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Neoliberal ideology has permeated US culture, creating a climate that values individual choice and self-interest over collective welfare. This has extended into the domain of sexuality and intimate relationships in a discourse that encourages people to put their own interest first sexually, with little thought of their partner’s. This project analyzed survey data from 249 US young adults collected via MTurk in 2015 to explore relations between neoliberal ideology and sexual attitudes while controlling for gender norm conformity. Neoliberal beliefs seemed beneficial in that they were predictive of self-affirming sexual attitudes. Less favorably, stronger neoliberal beliefs were also associated with endorsing a sexual double standard that disadvantages women, and with feeling more sensitive to the judgments of others. We argue that the neoliberal call to prioritize oneself may come at a price, to others and oneself.

Advocates argue that sexual safety, access to sexuality-related services, sexual health and well-being, sexual privacy, and sexual autonomy are universal and inalienable rights of all people. However, for those relegated to the social, economic, and political margins, their sexual rights can only be secured with the support of others. In the current study, we examined whether a sample of 307 majoritized women (i.e., white, cisgender, and heterosexual) would endorse the sexual rights of four theoretical groups of marginalized women: those who identify as lesbian; those with low incomes; those who are adolescents; and those labeled with an intellectual disability (ID). Whereas results indicated broad and equivalent support for the sexual rights of lesbians and low-income women, participants were somewhat equivocal about the sexual rights of ID-labeled women and least supportive of the sexual rights of adolescent women. We consider how protectionist attitudes toward adolescent and ID-labeled women may explain these findings and ultimately undercut their sexual rights. Rather than restrict the rights of marginalized women, even in the interests of protection, we advocate committing energy and resources to reducing their vulnerability so that all women may exercise a full complement of sexual rights.

Due in part to Hillary Clinton’s historic candidacy, gender was a salient dimension of the 2016 US presidential election. In particular, the purported masculinity and femininity of each can...

Many women eschew the feminist label despite believing in gender equality. In order to effectively promote feminist change, it is important to understand the factors involved in feminist attitudes, identification, and behavior. In the present research, we helped clarify the relations among these factors. In a survey of 428 U.S. women, we found that participants with stronger attitudes toward gender equality and more favorable explicit and implicit attitudes toward feminist prototypes were more likely to claim a feminist label. And those who did so reported greater willingness to intervene when confronted with everyday sexist behavior, particularly if they perceived that they personally were vulnerable to the effects of sexism. We suggest that improving attitudes toward feminist prototypes may help promote feminist identification, and informing women about the pervasiveness of sexism, including their personal vulnerability, may promote willingness to act after the feminist label has been adopted. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/page/pwq/suppl/index

Hallmarks of emerging adulthood include exploring and envisioning one’s future. However, how one sees the future may vary by social location, particularly at the intersection of gender and socioeconomic status (SES). We compared the perceived importance and likelihood of various future goals across three groups of women aged 18–22: 160 affluent undergraduates, 177 low-SES undergraduates, and 147 low-SES nonstudents. Participants from all three samples were largely optimistic about their futures and ranked the following goals as very important to them: their sense of subjectivity (e.g., independence, self-acceptance, fulfillment); having good relationships with one’s children; and being physically healthy. Affluent and low-SES undergraduates ranked peer-related affiliation highly, while low-SES nonstudents prioritized financial goals. While the priorities and optimism of young women in each sample overlap in some ways, they also reflect distinctions among the groups’ privilege and prospects.

The present study investigated (a) comparisons in rates of rape and sexual assault acknowledgment and (b) a comprehensive multivariate multinomial logistic model predicting rape and sexual assault acknowledgment in a sample of 174 college women who had experienced rape. Significantly more women acknowledged having experienced sexual assault than rape. Greater perceived perpetrator force was associated with increased likelihood of rape and sexual assault acknowledgment. Increased age and greater perceived emotional impact were associated with increased odds of rape acknowledgment. Implications for policy, education, and practice within university settings are discussed.

