Feminist Psychology Notes

A Feminist Psychology

Feminist psychology is a subfield of psychology that historically focused on the lives and experiences of girls and women.
It has expanded to include the exploration of gender more broadly, including masculinity and the experiences of those who are trans and/or gender nonbinary.
Feminist psychology emerged and continues to grow alongside political and social movements connected to feminism.
bell hooks defined feminism as "a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression".
Multiple feminist perspectives exist, but all share the goal of ending sex/gender bias and inequitable treatment.
Feminist psychologists emphasize that psychological research is not value-neutral or objective.
They make their theoretical positions explicit to create transparency, equity, fairness, and respect.
Feminist psychologists address oppression, believing that doing so will improve everyone’s well-being.
The field of psychology relies on a scientific approach, but the use of the scientific method to study people is not bias-free.
The term sex/gender signifies the interdependence of biological and social categories.
Most contemporary feminist researchers focus on intersectionality, recognizing that different types of oppression (e.g., racism, classism, heterosexism, transphobia, ableism, sexism) are interconnected.
An intersectional approach recognizes that identities are formed and shaped through larger social structures, making identity fluid and dynamic.
A person has multiple social identity characteristics (e.g., age, cultural identity, race, ethnicity, religion) that influence and shape their experience of sex/gender.
There is no universal experience of sex/gender that is generalizable.
Within the last several decades, girls and women have made substantial strides in creating more opportunities for themselves.
Men’s roles have changed too.
If we aren’t careful, this “half-changed world” might cause us to unquestioningly accept some gains without examining whom these gains benefit and whether they actually provide equity (Orenstein, 2000, p. 11).

Empowertising

Advertising that generates a strong emotional response but doesn’t offer solutions.
These campaigns and commercials don’t offer realistic solutions.
These advertisements largely feature financially stable, able-bodied, cisgender, conventionally attractive women.
None of them call for changing policies.
These ads do succeed in raising awareness of social issues.

Statistics

In the United States, women are the fastest-growing group who are incarcerated, increasing 700% over the last 40 years (Dholakia, 2021).
Incarcerated women are disproportionately women of color and/or low-income, and 86% have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime.
In 2021, more than 50 trans and/or gender nonbinary people were murdered in the United States (Human Rights Campaign Foundation, n.d.).
The majority of these were Black and Latine trans women.
This was the most violent year since these murders started being tracked in 2013.
Eating disorders have been consistently increasing over the past 20 years (Galmiche et al., 2019).
In 2021, it was revealed that Facebook had long known, but kept quiet, the fact that Instagram was harming teen girls’ mental health and body image (Wells et al., 2021).
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused women to drop out of the workforce at unprecedented rates due to layoffs, burnout at work, and difficulty balancing work and family demands (Bateman & Ross, 2020).
Globally, COVID-19 put more than 47 million women and girls into extreme poverty (United Nations, 2021).
The United States continues to be the only industrialized nation that does not offer paid parental leave.
Paid leave is associated with decreased depression and partner violence, improved child attachment, and improved physical health of both mothers and children (Van Niel et al., 2020).
As of January 2023, 19 states had passed legislation that prevents trans and/or gender nonbinary students from joining sports teams that align with their gender identity (Bans on transgender youth participation, n.d.).
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 27% of trans students felt unsafe at school and 35% reported being bullied (Johns et al., 2019).
Only 28 countries have women serving as heads of state or government as of September 2022 (U.N. Women, 2022).
Moreover, only 21% of government ministers were women, and 36% of people serving in local government were women.
The United Nations estimates that equality will not be achieved for another 130 years.
Women who miscarry or experience ectopic pregnancies have reported delays in ability to access care due to physicians’ fears of legal consequences.

Complicated Issues

They acknowledge that unfair societal beliefs and expectations probably contribute to differential treatment among people.
They also send messages of support and communicate a “can do” attitude indicating that women and girls should be able to transcend negative social messages and live the lives they want.
What does it mean to “be yourself,” “rewrite the rules,” or be “sorry, not sorry,” and who has the power to do this?
Should girls and women simply ignore problematic experiences or messages of discrimination, as these corporate messages suggest?
Why should the burden of societal change fall on the shoulders of people with the least amount of power?

