Orientations to Feminism: A Multifaceted Alternative to Feminist Consciousness
type: CreativeWork
description: In this study, the concept of orientation to feminism is developed to address some of the difficulties with traditional conceptualizations of feminist consciousness. These include an overly restrictive definition, reliance on a linear model of feminist development, and a lack of consideration of the many facets of women's lives. Orientation to feminism is defined as the way one relates to the world with regard to gender issues across a variety of life domains. A sample of 235 Midwestern women was surveyed with regard to their opinions and behavior on gender issues. An analytic strategy with the capacity to explore diversity was needed, and cluster analysis was seen as ideally suited to the task. Cluster analysis identified five groupings of women, each with a recognizable pattern of opinions and behavior, and cluster stability was established. These orientations to feminism, the Antifeminist orientation, the Independent Individualist orientation, the Power Feminist orientation, the Family-Oriented Feminist orientation, and the Feminist Activist orientation were validated on several external criteria such as age, amount of education, political perspective and importance of religion. As no other study has empirically investigated alternative conceptualizations of feminist consciousness, the study provides important new information for feminist theory.
abstract: In this study, the concept of orientation to feminism is developed to address some of the difficulties with traditional conceptualizations of feminist consciousness. These include an overly restrictive definition, reliance on a linear model of feminist development, and a lack of consideration of the many facets of women's lives. Orientation to feminism is defined as the way one relates to the world with regard to gender issues across a variety of life domains. A sample of 235 Midwestern women was surveyed with regard to their opinions and behavior on gender issues. An analytic strategy with the capacity to explore diversity was needed, and cluster analysis was seen as ideally suited to the task. Cluster analysis identified five groupings of women, each with a recognizable pattern of opinions and behavior, and cluster stability was established. These orientations to feminism, the Antifeminist orientation, the Independent Individualist orientation, the Power Feminist orientation, the Family-Oriented Feminist orientation, and the Feminist Activist orientation were validated on several external criteria such as age, amount of education, political perspective and importance of religion. As no other study has empirically investigated alternative conceptualizations of feminist consciousness, the study provides important new information for feminist theory.
author: Englund, Susan Amy
language: eng
keywords: Women's Studies
date published: 2015-09-25T20:39:44Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:26:17Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/82236