Perceived sexism has been linked to poorer sexual health among women. However, research has yet to examine whether protective factors, specifically liberal feminist beliefs (i.e., support for women’s empowerment and equity), moderate the relation between perceived sexism and precursors to risky sexual behavior. The present studies tested this possibility. In Study 1, 161 female undergraduates reported their liberal feminist beliefs, perceived sexism, and sexual self-efficacy. For women with weaker feminist beliefs, perceived sexism was related to lower sexual self-efficacy. For women with stronger feminist beliefs, perceived sexism was uncorrelated with sexual self-efficacy. In Study 2, 85 women with weaker or stronger liberal feminist beliefs were exposed to either hostile or benevolent sexism and subsequently reported their expectations to initiate condom use during sex. Participants with strong feminist beliefs reported greater anticipated condom use than those with weak feminist beliefs, but only in the hostile sexism condition; in the benevolent sexism condition, women with strong feminist beliefs reported condom use intentions that were similar to those reported by women with weak feminist beliefs. Results suggest women’s attitudes and social environment work together to shape sexual well-being and that liberal feminist beliefs may be a powerful tool women can employ to combat hostile, but not benevolent, sexism.

Past research regarding feminist identity has revealed that a significant number of women endorse feminist attitudes yet reject a feminist identity. In the current study, we sought to examine whether these nonlabeling women fall into two distinct groups: (a) one that falls on the same ideological continuum of their feminist peers and (b) the other that represents an attitudinally unique group of women characterized by their neoliberal beliefs that prioritize individual merit as the sole determinant of success. Two samples of undergraduate women self-reported their feminist identity and political and sexist attitudes. In our first sample ( N = 231), we used k-means cluster analysis to identify two types of nonlabelers: quasi-feminists and neoliberals. Results revealed that, despite both groups’ shared belief in gender equality, quasi-feminists reported relatively lower levels of meritocratic, just world, and modern sexist beliefs, all of which were similar to those of their feminist-identified peers, whereas neoliberals indicated stronger meritocratic, just world, and modern sexist beliefs. In our second sample ( N = 351), we replicated findings from our first sample and subsequently validated these groupings. Specifically, multivariate analysis of variance results demonstrated that, separate from the differences found in relation to the measures used for cluster analysis, quasi-feminists scored lower than neoliberals on measures of ambivalent sexism, social dominance, and equal opportunity beliefs. Women’s individual and collective welfare often hinges on their endorsement of neoliberal and feminist beliefs, especially in the face of unfair treatment. We suggest that activists and policy makers tailor strategies for engaging nonlabelers in the movement toward gender equality to the subtype of nonlabeler in question.

Sexism persists in the contemporary United States and has deleterious effects on women and girls. This suggests that feminism--as a movement, a set of attitudes, or an explicit identity--is still warranted. Although feminist attitudes may buffer against the effects of sexism, notably in health domains, we suggest that there may be an ideological divide between those who hold such attitudes while rejecting the identity (non-labelers) and self-identified feminists. Non-labelers engage in less collective action on behalf of women's rights. On the basis of survey responses of 276 college students, non-labelers appear to be self-interested. We argue that disentangling attitudes from identity is crucial for sharpening predictions about the relation of feminism to other psychological and behavioral variables, and for engaging in broader social change. Furthermore, understanding whether non-labelers' rejection of feminist identity is rooted in fear of stigma associated with the label, neoliberal beliefs, or other explanations is important to those organizing for reform.

Findings regarding the link between body image and sexuality have been equivocal, possibly because of the insensitivity of many body image measures to potential variability across sensory aspects of the body (e.g., appearance versus odor), individual body parts (e.g., genitalia versus thighs), and social settings (e.g., public versus intimate). The current study refined existing methods of evaluating women's body image in the context of sexuality by focusing upon two highly specified dimensions: satisfaction with the visual appearance of the genitalia and self-consciousness about the genitalia during a sexual encounter. Genital appearance dissatisfaction, genital image self-consciousness, and multiple facets of sexuality were examined among a sample of 217 undergraduate women using an online survey. Path analysis revealed that greater dissatisfaction with genital appearance was associated with higher genital image self-consciousness during physical intimacy, which, in turn, was associated with lower sexual esteem, sexual satisfaction, and motivation to avoid risky sexual behavior. These findings underscore the detrimental impact of negative genital perceptions on young women's sexual well-being, which is of particular concern given their vulnerability at this stage of sexual development as well as the high rates of sexually transmitted infections within this age group. Interventions that enhance satisfaction with the natural appearance of their genitalia could facilitate the development of a healthy sexual self-concept and provide long-term benefits in terms of sexual safety and satisfaction.

