Men in feminism

This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in a range of social relations, generally done through a "strategic leveraging" of male privilege.

[1] Montesquieu introduced female characters, like Roxana in Persian Letters, who subverted patriarchal systems, and represented his arguments against despotism.

The 18th century saw male philosophers attracted to issues of human rights, and men such as the Marquis de Condorcet championed women's education.

[2] In the 1820s, John Neal wrote feminist essays that filled an intellectual gap between female scholars in the 1790s and those surrounding the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention.

[3] As a male writer insulated from many common forms of attack against female feminist thinkers, Neal's advocacy was crucial in bringing the field back into the mainstream in England and the US.

[4] He delivered America's first women's rights lecture in 1832[5] and reached his peak in the field circa 1843,[6] though he continued writing and organizing on feminist issues into the 1870s.

One argument against female participation, both at the World Anti-Slavery Convention, and commonly in the nineteenth century, was the suggestion that women were ill-constituted to assume male responsibilities.

Abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson argued against this, stating: I do not see how any woman can avoid a thrill of indignation when she first opens her eyes to the fact that it is really contempt, not reverence, that has so long kept her sex from an equal share of legal, political, and educational rights...[a woman needs equal rights] not because she is man's better half, but because she is his other half.

[13][14] Pro-feminist men, believing that changes would also benefit men, generally welcomed women's increased participation in the public sphere, and changes in the division of labour in the home;[14] in contrast, anti-feminists opposed women's suffrage and participation in public life, supporting a traditional patriarchal family model.

[14] Finally, the masculinist movement was characterized by men's groups, and developed as an indirect reaction to the perceived femininization of manhood.

Feminist and gender scholars believe that the MLM was created among heterosexual middle-class men to respond to the cultural changes occurring at the time.

[16][circular reference] The MLM began in the early 1970s as consciousness-raising groups to help men free themselves from the limits of sex roles.

[citation needed] The link between the biological male sex and the social construction of masculinity was seen by some scholars[17] as a limitation on men's collaboration with the feminist movement.

[32] One challenge of motivating men to participate, or promoting their inclusion, in feminism has been linked to the disconnect between gender and intersecting components of identity.

However, at a more primary level, the bonds formed in the civil rights movement established valuable solidarity among African American women and men.

This idea asserts that until men share equal responsibility for struggling to end sexism against women, the feminist movement will reflect the very sexist contradiction it wishes to eradicate.

These included Bring Back Our Girls, HeForShe campaign, the Gamergate controversy, Malala Yousafzai winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and sexual assault allegations being made against Jian Ghomeshi and Bill Cosby.

In 2015 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made international headlines for establishing the first gender-balanced cabinet in Canada.

[43] In 2017 two photographers, Carey Lynne Fruth and Sophie Spinelle, launched a photo series with subjects holding signs bearing the slogan.

[44][45] Five original stars from The Big Bang Theory including four men (Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kunal Nayyar and Simon Helberg) decided to take a pay cut so that their two female co-stars who joined later could earn a higher wage for seasons 11 and 12.

[46] Emmy Rossum from Shameless put production of season 8 on hold when she was renegotiating her contract for equal pay as her co-star William H. Macy.

essay by vowing to share his salary information with his female co-stars during the preproduction negotiation stage in an effort to reduce the gender gap.

Since the launch of HeForShe campaign in 2014, UN Women ambassadors alongside Emma Watson and thousands of men across the globe are committed to the goal of gender equality.

Jackson Katz suggests that we have a responsibility to help youths to create a society that will prevent future generations from experiencing the current issues regarding gender equality.

An increasing number of men said that feminism had improved their lives, in comparison to polls taken in 1983 and 1999, with an unprecedented, but marginal plurality of 47% agreeing.