Talk:Gender feminism

Proposal

I propose a merge of Gender feminism into the articles of the discussed authors and replacement of Gender feminism to a dab page.

Rationale

"Gender feminism" is a derogatory term with no agreed definition between authors. @Biogeographist: Pages on derogatory terms can be appropriate for terms that have reliable sources which discuss their use in public discourse sociologically, politically, or historically. I don't see such sources on this topic. Without clear definition or any good source providing comprehensive coverage of these diverse definitions, I don't see a basis for an article at Gender feminism.

I welcome comments from earlier contributors to the discussion at Talk:Social construction of gender#Merger proposal, since I have substantially edited this article since then: @Richard3120, The Vintage Feminist, Staszek Lem, and Pfhorrest:. Daask (talk) 18:39, 25 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

• Oppose: I agree with the sentence that Daask wrote immediately following my username above. But it's not clear to me that the next sentence is true: "I don't see such sources on this topic." A search for "sommers" + "gender feminism" OR "gender feminist" on Google Books and Google Scholar returns many relevant results, such as Martha Nussbaum's Sex and Social Justice. For example, here is Leslie Heywood in Bodymakers: A Cultural Anatomy of Women's Body Building: "As anyone at all familiar with feminist theory would recognize, the kind of rigid consensus Sommers insists gender feminism employs simply has no basis." Biogeographist (talk) 11:41, 26 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Do any of the results not mention Sommers and / or Who Stole Feminism? - it seems more like an argument for a re-direct to her book and the creation of a criticism section on that article. --The Vintage Feminist (talk) 14:56, 26 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Biogeographist: Nussbaum is a great source. She mentions "gender feminism" in quotation marks only in a summary of Sommers view. The use of quotation marks here indicates that Nussbaum does not recognize this category, and the fact that she uses the term only in her summary of Sommers and not even in her further discussion and rebuttal indicates to me that she doesn't find it meaningful. I believe Sex and Social Justice strongly supports the understanding that this is not a meaningful term.

Heywood is less clear. She is clearly responding to Sommers and seems to reject most of Sommers historical and typological claims about feminism. However, at other points, she seems to use "gender feminism" as if she considers it a valid and meaningful term. No definition or description is offered. Daask (talk) 19:19, 27 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Daask: I have to admit that I'm not interested enough in this topic to work on a counterargument to your argument here. The proposal by The Vintage Feminist to redirect to Who Stole Feminism? with a "Criticism" section (or an expansion of the existing "Reception" section) in that article sounds fine to me. What you call "the understanding that this is not a meaningful term" is, of course, also the understanding of those who criticize Sommers' use of the term. Biogeographist (talk) 02:48, 28 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

• Comment: The section "Anti-gender feminism" appears to be a good candidate for merging into Chela Sandoval since, based a quick search, that term appears to be used only by her. I doubt that the subheadings under the heading "Characterizations" are necessary; for example, the subheading "Pinker" appears to give undue weight to Steven Pinker when he is just one of many scholars who have used or commented on the term "gender feminism". By the way, I find this article's lead to be entirely inadequate; it would be better to have a sentence defining gender feminism according to the term's inventor and apparent principal proponent (Sommers), another sentence or subordinate clause mentioning any prominent alternate definition(s), and another sentence mentioning that there are others (such as Heywood whom I quoted above) who take issue with Sommers' definition. Biogeographist (talk) 14:22, 26 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

• Comment: The reason I proposed a merger of Victim feminism and Gender feminism into Social construction of gender was as an attempt to clean up some of the articles on feminism, which are a bit of a mess. The early edit histories of both Victim feminism and Gender feminism are informative. It may be that both terms (or at least gender feminism) should re-direct to Sommers' book Who Stole Feminism? I think if gender feminism were a newly created article today it would be swiftly re-directed there. --The Vintage Feminist (talk) 14:56, 26 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]
• Comment I fail to see from where the nom concluded that the term is derogatory. Staszek Lem (talk) 17:52, 26 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

From Sommers, Who Stole Feminism?, page 16, (my bold) American feminism is currently dominated by a group of women who seek to persuade the public that American women are not the free creatures we think we are... The feminists who hold this divisive view of our social and political reality believe we are in a gender war, and they are eager to disseminate stories of atrocity that are designed to alert women to their plight. The "gender feminists" (as I shall call them) believe that all our institutions, from the state to the family to the grade schools, perpetuate male dominance. Believing that women are virtually under siege, gender feminists naturally seek recruits to their side of the gender war. They seek support. They seek vindication. They seek ammunition.

