Of all the prying questions we put to Canadian women in our This is 40ish survey, “Do you consider yourself a feminist?” may have been the thorniest. When we reported today that the majority of 1,000 women polled — a full 68 percent — said they do not call themselves a feminist, Twitter lit up with people surprised and even a bit upset by the result.
According to @Chatelaine #ThisIs40ish survey, 68% of women surveyed do NOT identify as feminist. https://t.co/kATOknmvLe Boo!
— Julie S. Lalonde (@JulieSLalonde) December 3, 2015
Utterly fascinating. 68 per cent say they're not feminists and 40% never drink. Wowza https://t.co/Qu3VUnpozD
— Elizabeth Renzetti (@lizrenzetti) December 3, 2015
Feeling a little ill looking at the @Chatelaine survey where 68% of women said "no" they are not a feminist. WHAT IS HAPPENING?
— Kat (@Knymz) December 3, 2015
Whether or not a Canadian woman identifies as a feminist also strongly depends on where they live, our survey data found.
Coast-to-coast: Women in Atlantic Canada half as likely to call themselves a feminist as women in BC #ThisIs40ish pic.twitter.com/IvU71YXHjL
— Chatelaine (@Chatelaine) December 3, 2015
When Chatelaine asked 40-odd women the question on camera last month, many struggled with the word itself, not necessarily the ideas feminism espouses. (Watch the video above.)
Interesting to see the women explain why they don't identify as feminist — even though their beliefs are feminist. https://t.co/YsurMdRlqq
— Susan Catto (@sjcatto) December 3, 2015
So we put the question out to Twitter. And here’s what you had to say:
Big ol' feminist over here and happy to shout it! https://t.co/HcCzl1nZbx
— Elan "Schmutzie" Morgan 🖊 (@schmutzie) December 3, 2015
For me label feels loaded & overused. But if I go by definition I check every.single.box. https://t.co/1nSlD1hQBd
— Karma Brown (@KarmaKBrown) December 3, 2015
Here's what @zchamu has to say about feminism. #ThisIs40ish pic.twitter.com/BMNGdB9k2N
— Chatelaine (@Chatelaine) December 3, 2015
@chatelaine Believe in equality, but not a feminist. Word has "negative" connotation for those 40+. Younger women embrace it more. #progress
— Jen Clark (@JayzieTO) December 3, 2015
https://twitter.com/RajBinnor/status/672473457117036544
So does feminism have a branding problem? We asked Twitter’s, Kirstine Stewart.
https://twitter.com/kirstinestewart/status/672466769618075648
What do we do to change that?
What does PM @JustinTrudeau's chief of staff think about the F-word? @telfordk weighs in. #ThisIs40ish pic.twitter.com/tw0LgvjYYu
— Chatelaine (@Chatelaine) December 3, 2015
Gloria Steinem — the grande dame of feminism herself — responded to the Chatelaine survey results on a visit to Toronto earlier this week. “Carefully nurtured stereotypes [are to blame]: Feminists have no sense of humour, they’re anti-men, they’re anti-sex. It’s all bullshit,” she said.
Perhaps the most heartening response came from the son of one of the women who participated in our This is 40ish video shoot last month.
“Just watched this video with my kids,” Jacki Yovanoff wrote on Facebook. “My 8-year-old son said “I’m a feminist!”
Related:
Exclusive survey! This is 40(ish)
Does feminism have a branding problem?