What Makes a Feminist? Predictors and Correlates of Feminist Social Identity in College Women

Authors: Liss, Miriam; O'Connor, Christy; Morosky, Elena; Crawford, Mary

Source: Psychology of Women Quarterly, Volume 25, Number 2, June 2001 , pp. 124-133(10)

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Abstract:

What factors predict self-identification as a feminist? College women (N = 233) were given measures of feminist ideology, feminist identity development, evaluation of feminists, collectivism and individualism. Feminist identification was measured both as a dichotomous and a continuous variable. Measured dichotomously, feminist self-identification was predicted by not having conservative beliefs and having a positive general evaluation of feminists. In addition, self-identified feminists were more likely to believe in collective action, to hold liberal, radical, and womanist ideologies, and to endorse items in the Synthesis stage of identity development. They were less likely to believe a feminist is a lesbian, to endorse items in the Passive Acceptance stage, and to believe in the existence of a meritocracy. Measured continuously, degree of feminist identity was predicted by having a positive general evaluation of feminists, not having conservative beliefs, and endorsing items in the Revelation and Embeddedness/Emanation stages of identity development. The two measures of feminist identity were not entirely congruent, underlining the importance of methodological differences in measuring social identity.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1471-6402.00014

Affiliations: 1: University of Connecticut

Publication date: 2001-06-01