Empowerment

consumer-based approach toward empowerment generally doesn’t lead to substantial changes in people’s lives.
empowerment is also often used to discuss the achievements of individuals, usually those who succeed in predominantly male domains. When the capacity to gain power is used only in this way, it limits the potential for larger-scale change.
With such a focus on the individual, there is little expectation that the system will change, and this realization places a huge burden on individuals with the least amount of power.
the personal is political

Boys don't cry

Popular sayings like “boys don’t cry” teach boys to act stoic and suppress emotions like sadness and fear (Santiago-Menendez & Campbell, 2013).
School-age boys who cry or act in ways identified as feminine in front of their peers often face serious repercussions (Masters et al., 2021), and these consequences continue into adulthood, where the expectation is for men to be powerful and dominant in work and in their families (Motro & Ellis, 2017).
Consequently, boys and men often experience shame when expressing vulnerability and are reluctant to disclose feelings or seek therapeutic support when dealing with mental health concerns (Call & Shafer, 2018).

Definitions

Psychology of Women and Gender: A subfield of psychology that historically focused on the lives and experiences of girls and women and since has expanded to include the exploration of gender more broadly.
Feminism: A social 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.
Oppression: The ways in which certain people experience degradation because of political, economic, or social realities (e.g., poverty, lack of access to health care).
Intersectionality: The ways in which different types of oppression (e.g., racism, classism, heterosexism, transphobia, ableism, sexism) are interconnected and, therefore, cannot be examined separately; also the way multiple social identity variables influence any psychological variable being studied.
Empowerment: The capacity to attain power.

Feminism: Riding the Waves

Some scholars view the history of the feminist movement as progressing through a series of waves—or enhanced periods of activism.
Others claim that activism is ongoing, flowing more like a river.
Still others prefer to move away from water- based metaphors and instead use the metaphor of a kaleidoscope (Nicholson, 2010).

The First Wave

Historians generally believe that the first wave of feminism in the United States formally began in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention
In reality, this first wave was much more expansive and gained momentum from the 1820s through the 1850s, when many women—including Native American/American Indian women,1 Black women, and Mexican American women—were advocating for increased authority over their own lives (Hewitt, 2010).
The largest coalition was made up of radical Quakers and Black women who were devoted abolitionists (Hewitt, 2010).
These activists had many priorities because women had few rights in the 19th century.
A top priority, though, was gaining women’s right to vote—something that didn’t happen until 1920, when the 19th Amendment was passed.

Jim Crow laws

Jim Crow laws, which mandated segregation in many states, as well as allowing outright intimidation and violence, including widespread lynching, made it impossible for Black people, including Black women, to safely vote (Jones, 2020).

The Second Wave

A second wave of feminism emerged in the 1960s, when feminists were primarily interested in changing the day-to-day lives of women by, for example, creating more equitable access to the paid labor force and redefining women’s roles in families (Rampton, 2015).

women of color

At that time, women of color had a three-front approach to feminist activism, in which they (a) worked in collaboration with white-dominated women’s groups, (b) organized women’s caucuses in mixed-gender organizations, and (c) developed autonomous Black, Latine, Native American, and Asian American feminist organizations.

The Third Wave

The third wave of feminism began in the mid-1990s and is best described as a struggle to change mainstream ideas of feminism by rejecting the notion that everyone’s experience of being a woman is the same (Rampton, 2015).

Grrl

Grrl, a term coined by singer Bikini Kill and activist Kathleen Hanna, reclaimed the word girl and was most associated with Riot Grrrl, an alternative feminist movement that arose from the punk scene and gained momentum via the internet (Garrison, 2010).
It represented the activism of youth (sub)cultures, who used technology to resist misogyny and to build supportive networks and coalitions (Garrison, 2010).

Aesthetic tension

Among feminists, one contentious aspect of third-wave feminism was the revival of feminine aesthetics (e.g., lipstick, high heels) and raunch culture (i.e., female self-sexualization).

