Threats to Feminist Identity and Reactions to Gender Discrimination

Cichocka, Aleksandra; Zavala, Agnieszka Golec de; Kofta, Mirek; Rozum, Joanna

doi:10.1007/s11199-013-0272-5

Cited by 11 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…For instance, they may disavow feminine beauty ideals because they perceive them as contributing to women's objectification (Murnen and Smolak, 2009 ). It is important to note that even though “distinctive feminists” do not identify highly with women, this does not mean that they are “anti-women” (see Becker et al, 2011 ; Cichocka et al, 2013 ). Rather, they disavow the (current) social construction of the group.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Multiple Identity Approach to Gender: Identification with Women, Identification with Feminists, and Their Interaction

et al. 2017

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Across four studies, we examine multiple identities in the context of gender and propose that women's attitudes toward gender group membership are governed by two largely orthogonal dimensions of gender identity: identification with women and identification with feminists. We argue that identification with women reflects attitudes toward the content society gives to group membership: what does it mean to be a woman in terms of group characteristics, interests and values? Identification with feminists, on the other hand, is a politicized identity dimension reflecting attitudes toward the social position of the group: what does it mean to be a woman in terms of disadvantage, inequality, and relative status? We examine the utility of this multiple identity approach in four studies. Study 1 showed that identification with women reflects attitudes toward group characteristics, such as femininity and self-stereotyping, while identification with feminists reflects attitudes toward the group's social position, such as perceived sexism. The two dimensions are shown to be largely independent, and as such provide support for the multiple identity approach. In Studies 2–4, we examine the utility of this multiple identity approach in predicting qualitative differences in gender attitudes. Results show that specific combinations of identification with women and feminists predicted attitudes toward collective action and gender stereotypes. Higher identification with feminists led to endorsement of radical collective action (Study 2) and critical attitudes toward gender stereotypes (Studies 3–4), especially at lower levels of identification with women. The different combinations of high vs. low identification with women and feminists can be thought of as reflecting four theoretical identity “types.” A woman can be (1) strongly identified with neither women nor feminists (“low identifier”), (2) strongly identified with women but less so with feminists (“traditional identifier”), (3) strongly identified with both women and feminists (“dual identifier”), or (4) strongly identified with feminists but less so with women (“distinctive feminist”). In sum, by considering identification with women and identification with feminists as multiple identities we aim to show how the multiple identity approach predicts distinct attitudes to gender issues and offer a new perspective on gender identity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Multiple Identity Approach to Gender: Identification with Women, Identification with Feminists, and Their Interaction

et al. 2017

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“…While feminism can be conceptualised as a theoretical or political position, it has also been argued to be an identity. Cichocka, De Zavala, Kofta, and Rozum (2013) have suggested that feminism can be seen as an identity, specifically a collective political identity. However, there remains little understanding of how a political identity such as feminist may intersect with other forms of identity such as gender, which are more traditionally researched within intersectionality work.…”

Section: Intersectionalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender, ethnicity and feminism: an intersectional analysis of the lived experiences feminist academic women in UK higher education

Sang¹

2016

Journal of Gender Studies

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Studies have begun to explore how those women academics committed to social justice, namely feminist academics, are navigating the increasingly managerial Academy. To understand how these multiple social identities, including gender and ethnicity, interact and intersect, this paper adopts an intersectional approach to understanding the heterogeneity of women's experiences in academia. Five focus groups with feminist academics (n = 6-10 in each focus group) reveal concerns of hampered career progression as a consequence of being female and openly feminist. Some ethnic minority academics felt that they were forced to choose between a feminist identity or that of their ethnic background. For some women, their feminist identity provided opportunities for challenging dominant practices. The paper concludes that the heterogeneity of feminist academics' experiences within academia is under-researched and that the lens of intersectionality helps to illuminate this. This paper advances understanding of multiple identities at work, though demonstrating that intersectionality can lead to the accumulation of advantage as well as disadvantage in relation to social identities such as gender and ethnicity, and a political identity such as feminist.

