Feminist
What it means
Supporting equal rights and opportunities for all genders.
Reach for it when describing an idea, movement, or person committed to gender equality
The feminist coalition expanded mentoring for young women in engineering.
Words to choose between 7
| everyday | |
|---|---|
| professional |
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| formal |
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everyday
Fits when participation across genders is demonstrated
Careful Inclusive is vague unless the excluded group and change are named.
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everyday
pro-equality
Fits when plain language should foreground equal rights
Careful Pro-equality leaves the relevant axis of inequality unnamed.
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professional
gender-equitable
Fits when a policy produces fair outcomes across genders
Careful Gender-equitable describes an outcome, not an analytical tradition.
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professional
intersectional
Fits when gender is analyzed with other structures of power
Careful Intersectional is not a substitute unless that framework is explicit.
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professional
women's-rights
Fits when women's legal or social rights are the specific issue
Careful The phrase can be narrower than feminism's analysis of systems.
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formal
Fits when opposition to hierarchy across groups is central
Careful Egalitarianism can leave gender unexamined.
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formal
emancipatory
Fits when the work aims to free people from domination
Careful Emancipatory is abstract and does not identify the theory.
Opposites 3
- sexist
- patriarchal
- anti-feminist
Common phrases 3
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feminist movement
The feminist movement campaigned for equal access to education.
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feminist analysis
A feminist analysis revealed whose unpaid work the proposal ignored.
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feminist organization
The feminist organization offers legal support to workers facing discrimination.
Usage notes
Keep in mind
Feminist traditions differ; use a more specific school or policy term when that distinction matters.
Definitions and examples are written for this site. How words are chosen Recording: Vealhurl, Southern England accent, from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 Updated