Why are people reluctant to identify as a feminist?

Emma Watson’s speech at the UN last month raised many important issues surrounding feminism, including what it means to be a feminist, why people do not define themselves as feminists, and the importance of including men in the feminist fight as highlighted in the UN women’s #HeForShe campaign.

Despite feminism being defined by some as “Someone who supports political, economic and social equality for women”, previous research has shown a major gap between those who support such gender equality, and those who are willing to define themselves as a feminist. Such discrepancy is likely due to, amongst other factors, the public’s perception of what it means to be a feminist.
OnePoll therefore decided to investigate this by polling 1000 UK adults on their thoughts and opinions surrounding feminism…

The missing 40% …

Only 36% of British adults define themselves as a feminist, yet 76% support political, economic and social equality between women and men.  If one defines feminism as simply someone who supports gender equality, then why are the remaining 40% choosing not to define themselves as feminists?  This research suggests there are a number of factors to explain such discrepancy…

1)      Public perceptions of feminism
More people consider ‘feminist’ to be a negative (35%) rather than positive (29%) term. Why is this? When asked what they thought described feminists, encouragingly the top answers were positive:

Feminists think women and men should have political, economic and social equality – 48%
Feminists think women should not be objectified – 33%

However, many also believed being a feminist comes with negative connotations:

Feminists are anti-men – 26%
Feminists are aggressive- 17%
Feminists want women to be better than men- 16%

Other perceptions of feminists included:

Feminists  do not think women should be housewives  – 26%
Feminists are against all pornography  –  7%
Feminists don’t think women should wear revealing clothes –  7%
Feminists are butch  – 4%
Feminists don’t think women should wear make-up – 4%
Feminists are lesbians – 4%
Feminists think women should never shave their body hair –  3%
Feminists are not attractive –  2%

Such perceptions could partly explain why many are reluctant to define themselves as a feminist despite believing in gender equality.  Indeed, of those who defined themselves as a feminist, 31% said that they worry about identifying as one. Reasons for such worries included:

“I don’t want to be perceived as man hating”
“It can be associated as being a little extreme”
“It carries a hard, aggressive association”

Such worries could explain why many public figures have refused to label themselves as feminists including Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, Madonna, and even our current leader David Cameron (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/27/david-cameron-feminist-t-shirt-refusal).This research suggests that changing people’s perceptions about what it means to be a feminist could close the gap between the percentage supporting gender equality and those identifying as feminists.  Indeed, when respondents were first given a definition of feminism as “Someone who supports political, economic and social equality for women”,  the amount of people who then defined themselves as a feminist rose by 20%, to 56%, with one respondent later stating “Having checked the definition I probably am a feminist”.

2)      Can men be feminists?
Despite 74% of men supporting equal rights for the sexes, only 25% defined themselves as a feminist, compare this to 47% of women who identify as one. When asked why they do not identify as a feminist, the vast majority of men said simply, “because I am a man“.  This belief that men cannot be feminists seems to be shared by many – only 51% think men can be feminists, with the majority believing that by definition it is a women-only term …

“It is always associated with women, I have never heard a man called this”
“As it is associated with the female sex”
“I think fundamentally to have feminist views you have to be female”

Others made the argument that men should not identify as feminists as they cannot understand the disadvantages females face…

“They have not and cannot experience the indiscrimination women go through”
“They don’t know what it’s like to be a woman”

Debates surrounding whether or not men can and/or should identify as feminists are often dependent on how one defines feminism…

3)      Different definitions of feminism
Many make the logic argument of; if you support gender equality then you are by definition a feminist.  However, others argue it is not that simple. An article in the guardian earlier this year (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/09/not-a-feminist-move-on-men-women) argued that a few more questions are needed before one can be defined as a feminist.  Even though 76% meet the first criteria (believing men and women should be equal), how many people meet the rest of these more strict criteria?

Criteria 1 – “I think men and women should have political, economic and social equality”
76% agreed with this statement, 12% disagreed and 12% remain unsure.
Females were more likely to agree than men (79% vs. 74%). Those from the South West were the most likely (90%) compared to only 67% of people from Northern Ireland.  Interestingly people in the 25-34 age bracket were the least likely to support such gender equality (65%), compared to 81% of people aged 55 and above.

