A Rose by any other name: Attitudes toward feminism as a function of its label

Jacobson, Marsha B.

doi:10.1007/bf00287404

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…The labels housewives and feminists were selected for three reasons. First, they have been identified and repeatedly studied in past research (e.g., Berryman-Fink & Verderber, 1985;Clifton et al, 1976;Jacobsen, 1979). Second, in a pilot study, these labels were rated as significantly different in the extent to which they are perceived as conventional (similar to the results reported by Clifton et al, 1976;Six & Eckes, 1991).…”

Section: Construal As a Potential Moderator Of The Eagly Et Al (1991mentioning

confidence: 79%

Preferring “Housewives” To “Feminists”: Categorization and the Favorability of Attitudes Toward Women

Haddock

Zanna

1994

Psychology of Women Quarterly

118

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Four studies are described outlining the favorability of attitudes toward women. In Study 1, participants indicated their attitudes toward women and men and their construal of the term "women." The results revealed that women were evaluated more favorably than men, but that male right-wing authoritarians (RWAs) who construed women as referring primarily to feminists were least favorable in their attitudes. In Study 2, participants indicated their attitudes toward both "housewives" and "feminists." The results revealed that feminists were evaluated less favorably than housewives, and that the most negative attitudes toward feminists were expressed by authoritarian men. Study 3 revealed that high-RWA males held more negative symbolic beliefs concerning feminists (i.e., beliefs that feminists failed to promote participants' values) and that these beliefs accounted for variation in attitudes among high RWAs and much of the RWA-attitude relation. Finally, Study 4 revealed that high RWAs perceived greater value dissimilarity between themselves and feminists. The implications of the findings for future research are discussed.Psychologists have devoted considerable attention to the study of attitudes toward women. Often, this has been accomplished in the context of comparing individuals' perceptions of women and men (e.g. , Broverman, Vogel, Broverman, Clarkson, & Rosenkrantz, 1972;McKee & Sherriffs, 1957). Until recently, the majority of these studies have found that men are evaluated more favorably than women, leading Del Boca, Ashmore, and McManus (1986) to state that "researchers . . . have concluded that the social category, female, is not positively evaluated, at least not relative to [the social category] male" (p. 121). However, even more recent research by Eagly and her colleagues (Eagly & Mladinic, 1989;Eagly, Mladinic, & Otto, 1991) has challenged these conclusions. In a series of studies, they have discovered that "women are evaluated quite favorably-in fact, more favorably than men" (Eagly et al., 1991, p. 203).The original goal of the present research (and the focus of Study 1) was to assess the generality of the findings obtained by Eagly and her colleagues. Toward this goal, we examined the extent to which: (a) the individual difference variable of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) (Altemeyer, 1981(Altemeyer, , 1988, and (b) individuals' subjective construal of the term "women" (Griffin & ROSS, 1991) would serve to moderate the findings obtained by Eagly and her colleagues. The results of our first study led us to pursue a second question, that being whether different subcategories of the term women are differentially evaluated (and how evaluations of different subcategories are affected by authoritarianism). To assess such possible differences, we focused on the subcategories "housewives" (a term that connotes a "traditional" view of women) and "feminists" (a term that connotes a challenge to the traditional view of women). Consequently, in Studies 2-4, we sought to discover: (a) whether housewives and f...

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Section: Construal As a Potential Moderator Of The Eagly Et Al (1991mentioning

confidence: 79%

Preferring “Housewives” To “Feminists”: Categorization and the Favorability of Attitudes Toward Women

Haddock

Zanna

1994

Psychology of Women Quarterly

118

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“…Lyons et al (2005) identified specific values that are associated with different generations, but recommended that gender and cohort never be isolated from one another. Although views on gender equality, beliefs about women's rights, and endorsement of feminist values apply to men as well, females consistently participate more in the women's movement (Huddy et al 2000) and feel more positive about feminist labels (Jacobson 1979). However, men are becoming more profeminist over time (Mason and Lu 1988), and a smaller gender difference on views relating to the rights of women was noted in the mid-1990s compared to a historical sample twenty years previously (Loo and Thorpe 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Older and Younger Adults’ Attitudes Toward Feminism: The Influence of Religiosity, Political Orientation, Gender, Education, and Family

2011

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The present study explored attitudes toward feminism in 245 U.S. college students and their older relatives. Participants completed a scale of attitudes towards feminism, political orientation, a religiosity measure, and a demographic questionnaire. Results indicated that older adults were more conservative than younger adults on their attitudes towards feminism, religiosity, and political orientation measures. In the young adult sample, attitudes towards feminism were predicted by gender and political orientation, compared to older adults in which religiosity and political orientation were the best predictors. When exploring generational influence, older adults' attitudes and demographic information were not associated with younger adults' attitudes towards feminism and the women's movement. In contrast, young adults' political views were associated with older adults' attitudes towards feminism.

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“…Most research has found evidence for negative evaluations of feminists and endorsement of negative stereotypes of feminists. For example, several recent and historical studies have found that people had overwhelmingly negative perceptions of feminists as man-hating, stubborn, physically unattractive, and aggressive (Berryman-Fink and Verderber 1985;Goldberg et al 1975;Jacobson 1979;Jacobson and Koch 1978;RoweFinkbeiner 2004;Rhode 1997;Twenge and Zucker 1999;Williams and Wittig 1997). At the same time, feminists are also viewed as having positive characteristics and have been described as being intelligent, career-oriented, productive, and knowledgeable (Berryman-Fink and Verderber 1985;Twenge and Zucker 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…The most common approach to indirectly assessing the evaluative meaning of the term feminist has been to use a variety of paper and pencil measures of constructs such as feminist identification, attitudes toward feminism, feminist beliefs, and feminist consciousness (Buschman and Lenart 1996;Goldberg et al 1975;Jacobson 1979;Reid and Purcell 2004;Renzetti 1987;Rhodebeck 1996;Saunders and Kashubeck-West 2006;Toller et al 2004;Williams and Wittig 1997;Zucker 2004). For example, Zucker (2004) investigated feminist identification, by using a behavioral measure along with more traditional attitudinal methods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What’s in a Name? Two Approaches to Evaluating the Label Feminist

Breen

Karpinski

2007

Sex Roles

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Across two studies, we employed unique approaches to investigating the meaning of the label feminist using a sample of undergraduates from a large Northeastern university in the U.S. In Study 1 (N=60), we utilized an impression formation paradigm to investigate the meaning of the label feminist when applied to typical college student. The results revealed that feminist males were rated less favorably than nonfeminist males and feminist females were rated more favorably than nonfeminist females. In Study 2 (N=112), we examined the context-free associations that people have with the label feminist using two implicit attitude measures. Females reported positive implicit associations with the label feminist while males expressed neutral to slightly negative implicit associations with feminists.

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A Rose by any other name: Attitudes toward feminism as a function of its label

Cited by 14 publications

References 9 publications

Preferring “Housewives” To “Feminists”: Categorization and the Favorability of Attitudes Toward Women

Preferring “Housewives” To “Feminists”: Categorization and the Favorability of Attitudes Toward Women

Older and Younger Adults’ Attitudes Toward Feminism: The Influence of Religiosity, Political Orientation, Gender, Education, and Family

What’s in a Name? Two Approaches to Evaluating the Label Feminist

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