Comparison of feminist and nonfeminist women's reactions to variants of nonsexist and feminist counseling.

Abstract

We were concerned with client-counselor matching along the dimension of attitudes toward feminism. We hypothesized that feminist subjects would be more receptive to the radical feminist counselor, whereas nonfeminist subjects would rate the nonsexist and liberal feminist counselor more positively. College women (N = 150) viewed 12 videotaped counseling vignettes that were varied by the feminist orientation of the counselor and the explicitness of the counselor's value statement about her approach in 2 replications. Contrary to our expectation all subjects preferred to see the feminist counselor for career and sexual assault concerns; no significant differences were observed across counselors for personal concerns. Significant differences in favor of the feminist counselor were observed on ratings of counselor expertness and trustworthiness. The implications for future research on feminist counseling and therapy are discussed.

A Comparison of Feminist and Nonfeminist Women's and Men's Reactions to Nonsexist and Feminist Counseling: A Replication and Extension

“…Results of the Enns and Hackett (1990) study demonstrated that radical and liberal feminist counselors were perceived as more trustwor-thy, expert, and helpful than was a nonsexist-humanistic therapist. Women indicated higher levels of willingness to see radical and liberal feminist counselors than a nonsexist counselor for career and sexual harassment concerns and equal levels of willingness to see all three counselors for personal and interpersonal concerns.…”

“…In an attempt to gain a more comprehensive view of how potential clients perceive feminist counselors, Enns and Hackett (1990) examined women's reactions to videotaped role plays of three approaches to counseling: nonsexist-humanistic, liberal feminist, and radical feminist. Past research has treated feminist counseling as a monolithic approach and may have obscured important differences between forms of feminist counseling.…”

“…Past research has treated feminist counseling as a monolithic approach and may have obscured important differences between forms of feminist counseling. Consequently, Enns and Hackett (1990) used two general orientations toward feminist counseling to acknowledge to some extent the varieties of feminist therapies (Ballou & Gabalac, 1985;Greenspan, 1983;Kaschak, 1981). In addition, videotaped counseling segments, rather than written announcements of services, were used to provide participants with realistic samples of counselors' actual behavior.…”

“…Liberal feminist therapists encourage increased awareness of socialization influences and the expansion of personal options; radical feminist therapists connect the identification of socialization influences and personal options to discussions of how women can actively change their environments. Liberal feminist counselors encourage clients to alter traditional gender roles when clients desire change, whereas radical feminist counselors are more likely to communicate that full equality is necessary for individuals to meet their needs (Enns & Hackett, 1990;Kaschak, 1981;Rawlings & Carter, 1977). In contrast to the feminist approaches, nonsexist-humanistic counselors do not place emphasis on how social factors influence personal change, nor do they perceive gender as any more relevant to counseling than is any other personal characteristic.…”

“…In an extension of this line of research, Hackett, Enns, and Zetzer (1992) conducted a study focusing on some of the methodological issues raised by the Enns and Hackett (1990) results. In the Hackett et al (1992) study, university women were exposed to nonsexist, liberal feminist, or radical feminist counseling presented in one of three forms: a written announcement of services, a 12-minute videotape of counseling, or a written transcript of the videotaped counseling.…”