This article examines the formation of consciousness among women at the beginning stages of the women's movement. The author analyzes the complexity of pathways to feminism across the political spectrum, comparing women who were active on the Left in Students for a Democratic Society with women active in the leading conservative organization of the 1960s, Young Americans for Freedom. She finds an unexpected division among women in both groups between those who identify discrimination by their male peers and those who (...) do not. The author argues there are three stages in the formation of feminist consciousness: identification of inequality or mistreatment, discovering a language or framing by which to interpret these experiences, and the social construction of a collective identity. Factors for each of these three stages that help or hinder the formation of feminist consciousness are discussed. (shrink)

This study considers two problems: the extent to which feminist opinions are distinct from feminist identity and the generalizability of these separate constructs across gender and time. Using pooled cross-sectional data from the six National Election Study surveys conducted from 1972 through 1992, the author employs a series of measurement and structural equation models to evaluate the validity and reliability of various feminist orientations and to estimate the relationships among feminist identity, feminist opinion, and individual characteristics associated with feminism. The (...) results indicate that identity and opinion are separate but related constructs. This configuration generalizes across women and men and two decades of American electoral history. (shrink)

Denefield argues that the wholesale rejection of feminism is not because of some unconscious conspiracy in the media to undermine women, but because the women's movement does not offer what young women want.

In the late 1980s, there was a proliferation of popular imagery of 'new' men and 'post-feminist' women, with the concept of 'post-feminism' reinforcing and emphasizing the differences between independent, upwardly-mobile, career orientated women, and those women who 'choose' the more 'natural' role of wife and mother. The Illusions of 'Post-Feminism": New Women, Old Myths maintains that 'post-feminism' is a myth. Through in-depth interviews with women about four major areas of their lives: education, work, the media and the family, the authors (...) challenge and expose the myths implicit in the concept of 'post-feminism'. The research illustrates that women's discontent continues, despite the assumption that gender equality would result from equal opportunities legislation. The chapters highlight the ineffective nature of liberal reformism and demonstrate how power relations still lie at the root of the oppression of women. (shrink)