Studies of adolescent female sexuality often focus on coitus to the exclusion of noncoital behaviors, the relational context of sexual interactions, and adolescent women's subjective perceptions of their experiences. In this study, 38 undergraduate women's retrospective accounts of their adolescent heterosexual experiences were examined. Generalized estimating equation models were used to test the relation of diverse heterosexual behaviors and relationship types to participants' subjective perceptions of desire, wanting, and pleasure. Of the sexual behaviors, coitus was the strongest predictor of participants' subjective perceptions. Compared to coitus, erotic touching, manual stimulation, and fellatio were significantly less predictive; there were no differences between coitus and cunnilingus or coitus and kissing. Of the relationships (serious, dating, "friends with benefits" [FWBs], and "hookups"), FWBs was the strongest predictor of participants' desire, wanting, and pleasure; in comparison, hookups were significantly less predictive. These findings offer insight into the sexual behaviors and preferences of young women, as well as distinctions between types of non-romantic sexual relationships.

Feminists have argued that traditional gender norms can obstruct women's sexual well-being ( Amaro, 1995 ; Morokoff, 2000 ; Tolman, 2006 ; Walker, 1997 ). Therefore, we expected feminist ideology, by virtue of this critique, to be associated with women's sexual subjectivity and sexual well-being. To test this model, we analyzed data from a survey of college-age women ( N = 424) using structural equation modeling. As hypothesized, feminist ideology was indirectly related to condom-use self-efficacy and sexual satisfaction via sexual subjectivity, and sexual motivation was directly related to sexual satisfaction. In an alternative model, feminist ideology was directly related to sexual motivation. This research indicates that feminist ideology may play a role in the promotion of women's sexual well-being.

When Rhoda Unger’s landmark essay ‘Toward a Redefinition of Sex and Gender’ was published in 1979, we were 10 and 14 years old respectively. But by the time we met in graduate school in 1992, we were feminists, we were becoming feminist psychologists and, perhaps most importantly, there was such a thing as feminist psychology. We didn’t have to do the intellectual work to create the subfield, we didn’t have to fight for it, we didn’t have to hide it or do it on the side while pursuing ‘mainstream research’ in public. We weren’t told by our advisors that studying gender was a waste of our time; indeed, we had the opportunity to be advised by a prominent feminist psychologist, Abby Stewart. We ‘grew up’, then, in the context of a psychology already influenced by the women’s movement and by groundbreaking scholars such as Unger. Yet, the subfield we entered was young enough that we learned of these struggles from the women who fought them, and so we take none of these opportunities we’ve had for granted. We are acutely aware and appreciative of the legacy we have inherited, and of the specific ways Rhoda Unger was – and continues to be – influential in creating that legacy. To us as young scholars, the distinctions between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ seemed clear and not in need of specification, an, in that way, Unger’s (1979) distinctions had already had a positive and important effect on the field and on us. Our experiences of feminist psychology were much like what Baumgardner and Richards (2000) described as the experience of feminism for third-wavers: ‘For our generation, feminism is like fluoride. We scarcely notice that we have it – it’s simply in the water’ (p. 17). By the time we entered the field, the contemporary scholarship on sex and gender was heavily influenced by postmodern feminist thinking. We each have distinctive memories of reading Hare-Mustin and Marecek’s (1990) now classic, then hot-off-the-press, book Making a Difference

To better understand the relation of feminist identification to sexuality, we compared the attitudes of feminist, egalitarian, and nonfeminist undergraduate women ( N = 342) in five domains: (a) erotophilia (one's positive affective or evaluative responses to sexual stimuli), (b) sexual assertiveness, (c) perceived self-efficacy for safer sex, (d) sexual satisfaction, and (e) support of the sexual double standard. Significant results of ANOVA analyses included: Feminists were more erotophilic than egalitarians and nonfeminists, egalitarians were the most confident in their ability to be assertive with a partner regarding condom use, and egalitarians and nonfeminists were more supportive of a traditional sexual double standard than feminists. Consistent with Zucker (2004) , we argue that a distinctive characteristic of egalitarians is that their acceptance of feminist values with regard to their own sexual lives does not translate into a critique of gendered sexual norms for other women.

