What Makes a Feminist? Predictors and Correlates of Feminist Social Identity in College Women

TLDR

The study seeks to identify factors that predict college women’s self‑identification as feminists. The authors surveyed 233 college women, assessing feminist ideology, identity development stages, evaluations of feminists, collectivism, and individualism, and measured feminist identification both dichotomously and continuously. Feminist identification was predicted by rejecting conservative beliefs and positively evaluating feminists; self‑identified feminists favored collective action, liberal, radical, and womanist ideologies, and the synthesis stage of identity development, while rejecting the notion that feminists are lesbians, passive acceptance, and meritocracy; continuous identity scores were also linked to positive evaluations, non‑conservative beliefs, and endorsement of revelation and embeddedness/emanation stages, highlighting methodological differences between the two measures.

Abstract

What factors predict self-identification as a feminist? College women ( N = 233) were given measures of feminist ideology; feminist identity development; evaluation of feminists, collectivism, and individualism. Feminist identification was measured both as a dichotomous and a continuous variable. Measured dichotomously, feminist self-identification was predicted by not having conservative beliefs and having a positive general evaluation of feminists. In addition, self-identified feminists were more likely to believe in collective action; to hold liberal, radical, and womanist ideologies; and to endorse items in the Synthesis stage of identity development. They were less likely to believe a feminist is a lesbian, to endorse items in the Passive Acceptance stage, and to believe in the existence of a meritocracy. Measured continuously degree of feminist identity was predicted by having a positive general evaluation of feminists, not having conservative beliefs, and endorsing items in the Revelation and Embeddedness/Emanation stages of identity development. The two measures of feminist identity were not entirely congruent, underlining the importance of methodological differences in measuring social identity.