2015 Association for Women in Psychology Conference

There are intersections of identities that may appear to be a contradiction. Occasionally these intersections lead to cognitive dissonance whereby accepting one identity indicates the denial of another. This structured discussion will focus on two specific identities, identifying as a feminist and identifying with a culture that is patriarchal. Patriarchal cultures typically have values that are viewed as oppressive to women. Take for example the Hmong culture where daughters are traditionally raised under the notion that they will one day marry and no longer belong with their birth family. Upon marriage, Hmong daughters will be a part of their husband’s family instead. This belief traditionally privileges Hmong sons and men over Hmong daughter or women. Another example is when Hmong women get out of abusive marriages and experience shaming and rejection from their own community. Some Hmong women believe their culture or even their birth parents have betrayed them. Feeling rejected by other Hmong people, divorced Hmong women often feel as though they cannot go back to their cultural community. The current structured discussion will provide some cultural contexts to the examples provided above. The goal of the discussion is to compile ideas for women who feel like they have been wronged by their culture so they may have restorative justice. This discussion gives women in psychology a chance to voice stories, opinions, and ideas on how to be a feminist within a patriarchal culture.

Feminist multicultural therapists assert that contextual factors, such as oppression and discrimination, contribute to psychological distress, limit access to resources and information, and isolate individuals from sustaining communities (e.g., Brown, 2010). They suggest that participation in social justice activism contributes to psychological wellbeing, such as increased empowerment, social connectedness, and resilience (e.g., Arczynski, 2014; Worell & Remer, 2003). Activism is also a way people may nurture and care for themselves as well as others in their community(s) while reducing oppression, harassment, and marginalization. Hagen (2013) demonstrated that individuals with diverse circumstances, with varied social identities, and from various social contexts may prefer different types of social justice activism. Further, the different activisms people reported preferring and engaging in held different socio-cultural-political meaning and relevance based on their beliefs, values, and experiences of oppression and privilege (Hagen, 2013). The purpose of this structured discussion is to cultivate participants’ empowerment to create positive social change in their varied communities. We will encourage a broad conceptualization of activism in order to include behaviors and strategies on micro, meso/community, and macro levels. We will give attention and sensitivity to different socio-cultural perspectives on oppression, power, and privilege. First, we focus on discussing specific concerns and experiences of oppression and marginalization relevant to participants’ communities (e.g., home, work, churches, families, friend networks). Then, we anticipate dialoguing about specific social justice activisms that participants presently engage in or have interest in doing in order to target oppression observed in participants’ local and national communities. Last, we will encourage participants to brainstorm strategies for collaborating with other people to increase social support; challenge discrimination, and increase access to opportunities, information, and resources. In this structured discussion, we will address challenges and benefits associated with engaging in activism.

Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, Trayvon Martin, and Jordan Davis are all Black men who were murdered unjustly either by the police or by a racially motivated white male. There names have made national headlines, and many Black communities and individuals have mobilized to call for justice in their honor, and in the honor and protection of all Black boys and men. The many protest and communal actions that have ensued are evidence of great acts of resistance and social justice mobilizing that proudly state “Black lives matter!”, however, when Black women—especially Black trans women—are slaughtered daily and by the dozens, these same acts of communal mobilizing and vigils of honor are non-existent. President Obama and many other political officials and scholars have righteously given support and condolences in the murders of the aforementioned slain men, yet, little to no consolation, acknowledgement, nor support have been given to Tarika Wilson, Aiyana Jones, Shantel Davis, Rekia Boyd, Islan Nettles, Chanelle Pickett, Nireah Johnson, Erica Keels, Dana A. Larkin, Duana Johnson, Brandy Martell, and Yazmin Sanchez, all Black females—both cis and transgender—who have been unjustly murdered and forgotten. This structured discussion is guided by a Black feminist framework (Collins, 1991) and also by W.E.B. DuBois’ double consciousness (1903). As Black feminist thought seeks to move the stories and experiences of Black women from margin to center, and Black women are simultaneously doubly conscious of the plights of Black men. Thus, our goal is not to create a hierarchy of oppression, but instead, to restore justice and equality to Black women. Moreover, the aim of this talk is to begin to think about how we as feminist psychologist can assist in restoration of justice and voice to Black women.

