Essentialist Feminism

What is the meaning of essentialist feminism?

Essentialist feminism, also known as difference feminism, is a branch of feminism that focuses on the biological differences between men and women. Essentialist feminists believe these physical and biological differences are significant and natural. It uses gender essentialism to support and explain the differences between men and women.

These differences constitute the foundation of gender and the way society views it. While gender roles may change with time, fundamental aspects of femininity remain constant. Essentialist feminists believe that there are specific characteristics that all women share, which makes them unique as a gender. These characteristics, according to essentialist feminists, are based on biological sex.

Some critical traits often cited by essentialist feminists include compassion, nurturing, and empathy. These qualities are essential to the female experience and help make women caregivers by essentialist feminists.

Essentialist feminism theory

Fig. 1 – Women's march for equality.

While classical feminism and essentialist feminism overlap, their focus and objectives differ. Essentialist feminism argues that coexisting and communicating the message about how the difference between genders does not imply unequal opportunities.

Essentialist feminism argues that women's differences are not barriers to having and exercising their rights. Their main criticism against feminism, especially equality feminisms, is that they seek equality by imitating men, thus losing their essence and what makes them unique.

Traditional feminists argue that this recognition of 'female characteristics' is harmful, especially regarding traditional gender roles. Not all strands of feminism share this belief, but most lean on the politics of difference and use it to justify their goal of equality.

Essentialist feminism also emphasises ideas of sisterhood and sometimes even separatism; it's this that sometimes leads critiques to call essentialist feminists 'man-haters'.

Nonetheless, essentialist feminism does support the idea of empowering women. What differentiates it is trying to do so by raising awareness of the qualities that distinguish women from men. As such, the goal of essentialist feminists is not to create equality but to appreciate and value the differences between men and women. They believe that doing so will lead to a more just and 'women-oriented' society.

Essentialist Feminism history

Fig. 2 – Carol Gilligan.

While the core ideas of essentialist feminism have existed throughout history, it wasn’t until the 1980s and 1990s, when prominent feminist Carol Gilligan published her works, that the term became more widely spread. Gillian researched the moral development of both genders. She then developed a theory that explained gender differences. She argued that women tend to develop morally based on relationships and responsibility towards others. Thus, according to this theory, women and men have definite fundamental differences.

During the second wave of feminism, these ideas expanded, and work on the characteristics or patterns of femininity was questioned. This time gave birth to modern essentialist feminism, with its unique ideas and the affirmation of differences between genders.

During the third and fourth waves of feminism, other authors contributed to essentialist feminist theory. However, these waves also shifted the discussion to other topics, such as intersectionality, gender essentialism, and sexuality.

Examples of essentialist feminism

In essentialist feminism, several thinkers argued different points of view about the biological differences between genders. This section will briefly discuss some examples of some important essentialist feminist authors and their main ideas.

Author Mary Daly highlights how men and women think and their biological dissimilarities. She criticises equality, believing the focus should be on ending patriarchy. She argued that female nature creates while masculinity destroys.

Daly also believed women should focus on the differences between sexes and be proud of their biological capacity to enter motherhood. They must seek a culture that allows expressing themselves, self-discovery, and separation from the identities imposed by patriarchy to experience liberation.

Other contributions focus on the moral differences between men and women. For example, Carol Gilligan argues that women tend to focus on responsibilities and relationships when approaching an ethical problem, whereas men tend to focus on moral fairness.

Essentialist feminism’s place in the feminist movement

Essentialist feminism is relatively new when compared to other branches of feminism. While bringing something new to the table, it does ruffle feathers with traditional feminist philosophy. Here we will discuss how it compared with equality feminism and constructivist feminism.

Difference feminism v equality feminism.

Difference or essentialist feminism began as a critique of equality feminism, a movement that argued for equal treatment for women and men. This movement emerged to emphasise the differences between women and men when the prevailing feminist movement argued that there are none, or at least none that are very important.

It created a debate with equality feminism where the essentialist feminist argued that while ignoring the intrinsic difference between men and women, the female perspective was diminished in favour of the male way of life.

As such, difference feminism argues that there are characteristics unique to women that should be acknowledged and valued. While equality feminists argue that any differences between men and women are not important and are often a result of the society they grew up in rather than their biology.

The goals of difference and equality feminism are therefore also different. Difference feminism believes that acknowledging and valuing these differences is the way to a more just society. Whereas equality feminists believe that the goal to strive for is true equality between men and women.

Differences between essentialist and constructivist feminism

Constructivist feminism can sometimes be hard to differentiate from essentialist feminism because it also acknowledges that there are differences between men and women. But constructivist feminists focus on the role of ideas and society in constructing gender roles and norms. See the table below for some more detail on the differences between essentialist and constructivist feminism.

^{Table 1 – Differences between Essentialist and Constructivist feminism.}

What is anti-essentialism feminism?

Anti-essentialism feminism is a branch of feminist thought and activism that sprung up in reaction to essentialist feminism. It rejects the existence of essential differences between men and women and believes that gender is a social construct. Thus, society determines our behaviour. Its core principles are:

• Individuals must be treated equally regardless of sex or gender identity. No discrimination is allowed.

• Gender is learned, not innate.

• Sex and gender do not affect an individual’s personality or behaviour.

While a new branch of feminist thought, it has gained ground due to inclusion. It encompasses many interpretations and includes favouring equality instead of differentiation.