So? How is that derogatory? More to wikipedantically, which sources was it is derogatory? Staszek Lem (talk) 19:40, 26 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

??? I just gave you the source, page 16 of Sommers book. Sommers thinks gender feminism is a divisive view to hold. Definition of divisive. The full title of her book is Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have Betrayed Women - in her view gender feminists have betrayed other women. She is derogatory about gender feminists throughout her entire book. --The Vintage Feminist (talk) 00:03, 27 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

How is that a "divisive view" is derogatory? Of course the title is attention-grabber. But the main idea is something went astray in feminism. If somebody says someone makes an error and invents the term for this error, this does not make the term automatically derogatory. Just as when somebody says "these Poles" or "these Irish" (I hope you know what I mean) does not make the words "Poles" or "Irish" derogatory. Staszek Lem (talk) 17:48, 28 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

• Support disambig Changed opinion per discussions below and reading around. Oppose for now. The article, both in the current "butchered" state, as well as its previous versions, is in an extremely poor state. In an agreement with the nom, I see no secondary sources cited in the article which directly discuss the concept as such. Still, it appears that the three 'flavors' (in section Characterizations) are basically synonymous, therefore I see no solid reasons for "dispersal". Especially bearing in mind that 75% of the "feminisms" in the whole spectra are equally confusing definitions. It is as bad as the numerous sects and splinters ans factions of Marxism. For example I tried hard but failed to see significant differences between Liberal feminism and libertarian feminism, but I am not jumping with the suggestion to merge them into one. Simply, the article needs serious work, not just google books snippet collection. For example, "Oxford Dictionaries" gives a crystal-clear definition of the term: "Advocacy of the view that the differences between the male and female genders are social constructs upheld and exploited by men in order to exert dominance over women."[1]. (BTW, how that can be described as "derogatory" beats me.) Staszek Lem (talk) 17:52, 26 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  • P.S. I exercised a bit of due diligence and read the sources cited, and edited the article accordingly, which further demonstrates that the suggestion to "disperse" was based on the erroneous state of the article, rather than on the actual state of the concept. Staszek Lem (talk) 18:32, 26 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't realize that Oxford Dictionaries had defined it. The only definitions I had seen were Sommers and then critiques of her definition. There's a case for Social construction of gender being re-named "Gender feminism", including The New York Magazine piece if we could get it.

I'm a bit confused by your comments in this discussion where you say "feminism" is a subject separate from "gender" and ilks thereof. Have you changed your mind in light of finding the Oxford Dictionary definition? Also, as I said above some of the articles on feminism are a bit of a mess, I would have no issue with merging liberal feminism and individualist feminism (which libertarian feminism re-directs to). Both articles date back to 2003 and again, if they were both created today I think they would be merged fairly quickly. --The Vintage Feminist (talk) 19:29, 26 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

