Feminist criminology in an era of misogyny†

• Published date: 01 August 2020
• Date: 01 August 2020
• Author: Meda Chesney‐Lind
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12247

Received: 24 March 2020 Accepted: 24 March 2020

DOI: 10.1111/1745-9125.12247

2019 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS TO THE

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CRIMINOLOGY

Feminist criminology in an era of misogyny*

Meda Chesney-Lind

University of Hawaiiat Manoa

Correspondence

MedaChesney-Lind, 934 Kealaolu Avenue,

Honolulu,HI 96816.

Email:meda@hawaii.edu.

∗Thisaddress was delivered at the 2019 annual

meetingof the Amer ican Society of Criminol-

ogyin San Francisco, California, on Novem-

ber13, 2019. It has been adapted here for

publication.

Abstract

In this address I make the case for continuing to focus crim-

inological research on gender, sexism, and racism within

our lives and within our profession. I also provide a brief

case study of a topic many would feel fallswell outside our

field: reproductive rights. Data are reviewed to reveal the

impact of gender on the lives of women—notablythe deval-

uation of work done by women, particularly if the work is

deemed feminist. Afterward, recent data on the persistence

of both sexism and racism in our field are reviewed.Despite

gains made by women (notably in the membership of the

field), the highest positions in our professional association

are held by men, particularly by White men. Data on the

importance of reproductive rights to women are then con-

sidered, notably the fact that nearly one third of women

will need abortion services by the time they reach mid-

dle age. Finally, I review recent efforts by conservatives to

recriminalize abortion, specifically through the passage of

laws making abortion difficult to arrange, or even outlaw-

ing the provision of abortion services. These efforts directly

involvethe cr iminal justices ystemin the cr iminalization of

women’s bodies.

KEYWORDS

feminism, reproductive justice, sexism and racism in criminology

Context matters in research and helps scholars, particularly those interested in what has come to be

known as “public” criminology determine their intellectual agenda (Currie, 2007; Uggen & Inderbitzin,

2010). Critical scholars, particularly in the United States, face a daunting set of challengesin t he current

political climate, and this is particularly true of those seeking to do work on feminist issues. Rightwing

Criminology. 2020;58:407–422. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/crim © 2020 American Society of Criminology 407

408 CHESNEY-LIND

politics, particularly racism and sexism, played a key role in Donald Trump’s last election, not the

politics of inequality as some initially speculated (Schaffner, MacWilliams,& Nteta, 2017). Moreover,

as I will suggest in this address, many of the most consequential initiatives coming out of the current

administration (and conservative state governments), revolve around dramatic efforts to curb women’s

access to reproductive rights. These initiatives, many focused on recriminalization of abortion, along

with the aggressive naming of conservative judges to the federal bench, has directly implicated the

criminal justice system in the oppression of girls and women (Wonders& Danner, 2020). Consideration

of the role of that system in the enforcement of female subservience to male, patriarchal privilege

should be front and center a feminist intersectional criminological research agenda.

Of course, at the midterm election, many women won and the Democrats took control of the U.S.

House of Representatives (Salam, 2018), so documentation to resistance to these initiatives is also

important, and there will be a brief consideration of them in this address as well. That said, it is clear

that, going forward, one of the major political parties in the United States seems to have embraced

a strategy of directly appealing to racism and sexism of White voters to win elections, which will

certainly alter the patterns, particularly around race, that characterized the twentieth century. The cal-

culus goes as follows. In the current political climate, Republicans are unlikely to garner much support

among racial and ethnic minorities, and Trump’s long, public history of sexism and sexual assault

(Graham, 2017) is both widely acknowledged and not seen by his core voters as disqualifying for

the presidency. Direct appeals to racism and sexism may well, it seems, become a routine feature

of U.S. politics in ways unimaginable since the defeat of segregation and the rise of the civil rights

movement.

Nor is the United States alone in experiencing these trends. Many nations in the global North, in par-

ticular, have seen the rise of an unapologetic rightwing (often nativist) populism, which seems to have

emerged in response to a set of transnational political factors, including immigration and globalization.

Another key, but sometimes overlooked, aspect of these emerging rightwing movements globally has

been the same direct appeal to White male dominance and an implicit endorsement of misogynistic

attitudes particularly regarding women’s rights and the policing of women’s sexuality (Jacobs, 2018;

Vieten, 2016).

1STEPPING BACK, SEXISM, AND POLITICAL ACTIVISM

When I was in college, there were two powerful forces in my life, my academic life and my life as a

political activist. As a result, in the years that havefollowed, I have also alwaysregarded my scholarship

as a form of feminist activism. This, it turns out, has long been a feature of feminist scholarship. Joey

Sprague contended that feminist research is characterized by two features.First, “gender in interaction

with many other areas like race/ethnicity, class, ability, and nation is a key organizer of social life

(Sprague, 2005, p. 3). Second, “understanding how things work is not enough—we need to take action

to make the social world more equitable” (p. 3).

The focus on gender and social justice has emerged as a key goal for me in all my work. Certainly,

much of this is a product of the fact that when I was in college, there was no shortage of these problems

(particularly revolving around civil rights and women’s rights). Since we find ourselves in another era

of repression, maybe reviewing that earlier context might give us some insights into how to act in

today’s intellectual and political environment.

When I was graduating from college, women were effectively barred from applying to medical

school or law school. In those years, women accounted for 7 percent of law school admissions and

a whopping 9 percent of medical school admissions (Ott, 1976, pp. 3–10). No woman could apply to