The Difference Blog by Dan4th ([info]differenceblog) wrote,
2007-06-29 08:10:00
  • Previous
  • Memorize
  • Share
  • Next

Being feminist

Yoder et al (2007) add to a growing body of literature suggesting that identifying as a feminist is good for women. Yoder measured feminist identity using five subscales identified by Fischer et al (2000). Quoting from Yoder et al (p 3-4):
  • passive acceptance (“I don’t see much point in questioning the general expectation that men should be masculine and women should be feminine”)
  • revelation (“Gradually, I am beginning to see just how sexist society really is”)
  • embeddedness–emanation (“I am very interested in women writers”)
  • synthesis (“I feel like I have blended my female attributes with my unique personal qualities”)
  • active commitment (“I am very committed to a cause that I believe contributes to a more fair and just world for all people”).


Liss et al (2001) published the shocking revelations that "not having conservative beliefs" and "having a positive evaluation of feminists" predicted identification as a feminist for women. Nancy Downing Hansen's 2002 review discusses 16 years of research into the measurement of feminist identity. Ramsey et al (2007) found that regardless of their own feminist identity, women thought that other women thought negatively of feminism and feminists.


I didn't identify as a feminist when I was a woman, probably just to be contrary. How frustrating it is to discover that I was in the majority. Ramsey's article makes me wonder if I was specifically trying to avoid some stigma I held on feminism. One piece of research I expected to see but didn't was whether there was any difference in feminist identification by social class. Yoder's assertion that positive outcomes are related to feminist identity makes me wonder whether the people who end up identifying as feminists are starting off from a more advantaged position in the first place.
Tags: ann fischer, feminism, identity, janice yoder, laura ramsey, miriam liss, nancy hansen, politics, sexism

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    switch

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

     
    Help
  • 9 comments

[info]beckiemoriello

June 29 2007, 13:53:49 UTC 4 years ago

whether there was any difference in feminist identification by social class

My English ex-girlfriend was getting her MA in working class feminist literature. She said that there's extremely little because feminism is mostly restricted to the middle and upper classes.

This was in 2001 in Brighton. Her name's Heather Pugh. *shrug*

[info]charlycrash

June 29 2007, 15:49:11 UTC 4 years ago

The first link doesn't seem to be working for me.

[info]differenceblog

June 29 2007, 21:58:54 UTC 4 years ago

D'oh. I'm working from a computer without institutional certificates now. is Yoder et al (2007) accessible?

[info]charlycrash

June 30 2007, 06:49:22 UTC 4 years ago

It is :)

Btw, damn good show, keep up the good work, dude.

[info]differenceblog

June 30 2007, 16:10:22 UTC 4 years ago

thanks!

[info]beaconeer

June 30 2007, 03:30:00 UTC 4 years ago

hey where'd you get the young ones icon of vivian?

[info]charlycrash

June 30 2007, 06:49:45 UTC 4 years ago

I can't remember, as a pretty long time ago. I didn't make it thoguh, so feel free to take it.

[info]rroselavy

June 29 2007, 16:06:29 UTC 4 years ago

I definitely didn't identify as a feminist when I was younger, and I think it was as much due to the negative connotation to the word as well as I didn't really see the point. I was raised in a family where traditional gender lines had been blurred a bit, my mother was more educated than my father, and her base salary was higher than his (though he earned more with overtime), so 'equal partnership' was ingrained in my head, even though the division of household labor fell along traditional gender lines, (with the exception of cooking, my father cooked everyday meals, my mother only cooked on holidays).

It wasn't until I went to work as an art director for a monthly women's publication that I found out ~shockingly~ I was a feminist! The word still conjures up a lot of negativism to me (man-haters!), but I've been able to come to terms with the distortion and the reality. Much as any marginalized group, women need to review the history of where we've come from and where we are now, and frankly, because of the feminists who came before us, and were willing to speak out about embedded inequality we are further along the road to finding some kind of equity between the sexes.

[info]beaconeer

June 30 2007, 03:33:41 UTC 4 years ago

maybe its regional, but here in rural New England gender roles are certainly being re-defined but not for the better for women. At the age where people traditionally are settling in there's a growing expectation that men will stay juvenile and girls have to be grown ups before they've had a chance to be kids. This is a completely unscientific observation.
Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Facebook Twitter More login options
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…