Chapter Review
SUMMARY
A Feminist Psychology for Modern Girls and Women
- Psychology of women is a subfield in psychology that focuses on the lives and experiences of girls and women. It arose alongside the political and social movements connected to feminism.
- Feminism is the movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.
- Feminist psychology includes research and practice that is explicitly informed by feminism.
- Historians believe the first wave of feminism began in 1848, and it is most associated with the movement for women to gain the right to vote.
- The second wave began in the 1960s and focused on improving women’s day-to-day lives, including having more equitable access to paid work and redefining the roles of wife and mother.
- The third wave began in the mid-1990s as a movement to change dominant ideas within feminism, including the notion that there is one universal experience of womanhood.
- Some feminist scholars say we’re currently in a retraction between waves; others claim we’re in a fourth wave characterized by more sophisticated use of social media to promote activism.
- There are many feminist perspectives, including liberal, radical, socialist, cultural, women of color, queer, and post-colonial/transnational.
- Despite diversity and occasional conflict within feminist perspectives, all feminisms share the goal of ending sexist exploitation and oppression.
- Some people claim we are living in a post-feminist era, characterized by the idea that the women’s movement has achieved its goals and, therefore, feminism is no longer needed.
- Negative stereotypes about feminists contribute to some people not identifying with feminism, which makes them less active in addressing social inequities.
- Although many women endorse some feminist beliefs, fewer are willing to identify as feminists.
- Some women prefer the term womanist or mujerista (compared to feminist) because it acknowledges racism and other forms of discrimination along with sexism.
- Some men prefer the term pro-feminist, a label that incorporates feminism but also expresses an interest in working alongside girls and women for social change.
- Men who identify as feminists are less likely to use sexist language and are more likely to recognize social inequities and confront instances of sex bias than men who don’t identify as feminists.
- Women who identify as feminists reap the greatest psychological gains and are more likely than those who don’t identify as feminists to engage in activism, which promotes social change.
- Most early research by female psychologists aimed to dispute biological determinism.
- In the early 20th century, many women of color faced double discrimination because of their multiple minority status.
- Psychology of women became an academic field in the 1960s and the 1970s, corresponding with a surge in civil rights activism.
- In the early 1980s, feminist psychologists began to critique the scientific method—particularly assumptions that science is progressive and cumulative; that it relies on objectivity, neutrality, and rationality; and that it can discover universal truths.
Understanding Research Methods
- The field of psychology relies on the scientific method, and the history of its use to study girls and women has not been bias-free.
- The scientific method begins with a theory, which leads to a hypothesis, which becomes refined through the process of collecting data and drawing conclusions based on those data.
- In a correlational research design, relationships between variables are examined. In an experiment, the researcher manipulates a variable to investigate whether changes in one variable cause a change in another variable, providing the ability to make causal conclusions.
Identifying Sex/Gender Bias in Research
- To minimize bias in research, feminist psychologists pay attention to every stage of the process—including researcher and participant identities, research questions, operationalization of variables, data analyses, publication of results, and media attention. When people evaluate research, it’s important for them to consider these factors too.
- Feminist researchers are unified through their awareness of power dynamics and consideration of intersectionality.
KEY TERMS
structural inequalities (p. 24)
compulsory heterosexuality (p. 25)
women of color feminism (p. 27)
post-colonial/transnational feminism (p. 30)
THINK ABOUT IT
- What are the limits of and opportunities for the concept of empowerment? Does it offer girls and women an opportunity to make change in the world?
- Think about a current issue facing women in your community. How would each of the different feminist theories think about and address it?
- Imagine you’re having a conversation with a friend who isn’t familiar with feminism. How would you explain feminism to that person? Given the research on feminist identification, what is the value in identifying as a feminist?
- In what ways are current political and academic climates similar to those experienced by feminist psychologists in the past? In what ways are they different?
- Using PsycINFO, find a peer-reviewed research article that discusses an issue related to the psychology of girls and women. Applying the three questions of intersectionality, in what ways does the article address intersectionality? If it doesn’t, how could it be improved to better address intersectionality?
