2015 Association for Women in Psychology Conference

Despite evidence indicating that many young women are engaged in activism behaviors (Taft, 2008), many adults minimize the potential role that youth can play in creating social change. Understanding adolescent girls’ perceptions about activism and their rationale for identifying (or not identifying) as an activism can provide insights into youth activism. Further, cultural debates about feminism, including campaigns in which individuals proclaim their anti-feminism stance, lead many to assume that most young women reject feminism. This assumption may neglect the perspectives of adolescent girls who do see a place for themselves within the feminist movement and can oversimplify potentially nuanced conversations about feminism, activism and effective ways to engage in social change work. Method Interviews were conducted as part of a larger mixed-methods study examining the impact of an activism program with high school students attending an all girls' school. The program consisted of seven workshops examining social issues and teaching activism skills. Students participated in individual interviews on the last day of the program during which they discussed their perspectives regarding activism and feminism, whether they identified as an activist and/or feminist, as well as what they learned from the program. Results Interview are being analyzed by a team of researchers using grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006). Preliminary results suggests that the themes will consist of 1) changes in perceptions due to the program, 2) definitions of activism, 3) definitions of feminism, 4) intentions to engage in activism, 5) feminist identity, 6) activist identity, and 7) barriers to activism. Frequencies of the individual categories and quotes from the girls will be reported. Discussion We will discuss implications of our findings, including examining the role that young women can play in feminist activism and ways that they choose to engage in social change work.

Latina doctoral students’ struggles encompass a combination of individual, familial, and institutional factors that can affect success. In addition to pre-existing barriers (e.g. low SES), Latinas face institutional barriers including stigmatization, discrimination based on race, gender, and class, perceived hostility, and lack of financial support. Departmental barriers for Latinas include lack of mentors, tokenization by peers, and marginalization and low expectations from professors (Gonzalez, 2006). The impact includes Latinas experiencing cultural isolation as a result of leaving their families and tokenization on campus, and that, as ethnic minority women, many feel the need to work twice as hard as their peers to prove their legitimacy. In this paper we offer recommendations for how graduate psychology programs can use feminism as a tool to recruit and retain Latina students. Feminism is especially well suited to address this need because it considers how gender, race and ethnicity and social class impact women’s academic and professional endeavors. Recommendations offered in this paper include paving a financial path for success, meeting linguistic needs in clinical training settings, increasing diversity representation amongst students and faculty, and expanding the knowledge production in the field of psychology to include the voices of Latinas.

In the U.S., negative stereotypes of feminism (e.g., as outdated) have been associated with a reluctance among many young women to identify as feminists (McRobbie, 2009). However, feminist identification has drawn increasing attention recently—particularly in the digital realm and among young audiences—with regular social media campaigns targeting feminist self-labeling and consistent online media coverage of newly self-identified celebrity feminists. This rising wave of interest in feminism—and the feminist label, specifically—raises questions about whether the tide is turning among young women today on feminism. The present study used open-ended questionnaire methods to explore identification with, and perspectives on feminism by 267 female college students (Mage = 18.9 years; 66% first-year undergraduate; 80.5% White/European American; 91.5% heterosexual). Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was used to explore how these young women, (1) define feminism in their own words, (2) explain identifying as a feminist (or not), and, (3) reconcile points of agreement and disagreement with feminist perspectives. Findings encompass a wide range of views on feminism—from strong disavowal to unequivocal endorsement. On the one hand, stereotypes of feminism as both extreme and excluding men were discouraging of feminist self-labeling. On the other, for a significant portion of women in this study, simply being a woman was reason enough to label oneself a feminist. However, women often expressed a mixture of positive and negative evaluations of feminism. For example, women’s definitions commonly employed a rights-based discourse, which a majority of women supported. At the same time, for many, feminism was seen as synonymous with activism, which was frequently viewed as extreme. Interestingly, many women who supported collective action on feminist issues hesitated to label themselves feminist if not currently engaged in activism. Findings highlight the importance of the visibility of self-identified feminist role models for young people today.