subject separate -- clarification: there are political/social movements and there are political/social theories, and they are different subjects; the fact that some movements are based on some specific theories does not mean that they must be merged into one page. "Social construction of gender" is a reasonable theory (If taken as an absolute, it may lead to an absurd, of course.) "Gender feminism" is the ideology based on the idea that social construction of gender in the way as it is works now is the result of abusive male dominance. As rightly noted in sources, this is surprizingly parallel to Marxism with its class struggle. Staszek Lem (talk) 20:19, 26 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not quite sure what your background is (you may be a doctor of political philosophy), but for what it is worth my degree is in Social Science with Politics. The lead section of social construction of gender could be changed to read, Gender feminism is the view that society and culture create gender roles, and these roles are prescribed as ideal or appropriate behavior for a person of that specific sex. Advocates of this view believe that these social constructs are upheld and exploited by men in order to exert dominance over women. (I think you might mean separate subject rather than subject separate.} Whether the existing page on gender feminism is a movement / theory / ideology is a mute point, the existing page was rubbish, now it's abridged ("butchered" is harsh) rubbish. Social construction of gender, with a few tweaks, would be a better definition of gender feminism. --The Vintage Feminist (talk) 00:03, 27 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I am afraid this is not a mute point. "Social construction of gender" is a scientific/sociological theory. "Gender feminism" is a movement based on a certain interpretation of this theory. They cannot be one and the same subject; they are in completely different categories of articles. On the other hand, its seems that you are starting to agree there is enough material for a separate article. Staszek Lem (talk) 16:19, 27 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

As I mentioned at Talk:Social construction of gender § Merger proposal, I completely agree with Staszek Lem's point that Social construction of gender and Gender feminism "are in completely different categories of articles"; merging the two is not a good idea for reasons mentioned on the aforementioned talk page. Biogeographist (talk) 02:48, 28 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

a bit of a mess -- Are you English :-) ? (explanation of the joke: in my culture, a stereotype of an Englishman is that true English gentlemen speak in understatements: e.g., "not bad" means "very good", and in our case "a bit of a mess" would mean "total disarray"). -- This I attribute to lack of scholarly discipline in an average wikipedian. And the same problem is with modern feministics. Staszek Lem (talk) 20:29, 26 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I'm British, born and raised in England (but I don't call myself English). In my case "not bad" means "not bad" and "a bit of a mess" means "a bit of a mess". --The Vintage Feminist (talk) 00:03, 27 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

OK. Staszek Lem (talk) 16:19, 27 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

• I am still of the opinion I had in the AfD for Equity and gender feminism (closed as redirect to Who Stole Feminism?) and the AfD for "victim feminism" (closed as no consensus) that these are not clearly defined topics that are distinct from other topics which we already cover and instead are rhetorical or flatly pejorative spins on otherwise established academic subjects. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 23:35, 26 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

In case it's not clear, Support merge and/or redirect into book/author articles. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 20:51, 21 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

That was my initial suggestion here. I didn't realize there had previously been an Equity and gender feminism page. However, if there is an Oxford English Dictionary definition is: "Advocacy of the view that the differences between the male and female genders are social constructs upheld and exploited by men in order to exert dominance over women.", then there's a case for an article on that basis with a criticism section or "use as a pejorative term" or "use by C. H. Sommers" section. --The Vintage Feminist (talk) 00:03, 27 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The "criticism" is to a significant degree due to Sommers shooting herself in the leg by chosing the polemic style, embellished with rhetorical exaggerrations and other frivoloties with facts, offering quite a few tasty bites for critics. Staszek Lem (talk) 16:28, 27 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Re: this and your comment above that: On the other hand, it seems that you are starting to agree there is enough material for a separate article. - Not really but seeing as this article exists it ought to be correct. There is no doubt that Sommers is criticizing gender feminism, and that has nothing to do with style or rhetoric. If there has to be an article on gender feminism the description - from Oxford Dictionary is one of advocacy. A gender feminist is an advocate of gender feminism which supports social constructs of gender. Then criticism of the term from Sommers, Pinker etc. At the moment it is slanted towards - "you'll never guess what this lot believe, dear, oh dear, oh dear" with advocacy as a footnote.