Male Participation

Another aspect of third-wave feminism was the increase in male participation.
Pro-feminist men recognize social inequities and, compared with men who don’t engage with feminism, are more likely to report incidents of gender bias and less likely to use sexist language (Drury & Kaiser, 2014).

Postfeminists

Postfeminists believed that the women’s movement had reached its goals and that feminism was no longer needed.

A Fourth Wave?

Whether or not these events constituted a fourth wave of feminism is up for debate.
this feminist movement has been criticized as being too focused on celebrities and hashtags.

Breaking the Waves and Becoming a Kaleidoscope

A wave suggests that there are direct connections between movements and that activism peaks at certain points and retracts at others (Hewitt, 2010).
In fact, feminists have been active even when there has been no definable wave.
The metaphor also implies that there was one unified set of ideas, organized around feminism, that united sex/gender activism in the history of the United States.
People have always worked on the sidelines throughout all periods and across generations; they just weren’t receiving widespread public attention at certain moments in time (Grady, 2018).
The view in a kaleidoscope is complex and dynamic. When you turn it, the colors and patterns shift, showing a new constellation of colors.

The F-Word

Misperception: Feminists are all the same

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that states, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. ”

Liberal Feminism

Liberal feminism focuses on the similarities between women and men and on using government policies to eliminate barriers that keep women from achieving their potential.
Liberal feminism also focuses on equal education and the belief that at their core, women and men are more similar than different.

Radical Feminism

Radical feminism claims that it’s naïve to think that women can achieve equal treatment through attaining legal rights. Therefore, radical feminists advocate for separatism.
gender biases are embedded in all aspects of everyday interactions.
patriarchy, a social system in which men hold positions of authority and power, is so normative that most people see men’s authority as natural and inevitable.

lesbian feminism

One type of radical feminism is lesbian feminism, which focuses on sexuality and reproduction as a central place of oppression (Enns, 2004).
A significant contribution of radical feminism is the concept of compulsory heterosexuality, the idea that sexual preferences are formed through the social ideal of heterosexuality.

Socialist Feminism

Socialist feminism links gender oppression with capitalism, an economic system in which power is constructed through work and production (Enns, 2004).

myth of meritocracy

In the United States, there is a perception that anyone who works hard can attain economic mobility and improve their financial position. This view is called the myth of meritocracy because it suggests that merit—or being talented and working hard—is primarily responsible for accumulating wealth.

domestic and care work

socialist feminists have claimed that in capitalist societies men are primarily defined as workers and women are primarily defined as caregivers (Bianchi et al., 2012; Fillo et al., 2015).

Pink Tax

The term pink tax refers to the additional cost of a product because it is marketed to women
It’s estimated that on average, girls and women spend 1,400 more each year than men when buying the same products, such as razors, toothbrushes, and even pens, which cost more if they appear feminine (Duesterhaus et al., 2011).

Cultural Feminism

Cultural feminism is a perspective that focuses on the differences between women and men and that views women’s inequality as related to a lack of value placed on the unique experiences, perspectives, and qualities of women (Donovan, 2012).
Underlying cultural feminism is a belief in gender essentialism, the idea that women and men are fundamentally different because of deep and unchanging properties that are generally due to biology or genetics.

mompreneurs

A contemporary example of cultural feminism is the rise of mompreneurs.

Women of Color Feminism

Women of color feminism sees women’s inequality as deeply linked to white supremacy, a form of racism in which white people are considered superior to people of color (Moon, 2020).
Activist and writer Alice Walker (1983) coined the term womanist, an identity label that stems from the experiences of Black women and other women of color.

MeToo movement

Communication scholars identify the #MeToo movement as the largest digital feminist movement to date (Mendes et al., 2018).

Queer Feminism

Queer feminism claims that inequality is related to the ways in which the categories of woman and man have been constructed, studied, and used to organize society.
Queer feminism critiques the concept of heteronormativity, the idea that people fall into a binary (something made up of only two parts) of two distinct sex categories—either F or M; that those categories have aligning gender roles (female or male); and that sexual desire is most naturally linked to the other sex.

queer theory

Actor and television host RuPaul distills queer theory in the following quote: “We’re born naked, and the rest is drag” (RuPaul, 1995, p. 11).