Criteria 2 – “Men and women are not yet equal”
Just over half (58%) believe we do not yet live in a society where men and women are equal. However when asked whether we live in a world where men and women are equal, a further 20% believed we do not (78%). There was a clear gender difference with 32% of men believing society is already equal compared to only 19% of women. People from the South West were again the most likely to meet criteria 2 (71% agreeing), compared to people from Scotland who were more likely to believe that an equal society already exists (31%). The older population (55+) are more likely to think society is not yet equal (69%), compared to only half of 18-24 year olds.
Of those people who support gender equality (criteria 1), only 62% think society is not yet equal, with 27% thinking society has already achieved gender equality.

Criteria 3 – “I think women are more disadvantaged by gender equality and want to discuss this”
Only 52% said they think women are more disadvantaged by gender inequality, and 7% admitted that despite agreeing with this statement, they were more interested in discussing the disadvantages of men. 29% think men and women are equally disadvantaged in different ways. Only 5% thought men were more disadvantaged.  There was a 10% difference between women and men meeting criteria 3 (50% vs. 40% respectively). Men (6%) were also more likely than women (3%) to think that males were the more disadvantaged sex.
Of those people who meet criteria 1, just over half of them (55%) met criteria 3, with 5% saying they “are more interested in discussing the disadvantages of men”, and 29% believing men and women are disadvantaged in different ways.

Criteria 4 – “I think we should do something about female disadvantage”
Less than half (47%) think we should do something about female disadvantage, with 22% thinking “It will all just sort itself out eventually”.
Of those who support gender equality (criteria 1), only 59% agreed that we should do something about female disadvantage, with 20% believing “It will just sort itself out”.

Amount of ‘real’ feminists?
If one defines being a feminist based on the above criteria then only 23% of Brits are feminists. This is 13% lower than the amount of people who actually define themselves as feminists.
29% of females meet these criteria, compared to only 17% of males.

Feminist issues

Regardless of how many people define themselves as feminists, surely the important factor is the amount that support feminist causes.  88% have at least one feminist issue which they want to see happen. Some of the top issues people supported were:

Equal pay for equal work between men and women – 54 %
Domestic abuse (violence & psychological control) should be made a specific crime – 53%
The end of FGM (Female genital mutilation) – 51%
End of sexual harassment in the workplace – 42 %
Less focus on what women look like, and more on who they are and what they do – 42%
End of sexism in the media – 39%
Contraception should be legal worldwide – 39%
Greater female representation in positions of power (e.g. politics, businesses) – 37%
End to the objectification of women in the media – 35 %
Abortion made legal worldwide                – 32%
Women should be able to wear a short skirt/dress without being hassled –  30%
The end of the Sun’s page three girls -26 %
More coverage of female sports  – 19 %

12% said they did not support any feminist issues. This may be partly explained by some believing that there are no such issues to resolve, but based on this research it seems this is not the case…

–    84% of women worry about their body and weight during the day; with the average woman spending 42 minutes worrying about their body each day, and over 1 in 10 women (13%) saying such body worries take up the majority of their day.
–    60% of women say they have received unwanted attention such as being wolf whistled whilst walking down the street, or being groped in a club. On average women get such unwanted attention 3 times per month.
–    1 in 4 women have felt unfairly treated in the workplace simply for their sex.

Summing up

Based on this research, the discrepancy between the percentage of self-defined feminists and those that support gender equality can largely be explained by the public’s negative perceptions of feminists leading to many being reluctant to label themselves, and also the large proportion of men who do not think they can be feminists. Changing these two factors would likely increase the percentage who defined themselves as feminists. On the other hand, one could argue that if we defined being a feminist with the aforementioned criteria, then the figure for self-defined feminists is actually higher than it should be.  One could possibly argue that feminism needs to be re-defined, or a new word needs to be introduced to incorporate the above criteria.
Debates surrounding feminist issues are obviously of particular importance within the UK seeing as we have now dropped down to 26th place on the global scale of gender equality (http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/oct/28/how-life-for-women-britain-getting-tougher).

Are you man who supports gender equality? If so then sign the HeForShe petition here: http://www.heforshe.org/

 

What are you views on feminism? Do you define yourself as a feminist? And if not, why not?