Social science research shows that contemporary women endorse feminist goals at rates similar to women in the 1970s. However, generations may differ in some aspects of their relationship to feminism. This study of 333 university alumnae examined expressions of feminism across three generations. We provide the first empirical evidence to support Stewart and Healy's (1989 ) prediction about the impact of social events experienced in childhood; only the youngest cohort recalled holding feminist beliefs as children. Additionally, each cohort identified feminist influences from the period coinciding with their own identity-forming adolescence as most important, although feminism was related to other beliefs in a similar way for each cohort. The Women's Movement appears to be internalized differently depending on developmental life stage.

Discrimination has been conceptualized as a stressor that may be more negative than generic stress because it is tied to valued and unchangeable social identities. As with other stressful events, the experience of sexism has been related to poorer mental health and some physical health outcomes. This study of 179 female college students (79% of whom were White) showed that the relation between perceived sexism and binge drinking and smoking was mediated by psychological distress. In addition, there was a direct relation between sexism and smoking for weight control. Given the large toll that tobacco and excessive alcohol use exact on the U.S. population, we suggest that policy makers aim to reduce discrimination as one method to improve overall health.

The authors explore how Black and White women view three aspects of normative femininity, and whether self-rated femininity is related to feminism. Through telephone surveys, a nationally representative sample of women (N=1130) rated themselves on feminism and items derived from Collins' (2004) benchmarks of femininity: feminine appearance, traits, and traditional gender role ideology. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed both groups conceptualized femininity as including the same dimensions, although Black women rated themselves higher on items related to feminine appearance. Among White women, traditional gender ideology was negatively related to feminism; among Black women, wearing feminine clothes was positively related to feminism. Results are discussed in terms of possibilities for resistance to the hegemonic concept of femininity that both groups share.

Young women of color (among others) face both subtle and overt discrimination on a regular basis, but few studies have examined relations between discrimination and sexual outcomes using quantitative tools. We surveyed 154 self-identified undergraduate women of color to examine connections between race- and sex-based discrimination and subjective sexual well-being (i.e., condom use self-efficacy and sexual life satisfaction) and also tested whether sexual autonomy mediated these relations. When examined individually, each form of discrimination was related negatively to condom use self-efficacy and sexual life satisfaction, such that as women reported more discrimination, they reported poorer sexual well-being. However, when examining both racism and sexism as joint predictors, only racism remained significant and there were no racism × sexism interaction effects. In a path model, sexual autonomy mediated the relation between racism and each measure of subjective sexual well-being; racism was negatively related to sexual autonomy, which in turn was positively related to both condom use self-efficacy and sexual life satisfaction. These findings are consistent with the broader literature on the negative impact of discrimination on various aspects of mental and physical health. They also reinforce the position that redressing social inequality is a vital component of promoting individual health.

Gender is one of the social structures, along with social class and ethnicity, that shapes women's smoking behaviors. We examined how different responses to gender pressures (internalization and resistance) relate to smoking. We analyzed data from a national random digit dial survey of 945 women and found that never smokers scored high on resistance to gender pressure (indicated by high scores on feminist consciousness) and on education and Body Mass Index; current smokers had the reverse pattern. Ex-smokers scored high on one measure of resistance (advertising skepticism) and on two measures of internalization (embodied femininity and weight concern); they were also likely to have high household income and to be European American. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for smoking cessation programs and antismoking campaigns.

