Keeping the faith: Psychosocial correlates of activism persistence into middle adulthood

Psychology of Women Quarterly

2004

189

258

Many women, even as they embrace feminist principles, are loath to be labeled feminists. This study presents a measure of feminist identity that accounts for beliefs and behaviors of self-identified feminists and nonfeminists, and for a third group, egalitarians, who endorse liberal feminist beliefs but reject the feminist label. In a sample of 272 college-educated women, a MANOVA showed egalitarians had levels of feminist consciousness between nonfeminists and feminists. Egalitarians did not differ from nonfeminists on favorable conditions for feminist identity or on feminist activism, but both groups scored lower on these measures than feminists. In a hierarchical multiple regression, feminist identity was a significant predictor of feminist activism, above and beyond favorable conditions and barriers. The importance of self-labeling for invisible and stigmatized social identities is discussed.

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 81%

Disavowing Social Identities: What it Means When Women Say, “I'm not a Feminist, But …”

Psychology of Women Quarterly

2004

189

258

“…A random sample of women from each graduating class was contacted and mailed a questionnaire; participants were sent follow-up reminders and encouraged to participate for up to 1 year following the initial mailing; final response rate was 30%. This response rate is comparable to other studies in which university alumni were contacted for the first time long after they had graduated (e.g., Abramowitz & Nassi, 1981;Cole, Zucker, & Ostrove, 1998;see Zucker, 1998see Zucker, , 2002, for more detailed information about data collection).…”

Section: Participantssupporting

confidence: 76%

College-educated women's personality development in adulthood: Perceptions and age differences.

Ostrove

Stewart

2002

Psychology and Aging

Adulthood encompasses a large time span and includes a series of psychosocial challenges (E. H. Erikson, 1950). Five aspects of personality (identity certainty, confident power, concern with aging, generativity, and personal distress) were assessed in a cross-sectional study of college-educated women who at the time of data collection were young adults (age: M = 26 years), middle-aged adults (age: M = 46 years), or older adults (age: M = 66 years). Respondents rated each personality domain for how true it was of them at the time, and they then rated the other 2 ages either retrospectively or prospectively. Results are discussed with attention to the ways in which women's adult development may have been shaped by experiences particular to both gender and birth cohort, and to how these women fit with E. H. Erikson's theory of adult development.

“…Longitudinal studies, in which activists' attitudes were first measured as students and again some time after graduation, have shown good response rates [Fendrich & Lovoy, 1988 (80%); Hoge & Ankney, 1982 (74%); Jennings, 1987 (82%)]. However, studies like this one, in which the first contact with the activists was made sometime after graduation, have reported substantially lower rates [Abramowitz & Nassi, 1981/Nassi, 1981 ;Fendrich, 1977 (two samples: 71% and 37%); McAdam, 1992 (51%)].…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Political Participation and Feminist Consciousness Among Women Activists of the 1960s

Cole

Ostrove

1998

Political Psychology

This paper examined the hypothesis that women who took part in student movements of the 1960s would be distinguishable from their contemporaries in terms of political ideology, political behavior, and feminism in middle age. Women who had been identified as student activists in public records during the late 1960s and early 1970s were compared to a sample of nonactivist peers. Although the two groups scored similarly on variables related to work and family arrangements, former activists scored higher on measures of leftist political orientation and political efficacy, reported greater political salience and collectivism, and reported greater current political participation. Although both groups reported high levels of feminist consciousness and identity, activists scored significantly higher. The difficulty of politically mobilizing women to combat gender discrimination is discussed in light of the discrepancy between consciousness and activism in the comparison group.