If that is what is being proposed then gender feminism is clearly a re-direct to a section within Who Stole Feminism? on Sommers use of the term gender feminism. --The Vintage Feminist (talk) 22:39, 27 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

gender feminism which supports social constructs of gender -- yes, but this statement is not complete definition of gender feminism. Not only gender feminists support social construction of gender (SCoG). (I support it as well, to a degree :-). Gender feminists take one step further: their position of struggle is that SCoG has been influenced and abused by male dominating pigs. Staszek Lem (talk) 19:01, 28 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

on Sommers use of the term Not only Sommers uses this term, as we see; It appears that the definition of Sommers was embraces and elaborated by others. therefore your suggested redirect is too narrow a target. No more than the term "proletarian revolution" must be redirected to Communist Manifesto. Staszek Lem (talk) 19:01, 28 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Sommers has taken a disperate group of feminists, labelled them "gender feminists" and defined them as taking SCoG one step further. It's not only Sommers - but which of the theorists who agree with her definition do not quote her? All roads lead back to her definition. Movements go somewhere, Sommers is discussing feminist philosophy as though it is a movement in and of itself - it is not. The philosophers that came through in the 1960s and 1970s decribed / explained / analyzed the various feminist movements of the day including (to her horror) left-wing feminst movements e.g. Socialist feminism, Marxist feminism etc. They formed the Society for Women in Philosophy (1972), created the journal Hypatia and made a case for its academic study. Sommers sees this as a threat, a liberal agenda e.g. her 1988 article Should the Academy Support Academic Feminism? - her conclusion, no it should not, because that would be a recruitment drive for the left. Her definition of gender feminism, picked up and carried as a banner by other like-minded theorists is a (false) claim that teaching feminist philosophy = a movement and that movement ought to be stopped. Gender feminism has only two possible end-games (1) a realization that Jagger et al are correct when they say the teaching of feminist philosophy is not a movement or, (2) Sommers, Pinker et al succeed in convincing the academic world that feminist philosophy is a Trojan horse for a thing they are calling a "gender feminist" movement and the academic world comply and ban it. It would make more sense to have an Anti-gender feminist article with a description of what Sommers et al think is going on and their movement to try and and stop feminist / gender studies. --The Vintage Feminist (talk) 23:35, 29 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Another way of looking at this is to say, "Okay, there is such a thing as gender feminism, a movement" What are the movement's aims? - not according to Sommers / McElroy / Pinker / Kuhle / other conspiracy theorists etc. What are the movement's aims according to those inside the movement? Wanting to teach subjects which historically have been taught from an androcentric perspective (remember we're talking about academics who came through in 1970s and 1980s) is not a political movement. The academic curriculum changes all the time. --The Vintage Feminist (talk) 23:53, 29 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

• Support redirect to book topic I see no indication that these terms exist outside of a discussion of the author or the book. I can find no sources related to any movement of any kind, any participants/activists, etc. While it may well be a valid idea/theory, and have prompted discussion as well as a dictionary definition, it is only apparently within the context of that particular book and author and/or refutations of her work. It does not appear to have spawned any type of political group adhered to the ideas expressed who identify as gender feminists. SusunW (talk) 19:29, 21 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
• Redirect to Difference feminism with a hatnote leading to Who Stole Feminism? per WP:ONEOTHER. The present article is a presentation of Hoff Sommers' own use of the term gender feminism and various responses/critiques of it. The section on Wendy McElroy is the outlier here, but McElroy, like Sommers and Steven Pinker, is not a trained sociologist or political scientist. Her book is a polemic, as are Hoff Sommers' and Pinker's. Not a single self-identified "gender feminist" is named in the article.

  If that were all, I'd agree with a redirect to Sommers or her book per WP:DICDEF. However, other independent sources do examine the topic on its own, such as Liberalism: American Political Thought Since the 1960s by Robert Booth Fowler, Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics by Lynne Ford, and Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society. The first two equate gender feminism with difference feminism, and all three discuss Carol Gilligan as an exponent of the theory. Pinging Daask, Biogeographist, The Vintage Feminist, Staszek Lem, Rhododendrites, and SusunW. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 22:20, 27 January 2019 (UTC) (edited 01:33, 29 January 2019 (UTC))[reply]

• Comment Responding to ping. I still support a re-direct to Sommers book. I'm not quite sure what points are being made here but I will try to respond anyway.

