"I'm Not a Feminist But.." AGE an important factor determining why older women aren't afraid to self-identify?

Question

“[Research] results suggest that feminists are most likely to be highly educated, urban women who self-identify as liberals and Democrats. Feminist self-identification significantly relates to views about the impact of the women’s movement and to core causes of gender inequality."

What about age as a factor? I submit that we can add to that list women old enought to possess a working MEMORY of how life used to be - 'before feminism'. Confounding this would be religiosity, I think: the more religious the woman, the less likely she would be to self-identify. Another factor: older women have lost much of their earlier societal programming; they are less focussed on pleasing people & more likely to be outspoken.

Thoughts? Have you talked to older women about what life used to be like?

In short, because they've 'been there' older women are more likely to feel a sense of gratitude towards feminism, and the feminists who worked so hard to make our world - right now - a better place than before.

Gender & Society, Vol. 19, No. 4, 480-505 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0891243204273498

*Ren* you are merely speculating - I think you'd be surprised.

*Baba* - we have earned the right to be short-tempered old crones, lol!

Answer 1

What a great question and what a wonderful crop of answers.

Every time I am fortunate enough to be part of a discussion like this I am so very glad that I am a woman, that I am old enough to have begun life 'pre-feminism' and lived to experience the many successes feminism has bought us.

And, more than that, I am so proud and glad that the discussion and debate continues, that there are still issues to be thought about, resolved and debated.

Like most of the answerers, yes, I think age has something to do with self identifying as a feminist ~ or anything else!.

As we mature we hopefully become more confident and more able to be ourselves, without having to worry about 'fitting in'. For most of us over a certain age, we either fit by now, or we're happy not to, lol.

Unlike some people, I don't really see the "I'm not a feminist but" as an insult, more as an attempt by these women to be acceptable to men.

In some ways, it's even a compliment. Feminism really drew out the big guns ... world leaders, the church, the state, the law and worst of all, the marketting people.

Can anyone else remember when Virginia Slims marketted their cigarettes with the idea that if you were a feminist you would smoke their brand because they were 'women's cigarettes'?

All this 'backlash' has scared a lot of people and created a lot of misunderstanding. And it's not over yet ~ The Pope continues to speak against feminism, depite the vast number of wonderful feminist nuns (and their brothers) who have worked so hard to bring the Church out of its woman hating positions.

Today's right wing loony religions are probably more dangerous to free choice in every sense of the word ~ they will focus on feminists as an easy target, but they don't want ANYone to have the freedoms they don't believe in, which pretty much excludes everyone.

Women who want to be popular with a certain type of men, or who lead a certain type of life, won't want to identify with the steretypical feminist, but at the same time they want to reap the benefits feminists have earned for them.

And young women just don't know that the world used to be different ~ how could they?

In some ways, we can even view this as a positive thing. Why should young women have to be grateful for pay equity? Isn't it their *right*? Of course, it chafes when they are also so forgetful, but that's one of the things about youth, and it's a rare and mature young person who can take the long view. Maybe ageiung creates a natural evolution in our ways of thinking!

Last night I mentioned to my mother, 75 years old, that next March would be the 100th anniversary of IWD. She was SO excited, she wants to get involved in planning a local march for older gals

None of them would identify as 'feminists', she says she won't because she hasn't "done enough" in the world, as though feminists are only those people who climb mountains and move planets. But she and dad raised four kids who think in new ways about a whole range of things, and who care about others practically as well as theoretically.

Cheers :-)

Answer 2

I identified as a feminist and agnostic when I was 19, haven't changed that view in 30 years. But I also was very quiet and introverted until my 30's, when I got more confident, didn't care what most people thought anymore, and instead of being a quiet feminist, I became an outspoken feminist. I grew up before abortion was legal, before the pill was widely distributed, when there were women's jobs and men's jobs, and you couldn't apply for the other gender's job. I remember when "only bad people were raped, incest and child molestation rarely if ever happened, and only poor people were batterers", or so it was said..... I would never want to have lived before feminists changed our society.

Answer 3

i don't know what young girls you have talked to but I'm thirteen and happy to tell anyone who asks I'm a feminist. the reason most feminists are highly educated is because education is the equalizer you cant be truly repressed with a good well-rounded education

Answer 4

My Mom stayed at home, raised her children and never held a job outside our house. She is 75 now and tells us she loves us and does not regret her life, but if she could do it all again, she would have went to college to be an attorney. My brother, sister and I all have college degrees and are fairly successful in our careers. We could not have done these things without her...and the millions of other women in the 1950's-1960's who had no choice but to marry and raise families. There weren't many options then. These women that we did not want to be are the very fiber of feminism. I am thankful for the sacrifices they made.

Answer 5

Well it's very simple.
Don't identify as anything and speak of equality and fairness and everyone likes you. Play dumb and you're held in high-esteem for not being a smart-a** feminist.
Identify as a feminist and still speak of equality and fairness and all of a sudden people assume that you're a man-hater even though absolutely nothing has changed.(PE)
I wasn't around to see what happened in years past, but I have spoken with older women about what life used to be like.
But while that is important, what's important even today that women are still being told how they should look and behave and we're constantly having to deal with negativity and misogyny disguised as jokes, do those men think women were born yesterday or something? Yeah it works both ways, there's alot of work that needs to be done on both sides.
Lets not forget that constant bs that is sprouted that any woman who even remotely decides to think for herself is no longer attractive, but a fat, ugly, lesbian nag. Shaming tactics at their best.

Answer 6

I am one of those women who remembers what it was like before feminism and I fit the research description you stated. Your theory about age and religion (or lack there of) also being factors has a grain or two of truth to it. To younger people, the pre-feminism era is history but to me, it was my life and the life of people I knew personally.

I can't say that your idea of older woman having lost much of their earlier programing applies to me, though. Growing up, I wasn't ever 'programed' the same way as other girls my age. Both my parents lost their mothers at a very young age and they didn't have traditional female role models in their lives to model to me later on.

I very much do feel the sense of gratitude to feminism you mentioned.

Answer 7

You may be right about older women and the reasons but I also think there is another age group... -post-secondary aged women. When you are 18-25 and the world is yours for the taking. Before reality sets in and you enter the real world.

My guess is that the vast majority of self proclaimed feminists lie in the baby boomers and the school aged groups. The group of us in between do not self label.

Edit: My grandmother was a suffragette and initiated a lengthy divorce from her no good cheating, beating husband. But I think she would have been insulted to have been called a feminist.

Edit2: Speculating about the school aged -yes, about my gramma -NO, I'm quite certain she would have been insulted. Someone asked her if she was a flapper once and she punched him in the face. lol.

Answer 8

I agree with you (and Baba and Aphasia) However, even though I am not a registered member of my church (Catholic) I feel I am somewhat religious. I refuse to become a member of a church that refuses to ordain women.

I did my first active feminist 'sit in' to protest college women having curfews (college men not).

Answer 9

I'm one of those crones who remember what it was like before feminism. That's why I have no patience for the "I'm not a feminist but" crowd. Thank God I'm not and never was religious. It's not that I've "lost" my early social programming, I just always thought it was ridiculous, and have always been outspoken.

Answer 10

You may have a point. Younger women are more likely to have grown up under the backlash era.