolence toward Men (BM).  It was hypothesized that (a) feminists may actually show lower levels of hostility as well as lower levels of benevolence toward men than nonfeminists; (b) independent of feminist identification, women of color (e.g., African American women, Asian American women, and Latinas) will report higher levels of hostility and benevolence toward men than Whites.  The results of the study turned out to support both hypotheses.  That is, inconsistent with popular stereotypes, feminists actually have lower levels of hostility toward men than nonfeminists.  Another important finding is that HM and BM are positively correlated, which means that those who have lower levels of hostility toward men are likely to have lower levels of benevolence as well, and vice versa. 

Such results led to an interesting inquiry: why would traditional, nonfeminist women in general express more hostility than feminists do?  In the Discussion section, the researchers suggested that more investment of traditional women in traditional gender roles may account for this phenomenon.  According to the researchers, living in traditional gender roles, women are dependent on men, as well as frustrated/subordinated by male dominance (Anderson et al., 2009).  Similarly, “if there is more adherence to traditional gender-role dynamics among people of color, we would expect relatively higher levels of both hostility and benevolence” (Anderson et al., 2009, p. 223).      
 

Implications for Culture and Education

         In a sense, stereotypes or labels are “necessary evils”.  Although stereotypes tend to oversimplify meanings and distort our understandings, they are sometimes most efficient in helping people learn something in this world of complexity.  The term “feminism”, as a culturally situated concept, is undoubtedly subject to this rule.  As the researchers stated, when the negative stereotypes dominate in the mass media, fewer young people would be willing to identify as feminists, and feminism is thus further marginalized.  Had feminism not been this marginalized, feminism studies and activities would have contributed a lot more to social change.  The circumstances of feminism today, therefore, require more scientific research to counterbalance the popular but misleading beliefs.  We educators might as well be cautious when discussing such topics with the young in classrooms.                                            

Analysis

To summarize the political agendas of various types of feminism, Anderson et al. (2009) suggested that the definition of feminism in their study “included any reference to equal rights for women, the acknowledgement of inequality between women and men, and the need for social change on behalf of women” (p. 219).  That being said, gender equality does not simply require equal rights in job market, it essentially requires changes in people’s perceptions, values, and attitudes.

Thanks to industrialization and subsequent social changes, women have been given more opportunities to receive education, as well as more access to jobs to enhance financial independence.  When it comes to people’s values and attitudes regarding gender roles, however, we may find that those are decades behind the progress in economics and technology.  

This study demonstrated that what differentiates feminists from nonfeminists is not hostility/benevolence toward men, but to what extent they are emotionally dependent on men.  It can be inferred that those who identify as feminists assume a higher level of autonomy than traditional, nonfeminist women.  This is a desirable conclusion to make in feministic perspective, because the bottom line of feminism is for each female to achieve independence and execute free will. 

In summary, feminists are not the stereotyped male bashing and the society, especially the media, should listen to them with rationality and respect.