• Wendy McElroy is not a trained sociologist or political scientist. No, she's a notable feminist who has written on the subject.
• Not a single self-identified "gender feminist" is named in the article. An analogy may be useful here. Saying that no feminist has ever self-identified as a "gender feminist" is a bit like saying that the late John McCain never self-identified as a Cuckservative. The quote from Sommers' book is (my bold): The "gender feminists" (as I shall call them) believe... It's what Sommers has elected to call them.
• Following on from that, saying there are all these independent sources that say McCain was indeed a Cuckservative would not make him one. The same is true of writers saying gender / difference feminism is the same thing, therefore Gilligan who self-identifies as a difference feminist must be a gender feminist. A particular worry is none of these 3 descriptions mention Sommers role in the origin of the term, a serious omission from anyone defining the term.
• This edit compltely skews Nussbaum's meaning. You can't contrast three questions with three new, reframed questions if you delete the original three, e.g. What do American women have to complain of? becomes Do American women have complaints that have not been adequately addressed by the agenda of "equity feminism"? In other words, do they have good reasons to become "gender feminists"? To use the Cuckservative analogy again:

A - "You're a Cuckservative!"

B - "If by Cuckservative you mean I reject white supremacy and other intolerant behaviour then okay I'll support the term." - that doesn't mean they self-identify as one.

• 'B's definition of Cuckservative is not what 'A' means by accusing 'B' of being a Cuckservative. 'B' is taking the sting out of the accusation. Sommers also meant to be insulting when she accused Rubin, Bartky, Jaggar and other feminists of being gender feminists. Nussbaum states that it provides a way of reframing her original set of questions about the future of feminism in America. Nussbaum is taking the sting out of the accusation in the same way. --The Vintage Feminist (talk) 01:43, 28 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

• • • Thanks for responding. To clarify, the three sources I linked to are independent academic works in the area of sociology/political science, which I think is the field most appropriate for an article about a political movement such as feminism. I don't consider McElroy to be such a source. To use your John McCain analogy, a "notable feminist" writing about feminism would be like McCain writing about conservatism. His opinions may or may not be noteworthy, but he's not an authoritative source just by virtue of being notable and a conservative himself. That said, McElroy seems to be just using the term as a slur for radical feminism.

      I'm not sure it's necessary to emphasize a priori Hoff Sommers' role in the origin of the term unless a significant number of independent sources comment on it. My suggestion to redirect to Difference feminism was based on what I found in such third-party sources. Looking over the article and talk page, I'm not seeing such sources verifying that Hoff Sommers had a major role in the origin of the term at all Compared to Alison Jaggar's attributing the invention of the term to Hoff Sommers, I'm more inclined to go by the kind of acdemic reference works I linked to above. The "gender feminism" they talk about doesn't seem to have anything to do with Hoff Sommers' concept besides the name; they're separate topics.

      As you state, Hoff Sommers has elected to call certain people "gender feminists". Do we care? The fact that Hoff Sommers uses the term in a pejorative way (à la "cuckservative") shouldn't affect our reading of reliable sources that offer a different picture. Plenty of published sources describe "cuckservative" as derogatory. Do we have third-party sources that do the same with "gender feminism"? The whole article seems unduly weighted with sources directly engaged in an ideological dispute over the use of the term, rather than sources describing the dispute. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 08:12, 28 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

