Harriet Lerner: A Feminist Voice From the Wheat Fields

ABSTRACT

Harriet Lerner, a Menninger-trained psychologist, has published widely in scholarly journals and for a general audience. Her twelve books include The New York Times bestseller, The Dance of Anger, and she blogs for Psychology Today. In this chapter, she shares her personal and professional evolution as a feminist theorist, psychotherapist, and writer.     

Effects of gender role self-discrepancies and self-perceived attractiveness on social anxiety for women across social situations

Background and objectives: Psychosocial factors, such as gender role norms, may impact how social anxiety disorder (SAD) is experienced and expressed in different social contexts for women. However to date, these factors have not been examined via experimental methodology. Design: This was a cross-sectional, quasi-experimental controlled study. Methods: The current study included 48 highly socially anxious (HSA) women (70.9% meeting criteria for SAD) and examined the relationships among psychosocial factors (i.e. gender role self-discrepancies and self-perceived physical attractiveness), self-perceived social performance, and state anxiety, across two in vivo social tasks (i.e. conversation and opinion speech). Results: On average, participants reported belief that they ought to be less feminine for the speech task and more masculine for both the conversation and speech tasks. Also, for the conversation task, only lower self-rated attractiveness predicted poorer self-perceived performance and greater post-task state anxiety, above gender role self-discrepancies and confederate gender. For the speech task, only greater self-discrepancy in prototypical masculine traits predicted poorer performance ratings, and it was related to greater state anxiety in anticipation of the task. Conclusion: For HSA women, psychosocial factors may play different roles in social anxiety across social contexts.     

Sociocultural Groundings of Battered Women’s Entrapment in Abusive Marital Relationship in Ghana

While social psychological theorizations have contributed to our understanding of why battered women continue to remain in abusive intimate relationships, its apparent exclusive focus on individual victims’ psychological orientation leaves little conceptual space for discovering the subtle ways by which social and cultural norms shape the stay/leave decisions of victims of spousal violence. Drawing upon discursive psychology, this study explores the sociocultural groundings of stay/leave decisions of battered women in Ghana. Semi-structured focus groups and personal interviews were conducted with 32 participants: 16 victims and 16 perpetrators from rural and urban Ghana. Discursive accounts of participants suggest that post-divorce social stigma, remarriage alternatives, and post-divorce child care, as well as privacy framing of marital abuse function in concert to influence battered women’s entrapment in violent marital relationships. The article argues that, rather than individual psychological orientation, the decision to stay in or leave abusive marital relationships in Ghana is socioculturally and structurally grounded. To understand the highly complex nature of spousal violence, one must always go beyond the person and his or her psychological orientations, and seek the origin of battered women’s entrapment also in the external conditions of life, and in the sociocultural and structural forms of human existence.     

A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Feminist Beliefs and Feminist Identity Development Among College Women Survivors of Gender-Based Violence

Using a mixed-methods approach, we explored how college women’s lifetime experiences of physical or sexual gender-based violence (GBV) were associated with appraisals of GBV and their feminist beliefs or identity (N = 32). Women commented on their increased awareness of the prevalence of GBV, their desire to help other women, and their beliefs about the trustworthiness of men and the current state of gender equality. Women who perceived no or minimal influence of sexism on GBV attributed their GBV experiences to a flaw in themselves or the perpetrators (i.e., self-blame, poor vigilance) or as a reasonable disciplinary measure for their ‘misbehavior.’ We also found that some women reported agreement with pro-feminist beliefs, yet rejected a feminist identity. Our findings illustrate how feminist stigma and sexism might prevent women who endorse core feminist beliefs from characterizing GBV as a sexist event. Given the potential harmful consequences of GBV and other forms of sexism, connecting women with meaningful resources, such as empowering educational programs, nurturing peer-to-peer women’s support groups, and awareness campaigns, may help to facilitate sisterhood and alleviate distress. Our findings also support the need for clinical assessment of how GBV may have affected beliefs about gender, self, world, and others.     

Enacted Identities of Immigrant-Origin Emerging Adult Women in Online Contexts: Capturing Multiple and Intersecting Identities Using Qualitative Strategies

Using a multiple intersecting identities enactment framework, and a qualitative methodology, this article examined the multiple and intersecting identities immigrant-origin emerging adult women enacted online and explored the meanings they ascribed to these identities (N = 14, M age ≈ 20; 57% = second-generation immigrant). Thematic analyses of 84 narratives revealed that the immigrant-origin emerging adult women enacted a range of identities online including: personal/individual, relational/social, gender, ethnic, civic, student, occupational, and athletic. Personal/individual and relational/social identities were enacted most frequently, and intersected most often. First-generation and second-generation immigrant women were somewhat similar in the rate with which they enacted their identities online. Results showed that second-generation immigrant women enacted their personal/individual, ethnic, and civic identities as well as their intersecting identities online most often. Findings have implications for theory and research about online enactment of multiple and intersecting identities among immigrant-origin youth.     