Crip Theory

Crip theory recognizes the importance of disability as an identity variable that intersects with other aspects of identity (e.g., race, gender, sexuality) and larger social systems that prioritize able-bodied people.
It also rejects the supposed legitimacy of some disabilities (e.g., visible ones) over others (e.g., invisible ones; McRuer & Cassabaum, 2021).

Postcolonial/Transnational Feminism

Postcolonial/transnational feminism connects women’s inequality to the legacy of colonialism, or the practice of political domination whereby one group of people subjugate another group of people.

Third World Feminism

A particular type of postcolonial feminism, known as third world feminism, claims that feminism should not focus on commonalities among women (Herr, 2013); instead, it should address issues from multiple perspectives and not assume one unified position.

Latine Feminists

A core aspect of postcolonial feminism is that Western women shouldn’t impose their values on women from other cultures and should be respectful of the complicated ways in which patriarchy can manifest.
Gloria Anzaldúa (2021), a Chicana feminist scholar, introduced the term mestizaje, meaning a state of living beyond geographic borders.
Latine feminists later coined the term mujerista (from the Spanish word mujer, meaning woman; Isasi-Diaz, 1992, 1996) to prioritize Latin American liberation theory and cultural theology (Gabara, 1988) and to advance the idea of living at the crossroads (Anzaldúa, 2021).

The Power of Feminist Theory

Understanding theory is critical for consciousness raising, a form of activism that tries to promote awareness through knowledge.
Understanding feminist perspectives can also help people identify the best ways to bring about changes, but these perspectives are complicated.

Feminism Comes to Psychology

Without feminist activism, the field of psychology would be very different from what it is today (Rutherford, 2021).
“Who makes the knowledge in psychology, for what purpose, and to what ends?” (Rutherford, 2013, p. 2).
At the end of the 19th century, the field of psychology emerged in the United States and was heavily influenced by popular beliefs of the time—namely, that white, heterosexual men were the norm and superior to other people (Shields & Bhatia, 2009).
Women were deemed inferior due to their reproductive capacity and their brain size (Shields 1975, 2007).

scientific racism

Other studies of this era reflected scientific racism, or the use of scientific concepts and data to create and justify a biologically-based hierarchy.

Early 20th Century

The field of psychology began to be more diverse in the early 20th century.
However, it wasn’t until 1962 that Martha Bernal became the first Latine woman to earn a PhD in psychology in the United States.

Women of color

Women of color faced double (and sometimes triple) discrimination connected to having multiple socially marginalized identities.

Mid-20th Century

In 1963, author and activist Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, in which she identified Sigmund Freud and the entire field of psychology as being partially responsible for women’s oppression (Eagly et al., 2012; Friedan, 1963).
Before the 1960s and 1970s, psychological research was almost “womanless” and “raceless” (Cundiff, 2012; Crawford & Marecek, 1989, p. 147).
Black psychologist Robert V. Guthrie wrote Even the Rat Was White: A Historical View of Psychology, which demonstrated psychology’s extensive history of scientific racism.

ethical standards

Because of subsequent feminist activism, the APA revised its Ethical Standards to prohibit sexual contact between a therapist and a client.

Association for Women in Psychology (AWP)

Angered by the APA’s overt sexism and lack of female leadership, several psychologists formed an alternative organization, the Association for Women in Psychology (AWP).

Society for the Psychology of Women

When Division 35 of the APA, the Society for the Psychology of Women, was finally formed, its mission was “to foster and nurture the growth of a feminist psychology of women and to create a knowledge base relevant to women’s lives” (Mednick & Urbanski, 1991, p. 652).
These journals have helped disseminate research to colleges and universities throughout the world and are critical to the production and sharing of research on sex and gender.

Late 20th Century into the 21st Century

Probably due to Weisstein’s publication and a broader feminist critique of science that was happening in the early 1980s, feminist psychologists began to critique the scientific method and its philosophical underpinnings.

positivism

In particular, they questioned the assumption of positivism, the idea that science is progressive and cumulative and that it relies on objectivity, neutrality, and rationality.