Feminism is a movement that looks to transform the current social order, established from the hierarchization based on the difference suggested of a binary sex/gender conception. This order has historically situated women in a position of oppression and exploitation. In spite of the relevance and support for feminism in current democracies, not everyone, in particular women, identify with this social movement. Considering this, the main objective of this study is to identify the predictors of feminist identification in women in Chile. This study, of quantitative type, has a sample size made up of 389 women. The type of sample was not probabilistic, rather self-selected. The participants answered an online survey that explored the variables: feminist identification, political orientation (left-right), support of the movement and feminist objectives, predisposition to feminist action, ambivalent sexism (hostile and benevolent sexism) (Glick & Fiske, 1996), social orientation domination SDO (Prato et al., 1994), right wing authoritarianism RWA (Altemeyer, 1996), and socio-demographic variables as well. Also, the participants signed an informed consent form, endorsed by the corresponding ethics committee. The ages of the participants fluctuated between 18 and 72 (M = 27.4; DT = 11.52). The data obtained were subjected to a descriptive analysis (mean and standard deviation) and test score reliability (Cronbach´s Alpha). Then, Pearson´s partial correlations were calculated in order to contrast with the dependent variable feminist identification. From the total sample, 74.8 % self-identified with feminism to various degrees (from a form of private acceptance, but not public; up to activism); while 6 % self-declared as not feminist, and 19 %, well in-line with the objectives, did not self-identify as feminist. Later on, the variables that showed a significant relationship with the dependent variable were subjected to a multiple linear regression analysis (R 2 = .53, F (3,385) = 107.1 p < .001). The variables with the highest predictive power were predisposition to feminist participation ( β = .54), hostile sexism ( β = -.20), and political orientation ( β = -.16). This would indicate that those women willing to participate in feminist activities, who reject hostile forms of sexism and adhere to leftist political positions are those who mostly identify with feminism in Chile. This model would relate identarian processes that involve an awareness of the legitimacy that implies that one group dominates another or finds itself in a position of unjustified privilege with respect to others, and the acknowledgement of the need for transformational social action. This relationship between awareness and action, likewise, would explain the overlapping social struggles during the social outbreak of October 2019 and the feminist movement in Chile. Finally, limitations of the present study are discussed with respect to the difficulty to generalize the results due to the type of sample (self-selected); and the characteristics of the sample, referring to the difficult access to women older than 50. These women presented difficulty in forms of access and in completing the survey online. Furthermore, it is considered that due to the bias of explicit attitude studies with regards to social desirability at the moment of response, it would be of great importance to complete this work with implicit attitude measures. Also, the study proposes that as future line of research a study that investigates what do women themselves understand about feminism in order to make realizations of the plurality of this social movement. https://doi.org/10.16888/interd.2023.40.1.12
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Jun 30, 2024
Dr Saima Hassan 
Open Access