Feminist identity development among young, feminist men in college

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to explore college men’s feminist identity development. Utilizing a constructivist grounded theory methodology, the following research questions were addressed: (a) how do men come to identify as feminists; (b) what influences and disincentives have men encountered while assuming a feminist identity; and (c) how do young college men enact their feminist identities in their daily lives? Interviews were conducted with 17 college men from a large southwestern university. Emerging from the participants’ experiences, the theoretical model depicts feminist identity development beginning with men establishing an egalitarian value system during their childhood and adolescence, examining their own experiences of masculinity, and encountering feminist ideas through peers, authority figures, and family members. After Coming to Feminism and labeling their egalitarian values as feminist, men identified several changes in their lives including (a) noticing sexism more frequently, (b) selecting their social groups to reflect their values, (c) enhancing the quality of their relationships, (d) discovering freedom in their own gender expression, and (e) disrupting sexism. Men then experienced Becoming a Feminist as they constructed their feminist identity as a social identity through sharing their feminist ideas with others. Men approached feminism differently based on: (a) their comfort with identifying as a feminist publicly, (b) having a feminist community, and (c) engaging in self-reflection. Men’s experiences as they relate to these categories explained men’s spectrum of how they engaged with feminism including Novice Feminist and Seasoned Feminist approaches to their identities. This model of college men’s feminist identity development has implications relevant to theory development, research, student affairs practice, and social justice.