Adopting a feminist perspective is not a linear process

Abstract

In this article, I present some of my history and experiences to demonstrate how gender and class affected my career path as a community psychologist. The goal of this article is to show how the internalization of combined gender/class roles influenced my choices, behaviors, and expectations, and how actions of others interacted with my choices and behaviors to contribute to struggles and successes. It illustrates the push-pull that occurred at an individual level that affected my ability to embrace an alternative perspective. I discuss my encounter with second-wave feminism, undergoing the shifting identity in the transition from my blue-collar origins to a white-collar world, my expectations of sisterhood, and the affect of organizational structures and cultures. I use my experience to suggest themes that might be considered in practicing community psychology and, more specifically, feminist community psychology. C 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Early in my career I spent some time immersed in the literature on technological innovation. It culminated in my co-authoring a chapter on decision-making and technological innovation (Wolfe, Fleischer, Morell, & Eveland, 1990). What I learned while working on this project is that adopting an innovation or a new idea is not a simple process, nor is it necessarily linear. As I reflected on my own adoption of a feminist perspective for this article, I realized it ran a similar course. Each time I began I would like to thank Anne Mulvey and Holly Angelique for their support and encouragement throughout this process. I would also like to thank Michele Schlehofer who took time to review this manuscript and provide very helpful feedback and support. Finally, thank you to the anonymous viewers whose constructive feedback helped me to continue shaping this article. to move toward the adoption decision new information came in that made me reconsider whether feminism ''fit'' my person.My pre-college personal experiences and early graduate school research experiences should have created the ''perfect storm'' that would send me off to seek shelter in feminism and community psychology. During my early adult years, I was frequently reminded that to be successful I needed to catch a man and then do what was necessary to keep him. My early attempts to break free of that model, and an abusive relationship, resulted in punishments from the courts and other systems that should have been protecting me (for details, see Levin, 2008). Many of the inequities I experienced as a young adult were gender and class based. Although I found it easy to embrace community psychology and its mission, I have struggled over the years with adopting a feminist identity and internalizing feminism.In this article, I will present some of my own history and experiences to demonstrate how gender and class affected my career path as a community psychologist. The paper will show how the internalization of combined gender/class roles influenced my choices, behaviors, and expectations, which subsequently limited my ach...