A Short History of "Feminist" Anti-Feminists

The early sisters of Sarah Palin.

By Amanda Marcotte
Posted Tuesday, June 8, 2010, at 10:00 AM ET

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Sarah Palin made quite the splash recently with her comments to the anti-abortion group the Susan B. Anthony List about conservative women reclaiming feminism, asserting that anti-choicers were "returning the woman's movement back to its original roots." Because no central authority exists to control use of the word feminist, Palin's cooption of the term caused anxious questions: Is there such thing as conservative feminism? Can you be a feminist who opposes abortion rights? Does the word feminism mean anything at all? Does merely wearing a power suit and smart-girl glasses automatically make you a feminist?

The invocation of the word feminist at a meeting of anti-abortion women can be confusing, but it shouldn't be. There's no real reason to consider Sarah Palin a feminist. She's just the latest incarnation of a long and noble line of feminist anti-feminists: women who call themselves feminist but also object to the existence of the feminist movement and organize in opposition to it. Feminist anti-feminism has evolved in the shadow of feminism since the days when many women adamantly insisted they didn't want or need the right to vote. And as feminism has morphed rapidly since the early days of the second wave, so has anti-feminism changed arguments and strategies, going through three distinct phases.