An important part about gender equality is of course gender, that being female, male or other. Whether you identify as a girl a boy or someone else, every gender is important in gender equality. Oxford Dictionary describes gender equality as a “state in which access to rights or opportunities is unaffected by gender.”, now what’s so bad about that? Who wouldn’t want everyone to have the same opportunities in life, the same privileges and chances as anyone else? Sounds like a pretty great thing right? Now, that being said, let’s take a step back and bring in another important subject in all of this, feminism. Feminism is known as something that women participate in in order to bring men down a peg or two, right? In fact, feminism is the exact opposite of bringing men down, feminism is about bringing women up, empowering women, therefore striving for gender equality, and who doesn’t love gender equality right? That being said, if the fundamental principals of feminism include gender equality (therefore the empowerment of women), and if someone supports gender equality that someone could possibly then be identified as a feminist right? But feminism is only for women, how can a man be a feminist? As previously mentioned, anyone who believes in gender equality could be considered a feminist and men can believe in gender equality, therefore men can be feminists! In fact, male feminists are super important! This year Trenton M. Haltom released a review on a book written by 3 men, Michael A. Messner, Max A. Greenberg, and Tal Peretz called Some men: feminist allies & the movement to end violence against women. Haltom reviews the book and it’s views on men and feminism, how men help, why men chose to be advocates, how male feminists can be controversial and most importantly, how can be really good allies. The review begins with how the authors of the book explain why men become involved in anti-violence against women by saying that some of the men joined because they witnessed or experience the violence and others because of they learned about the violence through academic sources. These numbers are good because the cohort of men that joined because they were directly affected was the eldest of the cohorts whereas the newest cohorts are the ones who said they joined because they learned about it and wanted to make a change (Haltom). Another important subject the article talks about how more men can be involved in the movement, “key to gaining ground within the movement was following women’s leadership.”. A big fault that male feminists are often pegged for taking the women’s opinions and thoughts, which can be avoided by respecting the people who came up with the ideas and crediting them for it (Haltom). Another fault that is unfortunate with the male feminists is that they are often placed on pedestals when they advocate for women’s rights, which can be demeaning for the women who do the same thing (Haltom). All in all, gender equality is about all of the sexes so it’s important to have male allies who can advocate for women just as well as women do and men who can place credit where credit is due. Not all men are feminists but neither are all women, but the people who are can make a difference in gender inequality and gender-based violence no matter their own gender.
Oxford, “Definition of gender equality in English.” Oxford Living Dictionaries, accessed Dec 12 2017, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gender_equality
Haltom, Trenton M. “Some men: feminist allies & the movement to end violence against women.” JOURNAL OF GENDER STUDIES, 2017, pp. 479-480
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