This article reports two studies aimed at developing a new scale of attitudes toward women, incorporating six theoretically derived perspectives: conservative; liberal, radical, socialist, and cultural feminist; and women of color (womanist). In Study 1, an initial pool of 306 items was given to 117 respondents. Selection of 10 attitudinal and 3 behavioral items from each perspective for the final scale was based chiefly on item‐total correlations. In Study 2, the Feminist Perspectives Scale was administered to 344 respondents and showed reasonable reliability and validity. For Femscore, a composite of five feminist attitudinal subscales, Cronbach's alpha was .91; test‐retest correlations were .91 at 2 weeks and .86 at 4 weeks. Empirical data provided generally good support for the six perspectives, and factor analysis produced partial support for the six‐perspective structure.
This research tested hypotheses that news media often report violence against women (VAW) in passive-verb format and that this leads readers to be more accepting of VAW than reports using the active voice. In Study 1, 1,501 verbs from news stories were classified as having active or passive voice. Passive voice use for both VAW (rape) and nonsexual violence (murder) was greater than for comparison verbs. Findings of a follow-up semantic differential study suggested that these verbs'negativity could account for the results. In a third study, 54 college students read mock news reports on rape, battery, robbery, and murder, rated victim harm and perpetrator responsibility after each, and completed scales of attitudes toward sexual violence. With passive voice, males, but notfemales, attributed less victim harm and perpetrator responsibility for VAW than with active voice. Both females and males showed more acceptance of VAW with passive voice use.
An observational study of touching in public was made, with attention to status variables (sex, race, age, SES) and settings. Results support the hypothesis that touch privilege is a correlate of status. The dual nature of touch as a sign of both status and solidarity is compared with Brown's formulation of the similar use of terms of address.Though there is an extensive literature on nonverbal communication (Duncan, 1969), relatively little attention has been paid to the communication of status or power, especially by the experimentally oriented. At the same time, many studies in this literature have reported findings of sex differences in terms of status relationships between men and women. Furthermore, there is sparse experimental literature on the social (as opposed to the sensory) aspects of touch, and what there is tends to emphasize sexual connotations (see, for example, Montagu, 1971, andMorris, 1971).This paper presents an observational study of touching in public, with attention to several status dimensions , as a test of the hypothesis that touching is a sta tus correlate in American society. A major thesis of the paper is that women are subjected to reminders of their inferior status in our society (Hacker, 1951) with nonverbal cues that symbolize the power of the communicator. This hypothesis arises from the consideration of interactions between pairs of persons of differing status, picturing who would be more likely to touch the other (put an arm around the shoulder, a hand on the back, tap the chest, hold the wrist, etc.): e.g., teacher an'd student; master and servant; policeman and accused; doctor and patient; minister and parishioner; adviser and advisee ; foreman and worker; businessman and secretary. It is, of course, often considered an affront , insubordination, for a person of lower status to touch one of higher status. Goffman (1956), in his intriguing essay, "The Nature of Deference and Demeanor," wrote of the "touch system" in a research hospital, and observed, "The doctors touched other ranks as a means of conveying friendly support and comfort, but other ranks tended to feel that it would be presumptuous for them to reciprocate a doctor's touch, let alone initiate such contact with a doctor [p . 74] ."What psychological investigation of touching there has 'This paper is an expanded version,
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