The Social Networks of Women Experiencing Domestic Violence

The research literature has demonstrated that battered women living in shelters experience impaired social support. This study examines this phenomenon among battered women living in the community. This study compared a group of pregnant battered women (n = 145) and a group of pregnant nonbattered women (n = 58) in terms of their structural [e.g., total number of supporters, network members in violent relationships with their partners (an index of homophily or nonhomophily) and functional (e.g., emotional)] social support. Four reasons for impaired support in battered women were proposed and examined, including social isolation, failure to disclose abuse, homophily, and low SES. Only homophily was related to impaired support among battered women. In addition, the relationship between structural and functional support and mental health outcomes (e.g., depression, self-esteem) was examined. Criticism, practical support, homophily, and disclosure were all significant predictors of mental health for battered women. Implications for community-based interventions are discussed in the context of current intervention strategies with battered women.     

Protective Factors Against Suicide Attempt Risk Among African American Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence

Protective factors (hope, spirituality, self-efficacy, coping, social support–family, social support–friends, and effectiveness of obtaining resources) against suicide attempts were examined in economically, educationally, and socially disadvantaged African American women (100 suicide attempters, 100 nonattempters) who had experienced recent intimate partner violence. Significant positive associations were found between all possible pairs of protective factors. Bivariate logistic regressions revealed that higher scores on each of the seven protective factors predicted nonattempter status; multivariate logistic regressions indicated that higher scores on measures of hope or social support–family showed unique predictive value for nonattempter status. Further, the multivariate model accurately predicted suicide attempt status 69.5% of the time. Partial support was found for a cumulative protective model hypothesizing a linear relationship between the number of protective factors endorsed and decreased risk for suicide attempts. Implications of these findings for community-based preventive intervention efforts and future research are discussed.     

Different Ways to Hurt: An Elderly Woman's Narrative of Suffering

This article presents and interprets the case study of an elderly woman's story of suffering. It results from interviews conducted with African-American and Caucasian men and women, aged 70 and above, concerning their personal definitions, attributions, and theories about suffering. Elders' experiences of suffering were examined under the rubrics of gerontology, narrative, and religious studies. Key themes offered in this case study are: (a) How the life course unfolds because of or despite suffering, (b) what moral status an elder confers on past or present suffering, (c) how a personal sense of the sacred accommodates suffering, (d) how this particular respondent alters her identity based on assimilating the new information of suffering, and (e) how the story of suffering stands out against or blends in with the backdrop of the life story. The uniqueness of this case study also mirrors commonalities of elders' narratives of suffering, particularly those of women. This elder's story demonstrates that smaller individual suffering is rooted in the frame of the larger public world. It also illustrates that the language women use to attribute, define, and theorize suffering is embedded in relationships.     

Women as wives and rulers in Martin Luther's theology

This article offers a theological analysis of Martin Luther's complex view on women and their role in society, focusing on his exposition of the narratives of creation and fall in the Lectures on Genesis. Luther's understanding of women is defined by an ostensible paradox. On the one hand, Luther claims that all women are equal to men in relation to God and hold the power to rule over the earth, which they execute as leaders of the household. On the other hand, Luther passes on a traditional view of women being of a weaker nature and argues that wives have to subordinate to their husbands. I interpret this understanding of women as an outcome of Luther's theological anthropology based on his doctrine of justification. Men and women are equal as priests and kings in relation to God and authorized to manage their relationship with him, to teach and pray for others, and to disobey authority that interferes with this faith relation. As sinners, though, they must submit to authority to suppress sin. Both men and women exercise authority through their gender-specific callings in the earthly hierarchies, which constitute God's created order. However, women have to subordinate to their husbands in order to suppress sin. The article discusses whether this complex view on women promoted patriarchal social structures or whether the freedom and equality of the spiritual realm over time filtered through to the role of women in society, paving the way for their liberation.     

Triple Roles,Worship, and “Period Shaming”: How Muslim Women Maintain Belonging and Connection in Ramadan

Ramadan is a time when Muslims experience an increased connection to God and an increased sense of belonging through communal acts of worship, but Muslim women are often excluded from many acts of worship due to religious restrictions while they are menstruating. This study innovatively applies concepts of “religious citizenship” and women's “triple roles” drawn from lived religion and feminist literature to a new context of Muslim women and their everyday practices. Based on research with more than 60 culturally diverse Melbourne Muslims who kept anonymous diaries before, during, and after Ramadan 2021, this analysis shows how Muslim women's understandings of religious belonging and connection in Ramadan are shaped by their own reconfigured approaches to worship and socialization alongside their everyday workload. It provides a unique opportunity to investigate the invisible challenges faced by Muslim women in worship and devotion during Ramadan.