Although scholars and media critics have suspected a disconnect between feminist self-identification and attitudes among the U.S. public, little is known empirically about this relationship. This article examines the relationships between feminist self-identification, sociodemographics, political orientation, and a range of gender-related attitudes using data from the 1996 General Society Survey. Results suggest that feminists are most likely to be highly educated, urban women who self-identify as liberals and Democrats. Feminist self-identification significantly relates to views about the impact of the women’s movement and to core causes of gender inequality. It links less well, particularly for women, to more specific causes and attitudes about what should be (e.g., those implicating working mothers, biology, and God’s will). This suggests the importance of analyzing clusters of attitudes regarding ideal gender arrangements and of examining and differentiating between other attitude clusters. These findings point to more multifaceted and heterogeneous meanings of feminist identity among the U.S. public than most research acknowledges.

Gender representations reproduce and legitimate gender systems. To examine this aspect of the gendered social order, we analyze the representation of males and females in the titles and central characters of 5,618 children’s books published throughout the twentieth century in the United States. Compared to females, males are represented nearly twice as often in titles and 1.6 times as often as central characters. By no measure in any book series (i.e., Caldecott award winners, Little Golden Books, and books listed in the Children’s Catalog ) are females represented more frequently than males. We argue that these disparities are evidence of symbolic annihilation and have implications for children’s understandings of gender. Nevertheless, important differences in the extent of the disparity are evident by type of character (i.e., child or adult, human or animal), book series, and time period. Specifically, representations of child central characters are the most equitable and animals the most inequitable; Little Golden Books contain the most unequal representations; and the 1930s-1960s—the period between waves of feminist activism—exhibits greater disparities than earlier and later periods. Examining multiple types of books across a long time period shows that change toward gender equality is uneven, nonlinear, and tied to patterns of feminist activism and backlash throughout the century.

In the United States, considerable attention has been directed to sexual behaviors of black and white adolescents, particularly age at first sexual experience and the prevalence of teenage pregnancies. More limited attention has been paid to comparing established sexual relationships in these two racial groups. In this study, we used a national probability sample to compare black (n = 251) and white (n = 544) American women, aged 20-65 years, who were in an established heterosexual relationship of at least 6 months duration. We focused on two aspects of their sexual well-being; how a woman evaluated (1) her sexual relationship and (2) her own sexuality. A range of possible determinants of sexual well-being, including demographic factors, physical and mental health, and aspects of the women's recent sexual experiences, were also assessed using Telephone-Audio-Computer-Assisted Self-Interviewing (T-ACASI). We found no significant difference between black and white women in their evaluation of their sexual relationships nor in the independent variables that were correlated with this evaluation. Black women, however, evaluated their own sexuality more positively than white women. In examining the correlates of this evaluation, a woman's rating of her own sexual attractiveness proved to be the strongest predictor, with black women rating themselves significantly more sexually attractive than did the white women. Overall, these findings were consistent with previous findings that, compared to white women, black women in the United States have higher self-esteem and tend towards more independence and individualism.

This study uses cognitive interviewing to examine individuals' interpretations of sexuality-related questions and meanings of sex and sexuality. The sample includes 20 adults (12 women and 8 men) who were randomly selected university staff in the Midwestern United States. Using a sexual script and symbolic interactionist framework, we identify two themes in individuals' understandings of sex and sexuality: (1) people's talk about sexuality at the cultural level typically corresponds to traditional gender arrangements and stereotypes; however, personal experiences elicit more contradictions and (2) our relatively small sample revealed a wide range of understandings of sex and sexuality, including how gender expectations influenced their meanings. Implications for theoretical work on gender and sexuality as well as future empirical studies are discussed.

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