‘Male Perceptions of Feminism and Gender Equality’

Abstract

In recent years there has been a resurge of interest regarding the feminist movement; however it appears that the movement and the label feminist have received negative connotations. Existing research studying feminism and gender quality tend you utilise a female or both male and female sample, leaving a void of knowledge with regards to the male viewpoint. Previous research tends to use the method of individual and group interviews, whereas this study utilises an anonymous online questionnaire with the aim of providing more accurate and truthful results. This study aims to explore male perceptions of feminism and gender equality whilst utilising a qualitative design using content and thematic analysis to produce the findings. 38 participants were recruited however only 37 were used in the dataset. Content analysis results showed that the code ‘equality’ was provided by 14 participants making it the he most salient. Thematic analysis resulted in three overarching themes, Negative Perceptions of Feminism, Positive Perceptions of Feminism and Feminist Identity. The analytical findings exhibit a spectrum of different perceptions of feminism and feminists. Some participants completely rejected the label feminist and the movement and as a whole, some support only the ideologies and reject the label whereas there are others that support both feminism and the label feminist. A range of conditions were brought forward which could potentially underpin these, some of these influential factors include stigmatisation, a lack of education on feminism and selective negative exposure of radical feminists from certain media outlets.