Women are too divided and exclusionary toward each other for a women only movement to truly succeed. I’m not saying I’m perfect, but the way women will exclude other women for being sex workers, mothers, heterosexual, having different opinions, or not being radical enough creates a problem. If the goal is to build a movement for women, it has to include all women.
Men’s misogynistic movements (and I’m not saying this to praise them) often appear stronger because they don’t usually exclude other men from joining. Even when they disagree, they tend to keep them within the movement and place them into different categories rather than removing them entirely. They understand that collective power requires having more people involved. These groups aren’t free of internal conflicts either; they still divide over things like ideology, race, religion, class, leadership, and tactics. However, they often prioritize a shared goal over their differences, which can make them appear more unified.
I feel like if women could do the same and build around a common goal instead of constantly excluding each other, movements like “I hate men” or women centered movements would have a stronger chance of succeeding. A movement that excludes too many potential supporters will struggle to gain enough power to create large scale change. The broader the coalition, the more disagreement it will have to accept, while smaller movements may be more consistent ideologically but will also have less reach.