• the three sources I linked to are independent academic works in the area of sociology/political science I don't really know enough about the authors to make a judgement on their independence/neutrality. However, Robert Booth Fowler states "there is "difference" or "gender" feminism", the word "or" is key, as is this quote on the following page, p. 134: "However one reads difference feminism, though, most feminist thought remains rights-oriented and liberal. To be sure, some liberal feminists - for example, Naomi Wolf in Fire with Fire or Christine Sommers in Who Stole Feminism? - believe they represent a dissenting view in American feminist thought and practice. They portray an intellectual world, especially the academic arena of women's studies, that is deeply hostile to liberal values, and where liberal feminists are disliked outsiders."
• I'm not sure it's necessary to emphasize a priori Hoff Sommers' role in the origin of the term unless a significant number of independent sources comment on it. I disagree. If we are deciding where gender feminism should re-direct to then it follows we ought to take note of where the term came from. Have you found a use of the term prior to Sommers? You have struck through you're own comment which suggests that you haven't.
• The fact that Hoff Sommers uses the term in a pejorative way (à la "cuckservative") shouldn't affect our reading of reliable sources that offer a different picture. If the term is the creation of Sommers then it is critical to our reading of other sources.
• Plenty of published sources describe "cuckservative" as derogatory. Do we have third-party sources that do the same with "gender feminism"? Well there's Robert Booth Fowler's quote on p.134 mentioned above, Barry X. Kuhle: "evolutionary psychology and feminist psychology will conflict as long as the latter adheres to gender feminism and its unwillingness to acknowledge the evidence for evolved psychological sex differences." and Pinker has the following quote: "Gender feminism's disdain for analytical rigor and classical liberal principles has recently been excoriated by equity feminists, among them Jean Bethke Elshtain, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Wendy Kaminer, Noretta Koertge, Donna Laframboise, Mary Lefkowitz, Wendy McElroy, Camille Paglia, Daphne Patai, Virginia Postrel, Alice Rossi, Sally Satel, Christina Hoff Sommers, Nadine Strossen, Joan Kennedy Taylor, Cathy Young. Well before them, prominent women writers demurred from gender-feminist ideology, including Joan Didion, Doris Lessing, Iris Murdoch, Cynthia Ozick, and Susan Sontag." --The Vintage Feminist (talk) 13:37, 28 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Barry X. Kuhle ... and Pinker -- the quotes you cited do not define the term as derogatory. Neither criticism of the term nor criticism implied in the term make it automatically derogatory. Staszek Lem (talk) 18:20, 28 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

P.S. A clarifying example of the difference I have in mind: "you are an idiot" is derogatory; "you are mistaken" is not (despite the fact that 90% will take an offense). The quotes given are of the second kind. Staszek Lem (talk) 18:39, 28 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

If the term is the creation of Sommers then it is critical to our reading of other sources. -- Every term is someone's creation. I fail see why for understanding, say, phosphorescence, I have to care who the heck invented the word . This is the common disease of social sciences that they give too much to appeal to authority rather than to the traits of phenomena per se. Staszek Lem (talk) 18:45, 28 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

• • • • • • @The Vintage Feminist: The authors of the sources I linked don't necessarily have to be neutral. The works are a scholarly monograph by a professor of political science and two academic encyclopedias, all from mainstream academic publishers. Those are exactly the kind of sources we usually consider reliable. To address some of your other points:

            Robert Booth Fowler states "there is "difference" or "gender" feminism", the word "or" is key... Yes, it indicates that the terms are synonymous. Hence, according to Fowler, they both refer to "a perspective that has particularly flourished in the years since Carol Gilligan's In a Different Voice (1982) so greatly stimulated its growth" (my bolding). He's clearly talking about a single theory or movement.

            ...this quote on the following page, p. 134... I don't see what this has to do with gender feminism. Fowler is describing the views of self-described "dissenting" liberal feminists, I guess because he's giving an overview of feminist theories, one that also includes "difference" or "gender" feminism (I don't have the book, so I can't check this).

            If we are deciding where gender feminism should re-direct to then it follows we ought to take note of where the term came from. Do we even know where the term came from? Oxford Dictionaries says it was in New York Magazine in the 1990s (apparently in the sense Hoff Sommers uses), but in what context? Jaggar says Hoff Sommers invented it to refer to "any feminist who had moved beyond the ideas of ... John Stuart Mill", but that might not be the whole story. Jaggar is writing specifically about attacks on academic feminism from Hoff Sommers and others in the media, and doesn't say whether this use of the term also spread to others.

            If the term is the creation of Sommers then it is critical to our reading of other sources. It seems like we may be unduly second-guessing published, reliable sources here. Compared with Jaggar's characterization above and Nussbaum's evaluation of "gender feminism" per Hoff Sommers as a belief that "fits almost all contemporary social thinkers in political thought and economics", the other sources I provided appear to be talking about a completely different topic. Lynne Ford, for example, states that gender feminism is concerned with "the superiority of women's moral development, women's ways of knowing and thinking, and women's mothering abilities ... difference in this case works in favor of women". That's pretty different from "gender feminism" as Hoff Sommers apparently sees it, i.e. a single-minded focus on social constructionism and women's oppression.

