Men and Feminism
There is a great misunderstanding in the world especially for men who are feminists. Supporting feminist ideology has always been associated with an array of negative labels including being gay in the context of men and lesbianism in women. The obstacles that men face in supporting feminism are based on the perception that feminism focuses on women only. Nevertheless, the participation of men in the feminist movement has been found to contribute positively in leading to the changes that feminism advocates for. The hypothesis that the participation of men in feminism is dependent on their sense of morality is thus presented as the basis of researching the correlation of moral concerns and feminism within the moral foundation's theory (MFT). The more specific hypotheses developed for the study include; the higher the levels of binding traits, the lower the level of feminist beliefs and identification; higher level of individualizing traits would lead to greater feminist beliefs and feminist identity among men; and men who are feminists would be less concerned with binding traits and more concerned with individualizing traits.
Research Methodology
For this research, an online survey was carried out after the recruitment of male participants using Amazon Mechanical Turk. The study involved 124 male participants drawn from different racial groups within the US, with a median age of 35.62 years. The specific measures applied in the study are morality, feminism, collective action, and political ideology which enabled the collection of data on variables such as fairness, authority, the level of inclination towards feminism, the level to which the subjects were willing to engage in feminist behavior, and the political inclinations of the participants ranging from liberal to conservative. In addition to filling direct questions addressing their feminism inclinations, the study included the reading of a conversation between two men on feminism issues. The participants then answered questions based on the conversation that addressed the five moral concerns that are part of the moral foundation's theory.
Results
The presented results show a correlation between political ideology and feminism. Men with liberal political ideologies were found to be score higher in feminist beliefs, while the conservative type showed less inclination towards feminism. In the context of the binding traits, the analysis of the results revealed a partial correlation with there being higher scores for feminists with regard to fairness, but no significant differences between feminists and non-feminists with regard to purity and harm. Feminist collective action was analyzed using the variables of fairness, harm, purity, and authority. A positive correlation between harm and fairness and intention to participate in feminist collective action was identified while there was a negative correlation in the context of the other two variables. Finally, there was no significant correlation between individualizing traits and feminist collective action.
Future Research
Despite the establishment of a relationship between the five moral concerns of the MFT in the study sample, future research will need to be more specific on particular subcultures in order to identify consistencies or divergences. Also, the research presented relates the five moral concerns with feminism perceptions in men. It is important to be aware of the fact that women perceive feminism differently depending on different factors. For that reason, a study that focuses on the five moral concerns in women's perceptions of feminism is suggested as a useful future direction.
