The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

10 Chapter 1

women suffer from discrimination but that

they have not been victims of discrimination.

Thus it appears the belief in gender

equality is the central feature of feminism,

but activism is an important feature of femi-

nism for some individuals. Conduct Do Gen-

der 1.2 to find out how feminism is viewed at

your institution.

to define feminism, the prevailing theme was

equality for women—especially among the

older students. Other themes were female

empowerment, celebrating women, and en-

couraging women’s aspirations. A minority

of students said that feminists favored women

and did not like men, which is not a defining

characteristic of feminism.

A defining feature of feminism is a high

regard for women. Most people in our soci-

ety would agree women should be valued.

However, even when people have a positive

attitude toward women, they are typically

reluctant to identify themselves as feminists

(Suter & Toller, 2006). Why? First,feminism

has negative connotations. Some people per-

ceive feminists as women who hate men, like

some of the Latina adolescents discussed ear-

lier (a stereotype that has been refuted as de-

scribed in Chapter 3). Second, feminism often

includes the belief that society needs to make

changes for equality to occur and can include

the impetus to take action to make these

changes. It is these latter ideas that are more

controversial. When feminism is equated

with activism, the term becomes less appeal-

ing. However, activism can take many forms,

ranging from volunteering at a women’s shel-

ter to participating in a prochoice rally. See

Table 1.1 for examples of feminist activities.

Do you participate in similar activities? If so,

do you identify yourself as a feminist?

A majority of college women believe

that community effort is needed to pro-

mote equality for women but that their

own achievements depend upon themselves

rather than group effort. In other words, the

typical college female believes that women

as a group need societal help but she, her-

self, doesn’t need any help. This set of be-

liefs is similar to the “denial of disadvantage”

(Crosby, 1984) discussed in Chapter 12—the

idea that most women perceive that other

TABLE 1.1 EXAMPLES OF FEMINIST ACTIVISM

Volunteering at a women’s shelter.

Helping set up a day care program.

Volunteering at a rape crisis center.

Assisting with a women’s study course.

Participating in a women’s conference.

Donating money to a female political candidate.

Supporting a female-owned business.

Attending a women’s sporting event.

Using nonsexist language.

Buying a baby gender-neutral toys and clothes.

TAKE HOME POINTS

■ Sexrefers to the biological category;genderthe

psychological category.

■ Intrarole conflict is conflict between expectations within

a role; interrole conflict is conflict between expectations

of different roles.

■ Attitudes toward sex can be divided into the affective

component (sexism), the cognitive component (gender-

role stereotype), and the behavioral component

(discrimination).

■ The defining feature of feminism is the belief in equal-

ity for women and men. Although most people endorse

this belief, feminism is perceived negatively. Women

typically believe that equality for women as a group

should be promoted (probably by someone else), but

they do not need any group efforts to aid their own

achievements.

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