Taylor Houston Speaks on Gender Essentialism in Social Movements

      "How does gender ideology shape social movement participation and leadership?" This was the question that University of Georgia doctoral student Taylor Houston posed to an audience of 20 students and faculty members on Friday.  

      In his dissertation Houston researched Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) in Georgia. He defined CSEC as "exploiting children entirely, or at least in part, for financial reasons."

      His research had humble beginnings: Houston remembers simply searching "trafficking in Georgia" on Google and finding an anti-CSEC event held at a church.

      "One of the first things I noticed was being one of only five men in a packed room."  Houston remembers being unable to focus on any of the questions he planned to ask, and instead was only able to think about a new question: "Why was this movement so gender segregated?".

      Houston studied two anti-CSEC movements in Georgia. The first, the more religion-based group, he referred to as Nightlight. The second, which Houston said was more based on feminism, was referred to as Demanding Justice.

      He interviewed ten people from each of the two groups, along with representatives from non-profit child advocacy groups, anti-trafficking activists, and law enforcement individuals who had directly dealt with CSEC.

      Houston asked these individuals, 83 percent of whom where women, why they think women are more likely to become involved in these movements than men and what can be done to change that. Their answers often relied on a belief in gender essentialism.
   
      "Gender essentialism is the notion that men and women are biologically different and therefore better suited for different tasks," Houston said. "This plays into the theory that women can't be leaders."

     Through his interviews, Houston found that individuals involved in ending CSEC expressed gender essentialist beliefs in three ways.

      The first- and most common- gender essentialist response was that women have a natural ability to care that lets them help those who are hurting. Interviewees said that women are naturally more sensitive to the feelings of children, and therefore better able to propose solutions to their problems.

      "These women were drawing on essentialist beliefs to justify why women should be leaders," Houston said. "This is not the norm."

      "We can relate. Women are naturally more compassionate and can therefore imagine themselves as the victim." This was the way Houston summarized the second most common gender essentialist responses from the people he interviewed.

      The final gender essentialist response that Houston noted was that although it is necessary to have more men involved in the anti-CSEC movement, they just can not relate to victims.

      "I think historically men do not see a 16-year-old prostitute as a victim. Understanding the cycle of violence and why girls are exploited is difficult to black-and-white thinkers." This was the response of one of the people Houston interviewed that he believed "really captured the spirit of essentialism."

      Houston found that overwhelmingly activists employed gender essentialist beliefs to justify women's participation and leadership of the movement, and explain men's inability to engage in collective action.

      "Social movements are, in fact, gendered processes. Things like mobilization, leadership patterns, strategies and ideologies, and outcomes of a social movement are deeply gendered issues."