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An Investigation of the Relationship between Feminist Traits and Personal Empowerment for Young Women

Cunningham, Stephanie J.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1345938471

Abstract Details

2012, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, Counseling Psychology.
Sexism is a significant social problem that deeply affects women's lives, and a large body of research has demonstrated the relationship between discrimination and negative outcomes for women. Feminist consciousness has been suggested as means of challenging these deleterious effects by providing women with a mental framework through which to contextualize and understand this discrimination (Landrine & Klonoff, 1997). Downing and Roush's (1985) model of feminist identity development has been the most commonly used form of conceptualizing women's feminist consciousness but this theory fails to differentiate between the attributes of feminist self-labeling and acceptance of a feminist worldview. In order to provide a more nuanced understanding of how feminist traits relate to women's empowerment the present study used Downing and Roush's five feminist identity styles as a means of operationalizing different orientations to feminist consciousness. These feminist attitudes and feminist self-identification were explored jointly and separately in their connection with personal empowerment specifically as it is conceptualized in feminist therapy theory. A total of 612 traditional college-age undergraduate women (18 to 25 years old) completed a series of online questionnaires to assess feminist attitudes, feminist self-labeling, and personal empowerment. Results support the idea that there are conceptually distinct aspects of feminist consciousness that can be effectively operationalized by Downing and Roush's five identity styles, that there is a significant difference between each of the identity styles of both feminist-identified and non-feminist-identified women, and that there are significant discrepancies between the identity style scores of women who do versus do not self-label as feminist. The present data also provide support for previous research which has suggested that there are positive consequents associated with feminist self-labeling and with the recognition of the existence of sexism that stems from holding pro-feminist attitudes, reflecting a noteworthy relationship between feminist consciousness and personal empowerment.
John Queener, Dr. (Advisor)
Kathryn Feltey, Dr. (Committee Member)
Dawn Johnson, Dr. (Committee Member)
David Tokar, Dr. (Committee Member)
Ingrid Weigold, Dr. (Committee Member)
147 p.
Counseling Psychology; Gender Studies; Psychology; Womens Studies
feminist; feminism; empowerment; feminist identity development; young women

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Cunningham, S. J. (2012). An Investigation of the Relationship between Feminist Traits and Personal Empowerment for Young Women [Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1345938471

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Cunningham, Stephanie. An Investigation of the Relationship between Feminist Traits and Personal Empowerment for Young Women. 2012. University of Akron, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1345938471.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Cunningham, Stephanie. "An Investigation of the Relationship between Feminist Traits and Personal Empowerment for Young Women." Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1345938471

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2012, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Akron and OhioLINK.