Poster #184 - “They Want Equal Rights, But…”: A Mixed Methods Investigation of Adolescents’ Conceptions of Feminism

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Sex, Gender

Integrative Statement

Whether or not a person identifies as a feminist, what it means to be a feminist, and the goals of feminism have been hotly debated within mainstream public discourse in recent years. Feminism is often viewed as an ideological response to gender inequality, yet the definition of feminism is not always clear, even in adult populations (Calder-Dawe & Davey, 2017). Given the identity development processes and increased social awareness that characterize adolescence (Eriksen, 1968), the dearth of research exploring feminist identity and conceptualizations of feminism during this period is surprising. Most research on this topic is qualitative (Denne, 2001). Limited research examines feminism within adolescent samples, and mixed-gender samples are especially rare (Manago, Brown, & Leaper, 2009). The present study utilizes mixed methods to investigate a mixed-gender sample of adolescents’ understanding of and identification with feminism.

Adolescents from a rural, low-income high-school in the southeast U.S. (n=226; Mage=16.25; 58.4% female; 45.6% White, 24.3% Black, 25.2% Latino, 4.9% other) completed questionnaires in school classrooms. Participants (n=223) responded to the item “I identify myself as a feminist” with a 4-point Likert scale: 4=strongly agree to 1=strongly disagree. Participants (n=214) then responded to the open-ended prompt: “How do you define the word feminist?”

The first aim of the study was to examine percentages of adolescents who self-identified as a feminist (responded “agree” or “strongly agree”). Results show that overall, 40.3% (n=91) of the sample identified as a feminist and 58.4% (n=132) did not identify as a feminist. The majority of girls identified as a feminist (n=74, 56.1%), as compared with only 16.1% of boys (n=14). Pearson Chi Square results indicated that girls were more likely to identify as feminists than boys χ2 (1, n=219) = 34.852, p < .001.

The second aim was to understand themes in adolescents’ definitions of feminism and examine differences by gender and feminist identification in these themes. Grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1965) was used; codes were constructed by three independent coders (all authors) on an iterative basis using participants’ words. Nine of the 20 final codes, definitions, and examples are shown in Table 1. Interrater reliability was calculated for each code, with strong kappas (McHugh, 2012).

Table 2 shows the percentages of participants who received each code in the full sample, and by gender and feminist identification. Pearson Chi Square tests revealed that, compared to boys, girls were significantly more likely to receive the equality code, χ2 (1, n=210)=13.77, p<.001, and the fight/stand up for code, χ2 (1, n=210)=4.135, p=.042. Additionally, feminists were more likely to endorse equality and inclusivity than non-feminists (ps<.02), and non-feminists were more likely to be given feminism is unnecessary, gender adversaries, negative views of feminists, other gender-related term (ps<.04). All 20 codes, correlations between codes, and additional variables, including race and attitudes towards women will be reported in the final poster. Implications for adolescent identity-development will be discussed.

Authors

• Emily A. Carrino, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Chloe P. Bryen, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anne J. Maheux, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author

• J L. Stewart, North Carolina State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laura Widman, North Carolina State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sophie Choukas-Bradley, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author