Women's Freedom Network

Last updated

The Women's Freedom Network (WFN) is a political advocacy group founded by sociologist Rita Simon and journalist Cathy Young. [1] Founded in 1993 in Washington, D.C., [2] The group aims to provide an alternative to "extremist, ideological feminism" as well as to "antifeminist traditionalism". [3]

Elayne Rapping writes that the group's board has had "an impressive range of professional women [...] who are well connected to powerful institutions". [1] Board members have included former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick, lawyer and television personality Rikki Klieman, author and philosopher Christina Hoff Sommers, writer and editor Edith Kurzweil, Harvard University law professor Mary Ann Glendon, political columnist Mona Charen, and academics Jean Bethke Elshtain and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese. [1]

According to the Historical Dictionary of Feminism, feminists view the WFN as "faux feminist" due to its financial support from prominent conservative foundations. [4] Historian Debra L. Schultz writes that the group represents mostly "conservative ideologues in the political correctness debates". [3] The group's members have been involved with the conservative women's organizations Concerned Women for America and Independent Women's Forum. [5]

Related Research Articles

Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern societies are patriarchal—they prioritize the male point of view—and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women.

Misandry is the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against men or boys.

Feminazi is a pejorative term for feminists that was popularized by politically conservative American radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christina Hoff Sommers</span> American author and philosopher (born 1950)

Christina Marie Hoff Sommers is an American author and philosopher. Specializing in ethics, she is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Sommers is known for her critique of contemporary feminism. Her work includes the books Who Stole Feminism? (1994) and The War Against Boys (2000). She also hosts a video blog called The Factual Feminist.

Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppression; and the relationships between power and gender as they intersect with other identities and social locations such as race, sexual orientation, socio-economic class, and disability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesbian feminism</span> Feminist movement

Lesbian feminism is a cultural movement and critical perspective that encourages women to focus their efforts, attentions, relationships, and activities towards their fellow women rather than men, and often advocates lesbianism as the logical result of feminism. Lesbian feminism was most influential in the 1970s and early 1980s, primarily in North America and Western Europe, but began in the late 1960s and arose out of dissatisfaction with the New Left, the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, sexism within the gay liberation movement, and homophobia within popular women's movements at the time. Many of the supporters of Lesbianism were actually women involved in gay liberation who were tired of the sexism and centering of gay men within the community and lesbian women in the mainstream women's movement who were tired of the homophobia involved in it.

Socialist feminism rose in the 1960s and 1970s as an offshoot of the feminist movement and New Left that focuses upon the interconnectivity of the patriarchy and capitalism. However, the ways in which women's private, domestic, and public roles in society has been conceptualized, or thought about, can be traced back to Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) and William Thompson's utopian socialist work in the 1800s. Ideas about overcoming the patriarchy by coming together in female groups to talk about personal problems stem from Carol Hanisch. This was done in an essay in 1969 which later coined the term 'the personal is political.' This was also the time that second wave feminism started to surface which is really when socialist feminism kicked off. Socialist feminists argue that liberation can only be achieved by working to end both the economic and cultural sources of women's oppression.

The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminist intellectualism. It emerged in the late 1960s and continued into the 1980s, primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which effected great change throughout the world. The WLM branch of radical feminism, based in contemporary philosophy, comprised women of racially and culturally diverse backgrounds who proposed that economic, psychological, and social freedom were necessary for women to progress from being second-class citizens in their societies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cathy Young</span> Russian-American writer (born 1963)

Catherine Alicia Young is a Russian-American journalist. Young is primarily known for her writing about feminism and other cultural issues, as well as about Russia and the former Soviet Union. She is the author of two books, a frequent contributor to the American libertarian monthly Reason, and a regular columnist for Newsday. In 2022, she joined The Bulwark as a staff writer. She describes her political views as "libertarian/conservative".

Cultural feminism is a term used to describe a variety of feminism that attempts to revalue and redefine attributes culturally ascribed to femaleness. It is also used to describe theories that commend innate differences between women and men.