Many women, even as they embrace feminist principles, are loath to be labeled feminists. This study presents a measure of feminist identity that accounts for beliefs and behaviors of self-identified feminists and nonfeminists, and for a third group, egalitarians, who endorse liberal feminist beliefs but reject the feminist label. In a sample of 272 college-educated women, a MANOVA showed egalitarians had levels of feminist consciousness between nonfeminists and feminists. Egalitarians did not differ from nonfeminists on favorable conditions for feminist identity or on feminist activism, but both groups scored lower on these measures than feminists. In a hierarchical multiple regression, feminist identity was a significant predictor of feminist activism, above and beyond favorable conditions and barriers. The importance of self-labeling for invisible and stigmatized social identities is discussed.

Studies examining women's appearance ideals and weight concern have predominantly relied on samples of White women. This study addresses this oversight, examining the different relations among embodied femininity, weight concern, and depressive symptomatology that exist for different groups of women. Using a nationally representative sample of women between the ages of 18 and 45, bivariate analyses were conducted using three samples of Latina, Black, and White women. When sample size allowed, a multivariate model was tested (i.e., for Black and White respondents). Results confirm, as hypothesized, different patterns of relations between embodied femininity, weight concern, and depressive symptomatology for each of the samples. At the bivariate level, embodied femininity, weight concern, and depressive symptomatology were positively intercorrelated among Latina respondents. Whereas weight concern fully mediated the relation between embodied femininity and depressive symptomatology for the White respondents, the mediational model was not borne out for the Black respondents. For the latter, although embodied femininity and weight concern were related, weight concern was unrelated to depressive symptoms. Both of these patterns are discussed, as well as the need for greater empirical sensitivity to various constructions of femininity among women of different ethnicities.

There are strong social pressures for U.S. females, particularly those of European heritage, to achieve and maintain an extremely low body weight. These pressures are reflected in a variety of media sources, including advertising. We argue that valuing thinness, exposure to thinness-depicting media, and lacking skepticism about tobacco advertisements have adverse effects on young women's decisions about smoking, particularly smoking for weight control. We tested these hypotheses in a study of 188 female undergraduates, both never-smokers and daily smokers. Believing that smoking controls weight, exposure to thinness-depicting media, and low levels of skepticism about tobacco advertising were associated with being a smoker. Among smokers, believing that smoking controls weight, internalizing thinness pressures, and low levels of feminist consciousness were associated with smoking for weight control. Results are discussed with the aim of encouraging public health anti-smoking campaigns targeted at women, and smoking cessation programs that are responsive to the needs of weight-concerned female smokers.

This article outlines the evaluation and stereotype of feminists, based on responses to closed-ended semantic differential traits as well as open-ended, projective responses to a hypothetical male or female feminist. Consistent across both methodologies, undergraduate respondents (Study 1: N=210; Study 2: N=135) viewed feminists as politically liberal, assertive/career oriented, and more likely to be heterosexual than lesbian. Most evaluations were neutral to slightly positive, with a few negative areas. However, feminists were seen in less positive terms than the typical woman and were described as much more assertive and politically liberal. Gender, race, birth cohort, gender of target, and feminist-attitude differences are presented. Despite the neutral to slightly positive evaluation, most respondents did not personally identify as feminists, possibly because they misperceive others' attitudes toward feminists as more negative than they actually are.

Little is known about the long-term impact ofreproductive experiences on women's lives. This paperuses questionnaire data collected from 107 white femalecollege graduates, when they were approximately 47 years old. More than half the sample hadexperienced at least one type of reproductive difficulty(abortion, miscarriage, or infertility). The stress andcoping model of life difficulties (Lazarus &Folkman, 1984) was used to examine the relationshipbetween the women's reproductive difficulties andemotional sequelae, politicization, and orientation tomotherhood at midlife. As predicted, emotional responses to the reproductive difficulties variedaccording to the particular nature of each experience.In addition, women who had abortions and no otherdifficulties were more politicized at midlife than other women. Women whose reproductive experienceswere especially likely to arouse feelings of not beingin control of their life (those who had miscarriages orinfertility) described a more agentic orientation to motherhood when compared with other women.