Relationship between Feminism and Political Movements

Some feminists have joined forces with socialism from the beginning of the 20th century. At the International Conference of Socialist Women held in Stuttgart in 1907, the right to vote was referred to as an instrument of the class struggle. In order to create a "socialist system, the only one that provides for a radical solution to the women's question," Clara Zetkin of the Social Democratic Party of Germany campaigned for women's suffrage.

The Labour party and the women's movement in Britain were partners. Betty Friedan, who came from a radical background in America, rose to lead the organised movement. The first socialist feminist group to be established in the United States was Radical Women, which was established in Seattle in 1967. Dolores Ibarruri, as La Pasionaria, served as the leader of the Spanish Communist Party during the Spanish Civil War. She disagreed with the anarcho-feminist Mujeres Libres and opposed women fighting on the front lines despite her support for equal rights for women.

Women's status changed as a result of Latin American revolutions in places like Nicaragua, where feminism during the Sandinista Revolution greatly improved women's quality of life but fell short of bringing about a social and ideological shift.

According to academics, the fascist nations of the 1930s and 1940s, such as Nazi Germany and others, demonstrate the terrible effects on society of a state ideology that becomes anti-feminist by exalting traditional views of women. The political rights and economic possibilities that feminists had campaigned for throughout the interwar period and, to some extent, during the 1920s were quickly lost in Germany after the establishment of Nazism in 1933. Right-wing Catholic conservatives undid the work of feminists during the Republic in Franco's Spain. The hierarchy of fascist society placed a strong focus on virility, with women maintaining a mostly inferior role to men.

Some feminisms criticise traditional scientific discourse, asserting that the discipline has a long history of favouring a masculine viewpoint. Evelyn Fox Keller challenges the notion of scientific impartiality and claims that the language of science reflects a patriarchal viewpoint.

Many feminist researchers use qualitative research techniques that highlight the unique, individualised experiences of women. Incorporating a feminist perspective into qualitative research entails recognising research participants as equals who are just as much an authority as the researcher, according to communication experts Thomas R. Lindlof and Bryan C. Taylor. The objective of assisting women and candid self-reflection are prioritised over objectivity.

Finding ways that power disparities are established, maintained, or perpetuated in society, as well as in academic and scientific organisations, is another goal of feminist research. A feminist approach to research frequently uses unconventional modes of presentation, according to Lindlof and Taylor.

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, a primatologist, observes that despite "the accumulation of ample publically available facts refuting it," masculine-created preconceptions and notions, such as the non-sexual female, continue to be prevalent. Some natural and social scientists have used scientific methods to investigate feminism.

The biological essentialist view of gender is challenged by modern feminist science, which is also becoming more and more interested in the study of biological sex differences and their impact on behaviour. For instance, the scientific data that purports to support a biologically essentialist perspective of gender is examined in Anne Fausto-book Sterling's Myths of Gender. Sexing the Body, her second book explored the idea that there might be more than two real biological sexes. Since no ratios other than 4:0 and 1:3 (for male and female, respectively) of genuine gametes to polar cells are created on Earth, this possibility only occurs in as-yet-undiscovered extraterrestrial biospheres. However, Louann Brizendine contends in The Female Brain that sex-specific functional differences are significantly impacted by biological differences in the brains of the sexes. The book Taking Sex Differences by Steven Rhoads highlights the disparities based on gender in a broad range.

In The Mismeasure of Woman, Carol Tavris uses sociology and psychology to refute theories that attribute disparities between men and women to biological factors. She contends that there is a constantly evolving theory to support inequality and maintain prejudices rather than using evidence of intrinsic gender differences.

Sarah Kember addresses the neologization of technology, drawing on a variety of disciplines like evolutionary biology, sociobiology, artificial intelligence, and cybernetics in the context of a new evolutionism. In particular, she points out how sociobiology is complicated in order to reinforce sexual difference as unchanging through pre-existing cultural value judgments about human nature and natural selection. This is why feminists and sociologists have come to be suspicious of evolutionary psychology. Kember claims in his conclusion that feminist theory is in the interesting position of needing to do more biology and evolutionary theory in order to not only oppose their renewed hegemony but also to understand the conditions that make this possible and to have a say in the creation of new ideas and artefacts, where feminist theory is criticised for its "false beliefs about human nature."

There has been a complicated history between men and feminism. In each 'wave' of the movement, men have contributed to important replies to feminism. Depending on the specific man and the societal environment at the time, there have been both favourable and negative reactions and responses. These replies have ranged from feminism that is pro to feminism that is against. New responses to feminism have evolved in the twenty-first century, including a generation of male researchers engaged in gender studies and men's rights activists who support male equality (including equal treatment in family, divorce, and anti-discrimination law). Many males have historically participated in feminism. In the seventeenth century, philosopher Jeremy Bentham called for women to have equal rights. The British parliament received a petition from women in 1866, and philosopher John Stuart Mill (author of "The Subjection of Women") advocated an amendment to the 1867 Reform Bill. Others have opposed feminism through lobbying and advocacy. Academics who support feminism and men's studies now include Michael Flood, Michael Messner, and Michael Kimmel.

The strongest position males can take in the fight against sexism, according to some feminist writers, is to identify as feminists. They have claimed that men ought to be permitted, and perhaps even encouraged, to join the feminist cause. Some female feminists contend that because men are not women, they cannot be feminists. They contend that it is hard for men to identify with feminists because they are given innate privileges that prohibit them from understanding feminism's challenges. In order to address the problem of male feminism, Fidelma Ashe argues that traditional feminist conceptions of the male experience and of "men doing feminism" have been skewed in one direction.

She examines the various pro-feminist political discourses and practises before interrogating each one to determine its relevance to feminist politics.

Author and researcher Shira Tarrant offers a more modern analysis of the topic. The California State University, Long Beach professor highlights important discussions regarding masculinity and gender, the history of men in feminism, and men's involvement in avoiding violence and sexual assault in Men and Feminism (Seal Press, May 2009). Tarrant explores the topic of why men should care about feminism in the first place and offers the groundwork for a bigger discussion about feminism as an all-encompassing, human concern through critical analysis and first-person accounts by feminist men.