Feminist separatism is the theory that feminist opposition to patriarchy can be achieved through women's separation from men. Much of the theorizing is based in lesbian feminism.

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women. Existentialism is a philosophical and cultural movement which holds that the starting point of philosophical thinking must be the individual and the experiences of the individual, that moral thinking and scientific thinking together are not sufficient for understanding all of human existence, and, therefore, that a further set of categories, governed by the norm of authenticity, is necessary to understand human existence. This philosophy analyzes relationships between the individual and things, or other human beings, and how they limit or condition choice.

Antifeminism, also spelled anti-feminism, is opposition to feminism. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, antifeminists opposed particular policy proposals for women's rights, such as the right to vote, educational opportunities, property rights, and access to birth control. In the mid and late 20th century, antifeminists often opposed the abortion-rights movement.

Political lesbianism is a phenomenon within feminism, primarily second-wave feminism and radical feminism; it includes, but is not limited to, lesbian separatism. Political lesbianism asserts that sexual orientation is a political and feminist choice, and advocates lesbianism as a positive alternative to heterosexuality for women as part of the struggle against sexism.

Elayne Antler Rapping was an American critic and analyst of popular culture and social issues. She authored several books covering topics such as media theory, popular culture, women's issues, and the portrayal of the legal system on television. As a regular contributor to such publications as The Nation, The Progressive, and The New York Times, she wrote on a wide variety of cultural issues including film and movie reviews.

Equity feminism is a form of liberal feminism that advocates the state's equal treatment of women and men without challenging inequalities perpetuated by employers, educational and religious institutions, and other elements of society. The concept has been discussed since the 1980s. Equity feminism has been defined and classified as a kind of classically liberal or libertarian feminism, in contrast with social feminism, difference feminism, gender feminism, and equality feminism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feminist movements and ideologies</span>

A variety of movements of feminist ideology have developed over the years. They vary in goals, strategies, and affiliations. They often overlap, and some feminists identify themselves with several branches of feminist thought.

Feminism is one theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes, even though many feminist movements and ideologies differ on exactly which claims and strategies are vital and justifiable to achieve equality.

<i>On the Issues</i> (magazine)

On the Issues is an online-only progressive feminist news and opinion magazine founded in 1983 as a print magazine: On the Issues: The Progressive Woman's Quarterly.

<i>Who Stole Feminism?</i> 1994 book by Christina Hoff Sommers

Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have Betrayed Women is a 1994 book about American feminism by Christina Hoff Sommers, a writer who was at that time a philosophy professor at Clark University. Sommers argues that there is a split between equity feminism and what she terms "gender feminism". Sommers contends that equity feminists seek equal legal rights for women and men, while gender feminists seek to counteract historical inequalities based on gender. Sommers argues that gender feminists have made false claims about issues such as anorexia and domestic battery and exerted a harmful influence on American college campuses. Who Stole Feminism? received wide attention for its attack on American feminism, and it was given highly polarized reviews divided between conservative and liberal commentators. Some reviewers praised the book, while others found it flawed.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Rapping, Elayne (Spring 1996). "The Ladies Who Lynch". On The Issues. 5 (2): 7–9, 56. ISSN   0895-6014.
  2. Rosen, Ruth (1997). "Neither Victim Nor Enemy: Women's Freedom Network Looks at Gender in America, edited by Rita J. Simon". Contemporary Sociology (book review). 26 (1): 19–20. doi:10.2307/2076573. ISSN   1939-8638. JSTOR   2076573.
  3. 1 2 Schultz, Debra L. (2000). "Women's Studies: Backlash". In Kramarae, Cheris; Spender, Dale (eds.). Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women's Issues and Knowledge. New York: Routledge. p. 2072. ISBN   978-1-135-96315-6.
  4. Boles, Janet K.; Hoeveler, Diane Long (2004). Historical Dictionary of Feminism (2nd ed.). Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. p. 348. ISBN   978-0-8108-4946-4.
  5. Schreiber, Ronnee (2008). "Conservative Women's Political Activism". Righting Feminism: Conservative Women and American Politics. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 22. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331813.003.0002. ISBN   978-0-1998-5182-9.