ONLINE RESOURCES
- AMENA-Psy — resources provided by the American Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African Psychological Association, with attention toward intersectionality and post-colonial psychology: amenapsy.org
- Feminist.com — activist resources: feminist.com
- Feministing — an online community of feminist activists and bloggers by and for young feminists: feministing.com
- Psychology’s Feminist Voices — firsthand accounts of feminist psychologists who were instrumental in creating and sustaining feminist psychology: feministvoices.com
Glossary
- psychology of women
A subfield of psychology that focuses on the lives and experiences of girls and women.
- feminism
A movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.
- feminist psychology
A perspective within the field of psychology in which work is explicitly informed by feminism, in contrast to more general research and theory about girls and women; feminist psychology is an explicitly political perspective because it aims to advance social justice.
- oppression
The ways in which certain people experience degradation because of political, economic, or social realities (e.g., poverty, homelessness, lack of access to health care).
- empowerment
The capacity to attain power.
- intersectionality
The ways in which different types of oppression (e.g., racism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, sexism) are interconnected and, therefore, cannot be examined separately; also the way multiple social identity variables influence any psychological variable being studied.
- liberal feminism
A type of feminism that focuses on the similarities between women and men and on using government policies to eliminate barriers that keep women from achieving their potential.
- structural inequalities
Specific laws and policies within organizations, institutions, and governments that give men (and members of other privileged groups) more resources and advantages than women (and members of less privileged groups).
- radical feminism
A type of feminism that views women’s unjust treatment as the most fundamental form of oppression and that advocates for separatism.
- patriarchy
A social system in which men hold positions of authority and power.
- androcentric
Male-centered.
- lesbian feminism
A type of radical feminism that focuses on sexuality and reproduction as a central place of oppression.
- compulsory heterosexuality
The idea that sexual preferences are formed through the social ideal of heterosexuality, ultimately leading girls and women to prioritize the sexual desires of men.
- socialist feminism
A type of feminism that links gender oppression with capitalism.
- myth of meritocracy
The perception that economic mobility is easily attainable through hard work.
- cultural feminism
A type of feminism that focuses on the differences between women and men and views women’s inequality as related to the lack of value placed on the unique experiences, perspectives, and qualities of women.
- gender essentialism
The idea that men and women are fundamentally different because of deep and unchanging properties that are generally due to biology or genetics.
- women of color feminism
The tendency to judge other groups according to the values of one’s own group.
- ethnocentrism
The tendency to judge other groups according to the values of one’s own group.
- queer feminism
A type of feminism that claims inequality is related to the ways in which the categories of woman and man have been constructed, studied, and used to organize society.
- heteronormativity
The idea that people fall into two distinct, or binary, sex categories (M or F), that those categories have aligning gender roles (male or female), and that sexual desires are most naturally linked to the other sex.
- cisgender identity
Gender identification that matches the sex a person was assigned at birth.
- transgender
A gender identity (woman, man, or other gendered identity labels) and/or a gender expression (feminine, masculine, or other gendered expressive labels) that doesn’t conform to societal expectations for the sex a person was assigned at birth.
- post-colonial/transnational feminism
A type of feminism that connects women’s inequality to the legacy of colonization and critiques the belief that women in Western countries are the most liberated in the world.
- third world feminism
A type of post-colonial feminism that claims feminism should not focus on commonalities among women but, instead, should address issues from multiple perspectives and not assume a unified position.
- post-feminism
The idea that the women’s movement has achieved its goals and, therefore, feminism is no longer needed.
- womanist
An identity label that stems from the experiences of Black women and other women of color; the term encompasses feminism but differs because it doesn’t prioritize sexism over other forms of oppression (e.g., racism).
- mujerista
An identity label that prioritizes the lives of Latinx women; mujeristas especially act toward the decolonization of all people.
- positivism
The idea that science is progressive and cumulative and that it relies on objectivity, neutrality, and rationality.
- feminist epistemologies
Ways to critique and produce methods of creating knowledge that attempt to address biases against certain groups of people, including girls and women.
- LGBTQ
An acronym that identifies people with diverse gender and sexual minority identities; the letters refer to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer.