Understanding the Consequences of Group Labeling for the Women's Movement

Bibliographic Data

ID11367632
AuthorsKaren A Callaghan (Boston University, corresponding author), Karen Callaghan, Frauke Schnell (West Chester University)
Year2001
Volume23
Issue4
Pages31-60
Publication date2001-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueWomen & Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0195-7732 • E-ISSN: 1540-9473
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1300/j014v23n04_02
OpenAlexW1981354114
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited52

In this article we explore the consequences of group labeling for the women's movement. We consider citizens' demand for cognitive simplicity and the vulnerability that such abbreviation engenders. To the extent that group labels such as “feminists,” “radical feminists,” and “women concerned about gender equality” are used to summarize the movement's beliefs and actions, they serve as a shorthand for the movement, becoming detached from the full range of knowledge available about the movement. Using an Analysis of Variance, we investigate the results from two experiments that manipulate the type and number of feminist labels to which participants are exposed. Our results indicate that group labels about the women's movement negatively affect related attitudes and impair the cognitive processing of additional information about the women's movement. Furthermore, the different group labels utilized in the study-women concerned about equality, feminists, and radical feministselicit identical attitudinal responses, suggesting that all labels are charged with similar amounts of negative affect and associated with the same core set of beliefs

Aesthetics · Affect (linguistics · Cognition · Feminism · Feminist movement · Movement (music · Set (abstract data type · Sociology · Vulnerability (computing · Communication · Computer Science · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Studies · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology