A few months ago, a podcast listener reached out to me to say, why is there a man on the podcast?

She had reached an episode where a man was speaking about patriarchy, and she said, I thought this was supposed to be a safe space for women.

We had a very productive conversation, but this discussion reminded me that the question

of men as feminists or feminist allies is still hotly contested. By the dictionary definition,

being a feminist means that you support, quote, the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes, end quote.

So by that definition, it should be easy for any man to join the movement if they want to.

Other more restrictive definitions, however, have been around since the inception of feminism,

definitions which question whether there should be

additional qualifications before a man bestows this title on himself. Some gender essentialists,

for example, might wonder if someone can be a feminist without a female body. Others within

the movement question whether someone can be a feminist without the lived experience of being a woman and all of the differences in discrimination that come with that.

And then there are some lines of thoughts such as separatist feminism, which have posited that not only should women separate themselves from men, but that men have no ability to contribute

to a feminist cause at all.

As scholars and activists continue to debate these definitions of whether or not male feminism

exists, the fact is that male feminists already do exist, and the opinion of breaking down patriarchy is that male allies are essential to feminism.

As we discussed in season one of the podcast, there is a strong and encouraging history of men aligning with feminist causes and contributing to feminist movements.

Remember Frederick Douglass speaking in favor of women's rights

175 years ago at the Seneca Falls Convention. Remember John Stuart Mill advocating for women's

suffrage before British Parliament. From the very beginnings of first wave feminism, there

have been men of integrity standing alongside women. And that tradition of male feminism continues to this day.

And thank goodness because we need them. We need people of all genders working together if we're

going to create the future that we envision. And we need men to consider how they can play an

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