1987/09/01 by Michael S. Kimmel · 3 citations
Social Sciences · #Historical Gender and Feminism Studies #Gender, Feminism, and Media #Military history and social perspectives
paper · doi:10.1177/089124387001003003
openalex publication_date 1987/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
This article examines the variety of men's responses to feminism in late nineteenthand early twentieth-century United States through texts that addressed the claims raised by the turn-of-the-century women's movements. Antifeminist texts relied on traditional arguments, as well as Social Darwinist and natural law notions, to reassert the patriarchal family and to oppose women's suffrage and participation in the public sphere. Masculinist texts sought to combat the purported feminization of American manhood by proposing islands of masculinity, untainted by feminizing forces; proscribed homosociality was also cast as an effective antidote to homosexuality. Profeminist texts openly embraced women's claims for changes in public participation and private and family life, both out of a sense of justice and the conviction that such changes would benefit men and challenge the emerging industrial capitalist order. Parallels to contemporary men's responses to the women's movement are suggested.