The limited stature of women in society is certainly just cause for distress. However, the issue can easily be reduced to less constructive efforts. The feminist movement is the explicit effort to improve society for women, not simply a reaction against it.

As the feminist movement expands, it also diversifies, making for numerous disagreements between individual groups. I think it’s important for men to take their place in the discussion. At the practical level, men can work to change society both in its attitudes and laws.

I recently finished a book by Shira Tarrant, a women’s studies professor at California State University, who writes extensively on male feminism. In Men and Feminism she encourages men to find their place today as feminists.

I found her words compelling. Wherever constructive, Tarrant argues, men should join women’s projects to ensure strength in numbers. Men can still financially support facilities from the sidelines where a male presence could hinder, like at women’s shelters. Each male voice for violence prevention speaks volumes.

Tarrant’s work is very educational. Feminism, she argues, always aims for justice. But this is where she starts to go wrong. Tarrant works from her own account of what is just. For Tarrant, women — as persons under the law — are primarily choosers. She discourages any ideology that would define women for fear it would limit their choices. By avoiding the question of womanhood however, and discouraging dialogue, she is unable to probe deeper into the core issues that shape human justice.

I found Tarrant also neglected the core reasons why men engage in feminism. We don’t just want justice for justice sake. We want to be a part of it because it means something to us. Seeing women neglected by society and its attitudes, we respond with something stronger: love. Women can fight for their due in many ways, but when men join in, their motivation should/will always be love. As lovers, we must always be working to appreciate the subject of our love — in this case, women. We must strive to know who and what women are, beyond merely political categories. The dialogue is necessary.  Such an effort demands commitment to open dialogue, across cultures and sexes.  

Even if consensus on the nature of womanhood is unattainable, attempts to reach it could be beneficial to all involved. The open dialogue necessary for such a shift would challenge injustices otherwise veiled in silence.

(Kupferschmidt, 22, is a Philosophy student at King’s University College at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont.)