MEASURING FEMINIST ATTITUDES

Henley and colleagues' results, obtained in the process of developing a scale to measure the diversity of feminist attitudes, highlight a dilemma for feminist researchers in psychology. On the one hand, we advocate research based on feminist theory. On the other, we believe that research should begin with the lived experiences of women, from which theory should be generated, rather than forcing women's responses into a predetermined theoretical mold. Several aspects of Henley and colleagues' results contradict feminist theory. I argue that researchers should use empirical data to refine feminist theories.     

Speaking for Ourselves: Feminist Methods and Community Psychology

Although feminist and community psychology share a number of epistemological and methodological perspectives that guide their respective theories and research practices, it has been argued that community psychology has not fully integrated a feminist perspective into the discipline. This paper examines how community psychology and feminist research methods might combine to help us better understand women's experiences without essentializing or universalizing those experiences. The authors offer a series of suggested directions for feminist research that may also prove promising for community psychology. Particular attention is paid to feminist social constructionist approaches insofar as they address the complex relationship between epistemology and methodology.     

MAKING ROOM FOR MANY FEMINISMS

There is a pervasive but implicit emphasis on a liberal feminist political agenda within the field of the psychology of women. This perspective is reflected by and inadvertently reproduced in many introductory texts to the psychology of women, although the perspective is usually unacknowledged. I argue that authors need to make their political perspectives explicit and to find ways to include other feminist viewpoints. Greater inclusion of socialist and radical feminist theoretical perspectives will strengthen the discipline of feminist psychology and promote greater inclusion of marginalized groups.     

女性心理学的进化与后现代女性心理学的产生

女性心理学的发展经历了女性经验主义、女性立场论和后现代女性心理学三个发展阶段。女性经验主义强调男女的共性,女性立场论强调女性经验的独特性,而后现代女性心理学认为尽管在女性经验主义和女性立场论之间存在着矛盾和对立,但是两者都认为存在着某种内在的东西决定着社会性别,因而是本质主义的观点,属于现代主义的范畴。后现代女性心理学认为,性别乃是一种文化的社会建构。     

EVALUATING THE FEMINIST CHALLENGE TO RESEARCH IN PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: 1963-1983

Multiple indices for evaluating the feminist challenge in psychology are identified, and provide a context for discussing selected aspects of research in personality and social psychology that reflect the impact of feminism on psychology. Women's involvement in the research process, the types of research methods used, and substantive concerns were examined in selected issues of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology between 1963 and 1983. Despite a significant increase in the proportion of articles with female authors, there were no clear changes in any of the methodological variables we assessed. Comparisons of these studies and those published in the Psychology of Women Quarterly suggest that the impact of the feminist challenge is far more noticeable in this more explicitly feminist journal. Evidence pertaining to the relative impact of publishing in explicitly feminist versus "mainstream" journals, derived from analyses of citation frequency of several feminist studies, was examined. Overall, results suggest that feminist values may have affected research topics more than research methods within personality and social psychology. Several implications of this gatekeeping function of methodology are discussed.     

Feminist Engagement with Evolutionary Psychology

In this paper, I ask feminist philosophers and science studies scholars to consider the goals of developing critical analyses of evolutionary psychology. These goals can include development of scholarship in feminist philosophy and science studies, mediation of the uptake of evolutionary psychology by other academic and lay communities, and improvement of the practices and products of evolutionary psychology itself. I evaluate ways that some practices of feminist philosophy and science studies facilitate or hinder meeting these goals, and consider the merits of critical engagement with some of the scientists themselves. Finally, I describe a community of feminist evolutionary psychologists with whom it might be both fruitful and interesting to engage, and identify ways that these interactions may benefit the science and the study of the science.     

BEYOND NONSEXIST RESEARCH

It is the thesis of this article that efforts to identify a distinctive set of "feminist methods" for psychological research are not only futile but unwise. We begin by discussing the defining features of feminist research in psychology. We then evaluate several proposals for distinctively feminist methods in psychology. Suggestions that feminists should avoid experimentation and quantitative research as inherently less feminist than other approaches are considered and rejected, as are criteria based on the sex of the research participants or the researcher. We further argue that the proposed distinction between "agentic" and "communal" approaches to research is misleading. We conclude that any research method can be misused in sexist ways, and that no method comes with a feminist guarantee. Feminist researchers should be skeptical of the limitations of all research methods.     

Celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Association for Women in Psychology: A Life in Feminist Psychology: A Long and Interesting Journey from Ft. Wayne to Newport (Herstory)

Sex Roles - The present commentary addresses the radical history of feminist psychology and the Association for Women in Psychology. In it, I explore innovations with roots in feminist psychology...     

