Feminist Beliefs Research Articles

Race Differences in Feminism and Guilt

A measure of feminism and Mosher's Forced-choice Guilt Inventory, which assesses sexual guilt, guilt about hostility, morality conscience, and total guilt, were administered to 179 white and 34 black women. Correlations indicated that women high on feminism scored lower on the four measures than nonfeminists. Black and white women did not differ in strength of feminist beliefs, but separate correlations performed for black and white women indicated that for black women feminism was related to less guilt about hostility while in white women feminism was related to less sexual guilt and morality conscience but was unrelated to guilt about hostility. The results suggest that the underrepresentation of black women in the women's liberation movement reflects the different needs of black and white women, not differences in strength of feminist beliefs.

Perceptions of Women's Roles Among Community College Women

This article explores dimensions and correlates of attitudes toward appropriate sex-based behavior and sex-related issues among college-age and adult women at a public community college. Ninety-eight women averaging age 18.5 and 111 women averaging 39 years of age completed closed-ended questionnaires. Factor analysis revealed three primary attitude dimensions: sex-specific activities (attitudes toward activities appropriate for males and females); woman's movement and ERA (attitudes toward participants in the woman's movement and ERA); and fundamental differences between sex roles (attitudes toward the genesis and propriety of divisions of labor between the sexes). Correlations between dimensions were slight to moderate, and lower for returning women than for young women. Returning women are significantly more traditional on the third dimension and slightly, but not significantly, more egalitarian on the first two dimensions. Correlation and multiple-regression analyses confirm the importance of participation in the woman's movement in explaining attitudes; sociopolitical variables explain little of the observed variance. It is suggested that women returning to school may enhance support for feminist beliefs.