            Do we have third-party sources that do the same with "gender feminism"? Well there's Robert Booth Fowler's quote on p.134 mentioned above... I still don't see what this has to do with gender feminism. Fowler is talking about Wolf's and Hoff Sommers' belief that university women's studies departments are "hostile to liberal values", and contrasting those beliefs with the reality (as he sees it) that "most feminist thought remains rights-oriented and liberal". As far as i can see, Fowler doesn't mention "gender feminism" is connection with either Wolf or Hoff Sommers, or say that any term is derogatory.

            Barry X. Kuhle ... and Pinker has the following quote... Those are examples of authors using the term in an unfavorable way, not writing about the term as it's used by others. Nor would I consider either to be a reliable source if they were writing about it that way, for reasons already explained.

            To reiterate, we apparently have two different topics called "gender feminism": the one Hoff Sommers and other "equity feminists" believe is corrupting academic research, and the one described in academic sources as being synonymous with difference feminism, which posits that women are socialized to have different, and even superior, moral development compared to men. I'd say the quality of sourcing is stronger for the latter, even though there are more published sources describing the former. Those sources appear to be mainly argumentative tracts rather than scholarly overviews, so they're less reliable apart from attributed statements of opinion. Based on this, I'm inclined to treat the latter topic as the primary one. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 01:26, 29 January 2019 (UTC) (edited 02:17, 29 January 2019 (UTC))[reply]

            Almost agreed, see my comment below. But I suspect there are at least three meanings. Keeping in mind there is no self-declared "gender feminists", the definition is a matter of opinion of the person who defines the term. If the definition has no source, it will be original research of a wikipedian to assume that two authors have the same in mind, unless their definitions are nearly verbatim same. Staszek Lem (talk) 01:33, 29 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

            • • How is there two meanings? "Difference feminism" and "gender feminism" are the same concept with a different label - the one Hoff Sommers and other "equity feminists" believe is corrupting academic research and the one described in academic sources as being synonymous with difference feminism, which posits that women are socialized to have different, and even superior, moral development compared to men are exactly the same thing. People trying to build these into separate and defined ideologies in ways that even their originators don't are getting into serious OR territory - especially people who can't cite a source justifying the claim that they're discrete and different ideologies. The Drover's Wife (talk) 08:04, 29 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
                • Well, if they were the same thing, I'd expect sources such as Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics and Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society to specifically name Hoff Sommers as one of the main critics of "gender feminism", which they don't do. Hoff Sommers' own critique of Carol Gilligan's work in Who Stole Feminism doesn't single her out as a "gender feminist", even as the three sources I linked to above name Gilligan as a prominent exponent of the idea of women's unique moral development etc. If that were what Hoff Sommers meant by "gender feminism", I'd expect Hoff Sommers to focus her ire on Gilligan and not Bartky, Rubin, Jaggar, et al. All of which suggests to me that they're discrete topics. Which published, reliable sources state that they are the same topic?

                  Put another way, saying "difference feminism" and Hoff Sommers' "gender feminism" are the same concept with a different label is essentially like saying that Hoff Sommers' main beef is with difference feminism such as Gilligan's In a Different Voice theory and Mary Daly's claims of women's superior qualities. But we know that she uses the label for basically all second-wave feminists, who clearly don't all subscribe to difference feminism. So I don't see how they can be the same thing. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 10:11, 29 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The reason there isn't more research / commentary from the academic community over this disparaging term is because it would give the Sommers' term traction. The Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics is published by Infobase Publishing who I don't really know, and the chapter Feminist Theory in Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society is written by Rosemarie Tong, she also wrote Feminist Thought, Student Economy Edition: A More Comprehensive Introduction whose index says "Gender feminism see care-focused feminism". I'm not really sure of her politics to comment on her omission of Sommers work either. --The Vintage Feminist (talk) 13:43, 29 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

