| Part of a series on |
| Feminism |
|---|
 |
| Part of a series on |
| Conservatism |
|---|
 |
Some variants of feminism are considered more conservative than others. [1] [2] [3] Historically, feminist scholars tend to not have much interest in conservative women. By the 21st century, there have been efforts at greater scholarly analysis of these women and their views. [4] [5] [6]
Because almost any variant of feminism can have a conservative element, this list does not attempt to list variants of feminism simply with conservative elements. Instead, this list is of feminism variants that are primarily conservative. It may include organizations or individuals where conservative variants of feminism are more readily identified that way, but is primarily a list of variants per se. Generally, organizations and people related to a particular variant of feminism should not be included in this list but should be found by following links to articles about the variants of feminism with which such organizations and people are associated.
"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." [27]
"[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." [46]
If the conservative feminist becomes a mother, she accepts the need to make a host of sacrifices - personal, professional, and financial - for her children's sake. She expects her spouse to sacrifice as well, and decides together with him how each can best contribute to the family welfare. She believes that family roles are flexible: men can become primary caregivers, for example, while women can pursue full-time careers. But as she and her spouse make choices about family responsibilities, they take one thing as a given: their primary duty is to ensure their children's physical and emotional well-being, to promote their intellectual development, and to shape their moral characters.
Yet the audience for a different kind of feminism – one that seeks individualistic and market-oriented solutions, rather than big-government-driven ones, and focuses on women's empowerment rather than oppression – is clearly there. The women who embrace it are likely to transform both feminism and conservatism. The feminist movement ignores them at its peril.
Internal contradictions aside, conservative feminism is not particularly new, and it is a mistake to call it an oxymoron. It is deeply religious, of course, and it views the anti-abortion fight as one of female empowerment. The argument is simply that as women – as the motherly and feminine forces guiding our nation's ethical compass – it is a feminine duty to defend life at its earliest stages. Women are empowered by the defense itself. This cultural theory may be out of date in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but it is at the heart of Palin's sizeable and passionate following. And it is, in its own way, a feminist argument.
...
My point is that the logic of conservative feminism is plain and obvious for anyone who cares to try to comprehend. It's not new or complicated, and it shouldn't be baffling. Therefore, it is a colossal mistake for Bennett to simply dismiss the self-described pro-life feminists as an oxymoron, because that's no way for her to argue her liberal position. Conservative feminism cannot be dismissively defined away.
