Christina Hoff Sommers

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Christina Hoff Sommers (born 1950) is an American author who researches culture, adolescents, and morality in American society. Her best known books are Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women and The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men. A former university philosophy professor in Ethics, she is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, and a member of the Board of Advisors of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

Sommers earned her B.A. at New York University where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1971. She received her Ph.D. in philosophy at Brandeis University in 1979.

1 Political views
2 Books
3 References
4 Further Reading
5 External links

[edit] Political views

Christina Hoff Sommers argues that "gender feminism" is opposed to "equity feminism" (she coined these terms). "Gender feminism", which she sees represented in academic feminism and the mainstream feminist movement, says that a change in gender roles and the patriarchal structures of society is needed to achieve true gender equality. "Equity feminism", conversely, is the form associated with the ideas of equal legal and civil rights and many of the original goals of the First Wave of the Women's movement: the establishment of women's right to work, vote, etc. Christina Hoff Sommers says that most American women are satisfied with these developments, simply desiring legal and civil equality with men, and that this equality has been established in the United States.

Although Hoff Sommers is considered by some, including Wendy McElroy^[1] and Donna LaFramboise^[2], to be opposed to mainstream feminism, she considers her own views to be mainstream. She argues, "Most American women subscribe philosophically to that older 'First Wave' kind of feminism whose main goal is equity, especially in politics and education. A First Wave, 'mainstream,' or 'equity' feminist wants for women what she wants for everyone: fair treatment, without discrimination"^[3].

Sommers recognizes, however, that the view she considers mainstream is not the loudest voice in feminism. Referring to a meeting she had attended, Sommers criticized those involved as part of a general problem she perceives in what she calls "academic feminism":

The women at the Heilbrun conference are the New Feminists: articulate, prone to self-dramatization, and chronically offended. Many of the women on the "Anger" panel were tenured professors at prestigious universities. All had fine and expensive educations. Yet, listening to them one would never guess that they live in a country whose women are legally as free as the men and whose institutions of higher learning now have more female than male students.^[4]

Since the publication of Who Stole Feminism? much controversy has surrounded Sommers. In particular, her political orientation is often the subject of debate. Sommers identifies herself as an equity feminist and a moderate liberal. However, she is frequently labeled 'conservative' by critics and her ideas are seen as opposed to the ideas of many other feminists. Some also describe her as libertarian. In addition, she works for a conservative/libertarian think tank, and some of her books were subsidized in part by conservative groups (A history of grants provided to Sommers is available through MediaTransparency, an organization that tracks conservative funding projects).

Although Sommers calls herself feminist, her critics see her as antifeminist, saying she attacks basic claims of feminism^[5]^[6].

[edit] Books

Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women (1994) ISBN 0-684-80156-6
The War against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men (June 2001) ISBN 0-684-84957-7
Vice and Virtue in Everyday Life
Right and Wrong: Basic Readings in Ethics
One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance

[edit] References

^ McElroy, Wendy. "Prostitution: Reconsidering Research", SpinTech, (magazine), 1999-11-12. Retrieved on October 19, 2006.
^ LaFramboise, LaFramboise (1996). The Princess at the Window: A New Gender Morality. Toronto, Canada: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-025690-3. Retrieved on October 19, 2006. “Over the past few years, a growing number of women have written books critical of mainstream feminism. Among them [...] Christina Hoff Sommers.”
^ Hoff Sommers, Christina (1994). Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women. New York: Simon and Schuster, 22. ISBN 0-671-79424-8 (hb), ISBN 0-684-80156-6 (pb), LCC HQ1154.S613 1994.
^ ibid. p. 21
^ Jennifer Pozner: Female Anti-Feminism for Fame and Profit.
^ Flood, Michael (2004-07-07). "Backlash: Angry men's movements", in Stacey Elin Rossi, ed.: The Battle and Backlash Rage On. N.p.: XLibris, 273. ISBN 1-4134-5934-X. Retrieved on October 19, 2006.

[edit] Further Reading

Sterling Harwood, "Introduction: A Statistical Portrait," in Sterling Harwood, ed., Business as Ethical and Business as Usual (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 2000), pp. 166-167.