Christina Hoff Sommers

Christina Hoff Sommers
BornChristina Marie Hoff
1950 (age 73–74)
Sonoma County, California, U.S.
OccupationAuthor, philosopher, university professor, scholar at the American Enterprise Institute
EducationNew York University (BA)
Brandeis University (MA, PhD)
Notable worksWho Stole Feminism?, The War Against Boys, Vice and Virtue in Everyday Life
SpouseFrederic Tamler Sommers (d. 2014)
Website
Official website

Christina Marie Hoff Sommers (born 1950)[1] is an American author and philosopher. Specializing in ethics, she is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.[2][3][4] Sommers is known for her critique of contemporary feminism.[5][6][7] Her work includes the books Who Stole Feminism? (1994) and The War Against Boys (2000). She also hosts a video blog called The Factual Feminist.

Sommers' positions and writing have been characterized by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy as "equity feminism", a classical-liberal or libertarian feminist perspective holding that the main political role of feminism is to ensure that the right against coercive interference is not infringed.[8] Sommers has contrasted equity feminism with what she terms victim feminism and gender feminism,[9][10] arguing that modern feminist thought often contains an "irrational hostility to men" and possesses an "inability to take seriously the possibility that the sexes are equal but different".[10][third-party source needed] Several writers have described Sommers' positions as anti-feminist.[11][12][13]

  1. ^ Rosenstand, Nina (2003). The Moral of the Story: An Introduction to Ethics. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-7674-2910-8.
  2. ^ "Christina Hoff Sommers". American Enterprise Institute - AEI. Retrieved April 8, 2023.
  3. ^ Gordon, Dane R.; Niżnik, Józef (1998). Criticism and Defense of Rationality in Contemporary Philosophy. Rodopi. p. 56. ISBN 90-420-0368-5.
  4. ^ Nussbaum, Martha C. (1999). Sex and Social Justice. Oxford University Press. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-19-535501-7.
  5. ^ Kester-Shelton, Pamela; Shelton, Ashley A.; Mazurkiewicz, Margaret, eds. (September 17, 1996). "Christina Hoff Sommers". Feminist Writers. Detroit: St. James Press. pp. 444–446. ISBN 978-1-55862-217-3. Philosopher and educator Christina Hoff Sommers's principal work, Who Stole Feminism?, is an edgy invective against contemporary feminism as the author perceives it.
  6. ^ "Biography in Context". Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale. 2005. Retrieved February 29, 2016. Christina Hoff Sommers attracted wide attention for her controversial 1994 book, Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women, an indictment of the contemporary feminist movement.
  7. ^ Taylor Malmsheimer (June 27, 2014). "Independent Women's Forum Challenges One In Five Statistic". New Republic. Christina Hoff Sommers, a former philosophy professor best known for her critiques of late-twentieth-century feminism.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Baehr 2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Marshal, Barbara L. (2013). "35: Feminism and Constructionism (in Part VI: Continuing Challenges)". In Holstein, James A.; Gubrium, Jaber F. (eds.). Handbook of Construtionist Research. Guilford Publications. p. 693. ISBN 978-1-4625-1481-6. Christina Hoff Sommers (1994) coined the term gender feminism in opposition to equity feminism.
  10. ^ a b Christina Hoff Sommers. "What's Wrong and What's Right with Contemporary Feminism?" (PDF). AEI.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 17, 2009. Retrieved November 16, 2014. The dominant philosophy of today's women's movement is not equity feminism--but "victim feminism." Hamilton College speech, 19 November 2008.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Vint 2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Projansky 2001 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Anderson 2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).