Measurement of Feminist Identity and Attitudes Over the Past Half Century: A Critical Review and Call for Further Research

AbstractThe study of feminism has  had a long and complicated history in psychological research over the past half century. Although a number of instruments have been designed to assess feminist attitudes and identity in the United States during this time, many contain psychometric problems or sample limitations, or they were deriv ed from outdated models of feminism. Scales designed to assess feminist identity and attitudes require updating to reflect the shifting goals, meanings, and (mis)interpretations of feminism. Given feminism’s changing landscape and the emergence of postfeminism, a critical review of these tools is warranted. In the present article, we provide a synopsis of 10 self-report measures of feminist identity and attitudes (and their shortened and expanded forms) that met our selection criteria, including aims, psychometric properties, and utility for assessing modern feminist identity and attitudes. We identify the strengths and limitations of each measure and provide recommendations for a new generation of instruments to capture and assess modern feminist identity and attitudes in a changing cultural context.
Source: Sex Roles - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research