Editing Difference feminism (section)

{{Short description|Opposition to equality feminism}}
{{Feminism sidebar |Variants (general)}}
'''Difference feminism''' is a term developed during the equality-versus-difference debate<ref name="auto">{{cite journal|last1=Scott|first1=Joan|title=Deconstructing Equality-Versus-Difference: Or, the Uses of Post-structuralist Theory for Feminism|journal=Feminist Studies|date=1988|volume=14|issue=1|doi=10.2307/3177997|pages=33–50|jstor=3177997|hdl=2027/spo.0499697.0014.104|hdl-access=free}}</ref> in [[Feminism in the United States|American feminism]] to describe the view that men and women are different, but that no value judgment can be placed upon them and both sexes have equal [[Intrinsic value (ethics)|moral status]] as [[person]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.feministvoices.com/carol-gilligan/|title=Carol Gilligan|website=Psychology's Feminist Voices|access-date=2017-05-10|archive-date=2020-02-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200222094212/http://www.feministvoices.com/carol-gilligan|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Most strains of difference feminism did not argue that there was a biological, inherent, ahistorical, or otherwise "essential" link between womanhood and traditionally feminine values, habits of mind (often called "ways of knowing"<ref name="auto1">{{cite journal |last1=Schiebinger |first1=Londa |year=2000 |title=Has Feminism Changed Science? |journal=Signs |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=1171–1175 |doi=10.1086/495540 |pmid=17089478 |s2cid=225088475}}</ref>), or personality traits.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grande Jensen |first1=Pamela |title=Finding a New Feminism: Rethinking the Woman Question for Liberal Democracy |page=2 footnote 4}}</ref> These feminists simply sought to recognize that, in the present, women and men are significantly different and to explore the devalued "feminine" characteristics.<ref name="auto2">{{cite book |last1=Tandon |first1=Neeru |title=Feminism: A Paradigm Shift |page=68}}</ref> This variety of difference feminism is also called [[Who Stole Feminism?|gender feminism]].<ref name="Fowler">{{cite book |last=Fowler |first=Robert Booth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kMcPAQAAMAAJ&q=%22gender+feminism%22+%22difference+feminism%22 |title=Enduring Liberalism: American Political Thought Since the 1960s |date=1999 |publisher=University Press of Kansas |isbn=978-0-70-060974-1 |page=133}}</ref><ref name="Ford">{{cite book |last=Ford |first=Lynne E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cVtFJ5tvINsC&q=%22gender+feminists%22+%22difference+feminists%22 |title=Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics |date=2008 |publisher=Facts on File |isbn=978-0-81-605491-6 |location=New York |page=187}}</ref> 

However, some forms of difference feminism – such as [[Mary Daly]]'s [[cultural feminism]] – argue that women and their values are superior to those of men.<ref name="auto2" /><ref name=":1">{{cite book |last1=Sandilands |first1=Catriona |title=The Good-Natured Feminist Ecofeminism and the Quest for Democracy |date=1999 |pages=chapter 5: "Cyborgs and Queers"}}</ref> There is ongoing debate about whether Daly's feminism is essentialist.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book |title=Feminist interpretations of Mary Daly |date=2000 |publisher=Pennsylvania State University |isbn=978-0-271-02018-1 |editor-last=Hoagland |editor-first=Sarah Lucia |series=Re-reading the canon |location=University Park, Pa |editor-last2=Frye |editor-first2=Marilyn}}</ref>