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“…In some cases, there was a trend for there to be higher hostility displayed toward traditional targets the less sexist participants were, but these trends were not statistically significant. These results are inconsistent with Cichocka et al (2013) who found that self-identified feminists who experienced social identity threat were less sympathetic toward conservative (versus feminist) women who were the targets of discrimination.…”

Section: Replicating the Sexism-subtyping Relationshipcontrasting

confidence: 86%

“…First, participants' behavioural intentions toward the target were the primary measure of intra-gender hostility, but there are more subtle ways that intra-gender hostility may be expressed. As Cichocka et al (2013) evidenced, feminists can demonstrate less sympathy and concern for traditional women when they experience social identity threat. It may be that non-traditional women do not, or do not want to, commit overt acts of intragender hostility against other women, like public disparagement.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cichocka et al (2013) found that when self-identified feminists experienced social identity threat, they perceived an instance of gender discrimination as more prejudiced and demonstrated increased sympathy for the victim when she was portrayed as having feminist views than when she was portrayed as having conservative views. This suggests that women lower in sexism can demonstrate conditional support for certain women based on the expressed ideological views of that woman, and find different gender roles and behaviours problematic and worthy of negativity.…”

Section: The Influence Of Sexist Attitudes On Collective Threat Towarmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Why can’t we all just get along? A social psychological examination of women’s intra-gender hostility

Lizzio‐Wilson¹

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Women's intra-gender hostility has been the focus of attention in both the popular media and scholarly literature. However, important gaps still remain in our understanding of the construct validity, causes of, and contextual factors influencing this process. Thus I investigate the following under-explored questions in this thesis: a) is intra-gender hostility a form of conflict unique to women, or are similar processes also evident among men?; b) do the unique identity pressures women face as a lower status group contribute to their intra-gender hostility?; and c) what contextual factors modify women's intra-gender hostility?In Chapter 3, I find that men and women report similar levels of attitudinal intra-gender hostility, indicating that it is not a form of intra-group conflict more commonly faced by women. I also demonstrate that the factor structure of men and women's intra-and inter-gender hostility are distinct, suggesting that intra-gender hostility is a form of intra-group conflict rather than an expression of general negativity. Building on this in Chapter 4, I provide more convincing evidence that women's intra-gender hostility reflects and potentially reinforces their disadvantaged position.Specifically, I demonstrate that women's intra-gender hostility is related to the unique identity pressures they face as a lower status group and factors which reflect and potentially reinforce their disadvantaged position (i.e. sexual competitiveness regarding attractiveness, hostile sexism, private collective self-esteem). In contrast, men's intra-gender hostility was uniquely related to factors which reflect and reinforce their higher status position (i.e. hostility toward men). This suggests that men and women's intra-gender hostility may function in complementary ways to reinforce the gender-related status hierarchy.In Chapter 5, I further investigate how women's unique identity pressures contribute to their intra-gender hostility. I replicate findings from previous research that women who more (versus less) strongly endorse hostile and, to a lesser extent, benevolent sexism, demonstrate greater intra-gender hostility toward non-traditional women. However, I extend these findings by demonstrating that collective threat (the concern that the poor behaviour of an ingroup will be generalised to a negative stereotype of the entire group Cohen & Garcia, 2005); partially explains hostile (but not benevolent) sexists' intra-gender hostility. This provides further evidence that the unique identity pressures women face contribute to their intra-gender hostility, and preliminary evidence to suggest that unique identity pressures related to gender-role appropriate behaviour and maintaining a positive social identity can influence women's attitudes toward and treatment of other women in certain circumstances.Finally in Chapter 6, I investigate the social psychological factors which may contextually activate or attenuate women's intra-gender hostility in the face of social identity threat. I replicate findings fro...

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Threats to Feminist Identity and Reactions to Gender Discrimination

Cited by 11 publications

References 61 publications

A Multiple Identity Approach to Gender: Identification with Women, Identification with Feminists, and Their Interaction

A Multiple Identity Approach to Gender: Identification with Women, Identification with Feminists, and Their Interaction

Gender, ethnicity and feminism: an intersectional analysis of the lived experiences feminist academic women in UK higher education

Why can’t we all just get along? A social psychological examination of women’s intra-gender hostility

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