That sounds like a logical explanation, but is there a published source saying that's what happened, or is this just a different kind of conspiracy theorizing? Infobase is the parent company of Facts on File, a publisher of scholastic reference works including Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics. Maybe not Oxbridge-level in terms of quality, but I don't see a particular reason to doubt its reliability here. I see that Tong describes Gilligan's In a Different Voice as being at "the roots of care-focused feminism", which is another sign to me that these are all different words for the same general idea (apart from Hoff Sommers' unrelated use of the term). Tong's personal politics aren't the issue. Once again, sources don't have to be neutral. The important thing is that there is a structure of fact-checking and editorial oversight in place, which all the named sources certainly have. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 00:03, 30 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

How is there two meanings? -- Please see my explanation above where I wrote there are at least three meanings. Wikipedians will have hard time to establish now exactly many meanings there are. When the dust settles and we start converting it into a disabmig page, we will have to have a serious discussion to nail down what each writer has in mind under this term. Staszek Lem (talk) 21:00, 29 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Staszek Lem: what are the three meanings you have in mind? I see multiple authors using the term in slightly different ways (Hoff Sommers, McElroy, Pinker, Yates), but those are all primary sources for the respective authors' use of the term. In terms of secondary-source coverage, I see only Hoff Sommers' use of "gender feminist" to mean anybody who subscribes to the sex and gender distinction (basically all modern feminists and most social scientists) and the alternative sense of difference feminism as receiving any attention. So I don't think a DAB page is needed. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 00:22, 30 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

• Comment Responding to ping. I still support a re-direct to Sommers book and the analysis above by The Vintage Feminist confirms my previous conclusion. SusunW (talk) 16:31, 28 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
• Comment Responding to ping. I am willing to change my opinion, because after some extra reading I see at least two or three sources which define the term apparently differently: Sommers' and that of in two footnotes in the lede of Difference feminism: of Robert Booth Fowler and of Lynne E. Ford whoever they are; why there are no articles, both appear to pass WP:PROF. If someone can convincingly argue that the definitions are indeed different and trace the origins of the definitions used by the two latter ones. Staszek Lem (talk)
• Note: To attract more input to this discussion, I've notified members of several related WikiProjects: Women's History, Philosophy, Sociology, Feminism, and Gender Studies. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 03:08, 29 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
• Disperse/merge with Christina Hoff Sommers/her book. The article as it currently stands is nonsense that lacks sources because they don't exist. No one identifies as a "gender feminist": it's a dismissive label for feminists by an anti-feminist author (Hoff Sommers) with an article that tries to portray it as being an in-reality division of feminism and to have a broader usage beyond Hoff Sommers. Every source here (apart from those in the background section that are completely irrelevant to anything) is people engaging in various critical ways with Hoff Sommers' book - the logical place to put it would be to be in the article about the book. The Drover's Wife (talk) 08:04, 29 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  • You are writing nonsense yourself: sources are cited. Yes this article is mainly about Sommers. But other people use this term in differetn ways, hence the suggestion to make a disambig page. NO it is not "dismissive label for feminists" - It is a classification for some feminists, whether they like it or not. That Sommers disagrees with what she calls "gender feminism" does not make it dismissive. Trotskyites disagree with Maoists badly. This does not make the term "Maoist" dismissive. It is only that if a Trotskyite calls someone "Maoist", it means M is T's adversary in well-known points, but both of them being Communists and I will call both of them naive idiots. Staszek Lem (talk) 21:00, 29 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Quote from Sommers (my bold): The feminists who hold this divisive view of our social and political reality believe we are in a gender war... That's more than merely disagreeing. --The Vintage Feminist (talk) 01:42, 30 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Yes its is a disagreement and an accusation in splitting/derailing feminist movement. Are you insulted? Feel it disparaged? Well, that's you opinion. We in wikipedia write articles in which every statement, and especially every opinion must come from WP:RS. Staszek Lem (talk) 20:36, 30 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]