Integrating psychological research on girls with feminist activism: a model for building a liberation psychology in the United States

A liberation psychology is needed to bridge the gap between psychology's focus on individual distress and broad social forces that foster such distress. We offer a model for bridging this gap by focusing on a specific area of psychology (psychological research on girls) and a specific social movement (feminist activism). Psychological research on girls and feminist activism share the common goal of improving the lives of girls and women. However, both have fallen short of this goal. This is due, in part, to the weaknesses associated with each endeavor and to the fact that the complementary strengths of each have remained isolated from the other. In this paper, we propose a common language and shared framework to integrate psychological research with feminist activism. First, we review the basic strengths and weaknesses associated with psychological research and feminist activism, with a particular focus on how they are distinct from one another. Second, we provide a taxonomic framework for integrating these two areas on the basis of the stress paradigm, with specific examples provided from our recent reviews of the literature and our own empirical work with adolescent girls. Finally, we conclude with recommendations for future work needed to integrate psychological research on girls with feminist activism toward the goal of building a liberation psychology in the United States.     

Feminism and Evolutionary Psychology: Allies, Adversaries, or Both? An Introduction to a Special Issue

This special issue on feminism and evolutionary psychology addresses current theory and research from feminist and evolutionary psychologists, focusing on gender differences in mate selection as conceptualized by Sexual Strategies Theory. This introduction begins with feminist critiques of evolutionary psychology as well as attempts by Darwinian feminists to integrate the two. It then reviews the papers, which generally fit into one of three lines of research. One group of papers critiques evolutionary psychology claims and presents research to support alternative theoretical explanations. A second group uses evolutionary psychology to support research on gender differences in alignment with Sexual Strategies Theory. A third group utilizes theory and empirical research to integrate evolutionary psychology and feminist theories. The introduction concludes with a call for furthering our understanding of the relationship between these theories.     

Evolutionary psychology is compatible with equity feminism, but not with gender feminism: A reply to Eagly and Wood (2011)

I comment on Eagly and Wood's biosocial constructionist evolutionary theory (2011; DOI: 10.1007/s11199-011-9949-9). Although this gender feminist theory allows for evolved physical differences between men and women and evolved psychological similarities for men and women, it fails to consider evolutionary accounts of psychological sex differences. I hypothesize that gender feminists' reluctance to acknowledge that evolution has left different fingerprints on men's and women's bodies and brains stems from two common misunderstandings of evolutionary psychology: the myth of immutability and the naturalistic fallacy. I conclude that although evolutionary psychology is eminently compatible with equity feminism, evolutionary psychology and feminist psychology will conflict as long as the latter adheres to gender feminism and its unwillingness to acknowledge the evidence for evolved psychological sex differences. Gender feminism's dualistic view of evolution hinders the search for and understanding of the proximate and ultimate causes of inequality. Feminist psychology needs to evolve by embracing equity feminism, which has no a priori stance on the origin or existence of differences between the sexes.     

Reimagining gender in psychology: What can critical psychology offer?

In this article, I argue that gender is a complex sociocultural construct, yet how gender is accounted for in psychological research is limited. Specifically, psychologists conflate sex with gender, rely on quantifying gender differences and, by implication, conceptualise gender as merely a participant characteristic. To illustrate, I apply this viewpoint to the topic of gender differences in tobacco use/cessation using on a feminist quality appraisal tool. I show how these three issues promote the narrow study of sex/gender differences, despite problems surrounding this inquiry, and reduce insights into the intersection of gender and behaviour. To offer a way forward for psychology, I describe how a critical psychology perspective attends to the complexities of gender and its influence on behaviour. I showcase diverse ways of attending to gender as a sociocultural construct, inviting psychologists to engage with, and reflect on, their gender analyses.     

Mainstreaming ‘Women’ without feminisms in psychology

Although it has been argued that feminist work has gained recognition in mainstream psychology (Eagly, Eaton, Rose, Riger, & McHugh, 2012 ), these arguments tend to cite a proliferation of research in high‐ranking Euro‐American academic journals, on topics that concern women or gender in psychology. However, the majority of this work is not presented as explicitly feminist. Rather, it tends to be incorporated into mainstream spaces under the umbrella of the psychology of women. This is often interpreted uncritically to mean the study of womanhood as a stable category or variable, reproducing binary accounts of sex and gender that are largely devoid of feminist analysis. Not only do these interpretations reify essentialist constructions of womanhood; they also convert transformative feminist politics into singular and special interest ‘women's issues’. Indeed, broad feminist theoretical perspectives remain largely absent at the fundamental levels of mainstream psychological knowledge production (Eagly et al., 2012 ; Eagly & Riger, 2014 ). Thus, while credit has been given to the growing visibility of issues concerning women and gender in the discipline, less critical attention has been paid to the broader absence of feminist language in this work. As such, instances of mainstream inclusion have come to take priority over broader issues of feminist exclusions in psychology. Taking a critical position on the discipline from within the context of the Global North, this paper questions the state of mainstream inclusions and reasserts the transformative potentials of diverse feminisms (Liebert, Leve, & Hui, 2011 ), arguing that current inclusions of women without feminisms in psychology are problematic. Drawing on recent mobilisations of the psychology of women in the interests of ‘male psychology’, it is argued that the transformative potentials of feminist psychologies are more likely to be stifled than supported by mainstream inclusions.     