The New Yorker (August, 2014) recently published a scathing article in which many second wave and radical feminist were virulently attacking trans women and stating they were not women. While the article made some erroneous assertions, and misquoted a few of the radical feminist such as Michelle Wallace, many radical feminist and non-feminist transphobic women do feel that trans women are not women. However, many transsexual women, particularly African American transsexual women, indicate that their experiences are more closely related to their cis-gender counterparts than to their gender queer and gender variant transgender cohorts (Brown, 2015), which begs the questions what defines being a woman and are radical feminists really attempting to protect womanhood or are they creating more oppression and hatred by suggesting that only those women who were assigned female at birth are women? This structured discussion is guided by an intersectionality framework (Combahee River Collective, 1982; Crenshaw, 1993) and loosely investigates gender schema theory (Bem, 1981). Bem’s pioneering work on gender schema and sex typing helped to pave the way for how we investigate gender in psychology today, and how we have come to understand how individuals make meaning of their gender identity; however, Bem admits herself that her work was limited in it scope, thus, in combining an intersectionality framework with a Bem's social psychological theorizing on gender, we are hoping to expand on the notions of gender identity and what defines a woman.

Given the growing number of women of color in clinical, teaching, administration and leadership positions in higher education, it is imperative to explore how women of color may be perceived and treated in these roles. We plan to facilitate a discussion that addresses (a) the navigation of maintaining and asserting one’s multifaceted identity in the workplace in the midst of assumed identities and stereotypes based on physical appearance, (b) the intersection between cultural identities and (c) workplace dynamics and positions of power. This structured discussion targets the growing number of women of color in institutions of higher education. The increase in women of color in these positions has presented university environments with novel multicultural challenges and opportunities. The conversation will provide a forum for participants to discuss multicultural and social justice issues experienced across different settings and contexts in higher education as well as opportunity to learn and share strategies to address challenging and distressing experiences. The facilitators will have pre-designed questions and 1-2 vignettes to stimulate a critical dialogue. We will provide insights from our experiences as women of color with other intersecting identities, and encourage participants to self-reflect and share their experiences, as well. We hope that this structured discussion will be conducive to greater understanding, awareness and personal reflection.

Restoring Justice for LGBT Communities through Professional Education and Training As mental health professionals we recognize the importance of restorative justice as documented by Campbell (2008). When applied to LGBT individuals, restorative justice may require a community rebuilding process (Gumz, 2004) and the development of competencies to treat LGBT individuals who have been victimized by criminal behavior or incompetence of mental health professionals. Rectifying the latter requires us to begin more thorough training in LGBT professional competence. This clearly begins with our education and training programs. One research study found psychologists received little training in areas of sexual orientation and gender identity and limited opportunities to work with these populations during training (Johnson & Federman, 2014). Our presentation will focus on the qualitative data collected from the first graduates of a LGBT Human Services and Mental Health certificate program. The certificate program provides 15 different courses designed to aid clinicians in developing competencies to work with LGBT individuals, couples, and families. Graduates will be interviewed about their satisfaction with the certificate, sense of preparedness in working with the LGBT clients, and experiences restoring clients who have been victims of microaggressions, criminal behavior, and incompetence on the part of untrained mental health professionals. We will present these findings in a conversational style, followed by group discussion of these planned questions: 1. What is essential for mental health professionals to become more competently trained with LGBT clients? 2. How do you guard against microaggressions in your own work? 3. How can mental health professionals become more involved in the restorative justice movement through education and advocacy? 4. How do you provide support to LGBT students in hetero-normative environments within educational institutions? We plan to discuss how the experiential-based component of the student feedback and conference participants’ discussion will lead to changes that need to be made to the certificate program.