Mind the (Feminine) Gap

What is it about?

The field of femininities has arguably existed for over six decades, but it was not until 2024 that a journal emerged as a home for scholarship in the field. In contrast, the field of masculinities has had a journal since 1998. Likely owing to the greater number of academic structures supporting the field, scholars produce Masculinity research at a rate 2.77 times higher than femininity research, and they face negative career consequences when focusing their research on femininity or using methods deemed to be feminine. In this article, we explore the potential reasons for, and consequences of, this ‘feminine gap,’ with a focus on femmephobic processes of knowledge production and the masculinization of expertise. We then introduce the Journal of Femininities as a partial remedy to this gap through its aim to provide a home for femininities scholarship and a reexamination of the world through a feminine lens of inquiry.

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