FOCUS GROUPS

Focus groups are little used in feminist psychology, despite their methodological advantages. Following a brief introduction to the method, the article details three key ways in which the use of focus groups addresses the feminist critique of traditional methods in psychology. Focus groups are relatively naturalistic and so avoid the charge of artificiality; they offer social contexts for meaning-making and so avoid the charge of decontextualization; and they shift the balance of power away from the researcher toward the research participants and so avoid the charge of exploitation. The final section of the article, which evaluates the potential of focus groups for feminist research, identifies some other benefits of the method and also discusses some problems in the current use of focus groups. It concludes that the use—and development—of focus group methods offer feminist psychology an excellent opportunity for the future.     

FEMINIST CONTRIBUTIONS TO COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY

In this article we first identify and provide evidence for feminist contributions to counseling psychology in four broad areas. These are policy and leadership in the field, theory and research, training and practice, and recognition of feminist scholarship and contributions by women. In view of the evidence, we conclude that feminist perspectives are irrevocably changing the field of counseling psychology by stimulating the rethinking of its premises and models with regard to normal development and by developing new approaches to inquiry and practice.     

A RESTIVE LEGACY

In the last century feminist psychologists have contributed to refining and improving research in experimental psychology. While the accomplishments are cause for celebration during the American Association of Psychology's (APA) Centennial year, especially given the sexism that has accompanied scientific practices, we need to examine more care–fully the difficulties–past and present-that attend feminist efforts in the discipline. This brief article explores the strategies that feminist researchers have used to eliminate androcentrism and sexism from experimental and, more recently, cognitive psychology. Such historical reassessment not only reveals the multiple and insightful means by which feminist psychologists have proceeded, but also indicates that feminist work must continue to focus on epistemological and theoretical problems as well as methodological ones.     

TRANSFORMING THEORY AND RESEARCH WITH WOMEN

We look at some of the ways in which feminist theorists and researchers apply new insights to established topics in psychology, as they explore the landscape of the unknown and unspoken in the lives of girls and women. The articles in this special issue present research and reflections by a group of feminist scholars, some of us from the editorial board of the Psychology of Women Quarterly and others from the larger academic community. Each contributor, selecting from a personal interest or expertise, reconceptualizes a topical area of psychology with the intent of reframing our understanding of its meaning, its impact on women's functioning, and/or its application to feminist research and theory. To provide a background, we review a sample of contributions of feminist thought to the contemporary revolution in science. We then ask the question: In what ways have feminist perspectives and scholarship transformed psychology in the particular areas addressed by these authors?     

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

The central theme of this article is that a feminist perspective is not only compatible with the history, objectives, and emphases of social psychology, but necessary for its continued vitality. In view of social psychology's humanist roots and its "nurturist" and "social optimist" tenets, it is not surprising that feminist scholarship has flourished within it. Situational factors and group membership—the focus of social psychological inquiry—are also key to understanding how culture constructs gender, a central issue in the feminist agenda. Some of the important women in the early decades of American psychology are claimed as foremothers of social psychology and as feminist voices, and the feminist perspective is defined and identified in terms of its major interrelated themes. The influence of feminist scholarship on contemporary social psychology is illustrated, and it is argued that a feminist perspective will become increasingly more visible.     

A History of Women and Feminist Perspectives in Community Psychology

Using an historical framework, we document and assess efforts to include women, women's issues, and feminism in community psychology and in the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA). Initiatives of the SCRA Task Force/Committee on Women are traced from its inception to present. We also chronicle the dilemmas and difficulties of moving toward a feminist community psychology. The history is divided into five phases. Each phase is described in terms of women's involvement in the field and efforts to integrate feminist content into research and practice of the field. Reflections on the qualities of contexts that have both supported and inhibited inclusion are identified. We look to this history to try to understand the observation that while women have been increasingly visible in leadership roles and women's professional development has been encouraged, less progress has been made toward building a feminist community psychology.     

EXPLORING A TEACHING/RESEARCH NEXUS AS A POSSIBLE SITE FOR FEMINIST METHODOLOGICAL INNOVATION IN PSYCHOLOGY

In this article the links between feminist pedagogy and feminist research are used as a basis for exploring the potential that teaching about women and gender has a methodological resource for feminist research in psychology. Inspiration for this article stemmed from the author's experience of teaching a postgraduate class in Gender Issues in Psychology in New Zealand. An assessed task for the course required students to interview two women. The interviews were transcribed and the content summarized in a written report and an oral presentation. All parties involved with the project reported finding it an educational experience. The exercise is evaluated as an example of feminist research. The advantages and limitations of using the classroom as a resource for research by feminist psychologists are discussed.