While Gloria Steinem opined that she did not regard a classification system for feminism seriously, others disagreed. After all, both biology and the medical field have classification systems - you wouldn’t go to a neurologist for a broken bone - why shouldn’t feminism have a classification system as well?

Christina Hoff Sommers has come up with two distinct types of feminism in her 1992 book “Who Stole Feminism?” She is a supporter of equity feminism; the type she disagrees with is called gender feminism. Gender feminism is also a variant of radical feminism.

Equity feminism

As described by Sommers, equity feminism seeks civil and legal equality for women, its ideology based on classical liberalism. The equal treatment for women ignores psychological and biological differences.

A minority position, equity feminism is a belief system that American women highly regard as “First Wave” feminism, whose goal is equity in politics and education, according to Sommer’s book. The organized feminist movement supports gender feminism.

Gender feminism

Sommers regards gender feminism as misandric and gynocentric. Gender feminists want to eliminate gender roles altogether and can even lead lives that are independent of those assigned roles. An example of this independence would be to put a job before family and use economic reasons as a justification for neglecting it.

Gender feminism wishes to use the legal system as a method to ensure women are protected in such areas as equal pay, domestic violence and when filing for divorce. It portrays “all women as victims” of the patriarchal power structure.

Sommers argues that equity feminism keeps women out of controversy often sparked by gender feminist ideology which is analogous to the Marxist theory of the struggle between the working-class proletariat and the capitalist Bourgeoisie. Instead of these two terms, gender feminism contends that women are perpetually exploited by men in a patriarchal power, i.e., “a man’s world.”

Nawal El Saadawi

The celebrated Egyptian octogenarian feminist, Dr. Nawal El Saadawi, insists that every woman is a feminist because every woman deserves human rights. As a woman who has straddled both types of feminism theorized by Sommers’, i.e., a mother who wants her sons to be leaders in Egypt and a woman who herself helped lead the revolution at Tahrir Square, she would like to see women as representatives in the new government. This is unlikely to happen with the current groups that wish to gain a firm foothold in the elections.

While some women consider feminism to be a dirty word, a better understanding of what it means is required. Then, if a woman is labeled a feminist, she can respond, “Which kind?” Asking for clarification could be the beginning of a meaningful dialogue about how basic human rights can benefit everyone.

References

Hoff Sommers, Christina. 1995. “Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have Bwtrayed Women.” Touchstone: Simon and Schuster, p. 22. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equity_and_gender_feminism