Feminism, Postmodernism, and Psychological Research

Abstract

Drawing primarily from the work of Julia Kristeva and Judith Butler, the author suggests that a postmodern approach to identity can be used to challenge the essentialism that pervades both feminist empiricism and standpoint theory, and thus move feminist psychology in a more emancipatory direction. A major premise of this paper is that an engagement with postmodernism redirects our attention to symbolic constructions of femininity and to the sociopolitical grounding of experience.

Challenging power structures of the academy that marginalize and silence women: A call to resistance and social action—Psychology’s ethical mandate.

“…I agree on the whole with Schwartzman’s critiques of liberalism and postmodernism and her vision for feminist alternatives, especially their implications for preventing and addressing violence against women in the academy but see an opportunity for bracketing to be done effectively through the rigorous, systematic reflection of phenomenology, with heightened attunement to and reflexive awareness of the constitution of social structures and social determinants of knowledge and positionality at the transcendental level (Morrissey, 2018b). Critical theoretical psychologist Lisa Cosgrove (2003) has also explored the tensions between feminism and postmodernism, and proposes that “a strategic engagement between feminism and postmodernism is both possible and desirable” (p. 86). In arguing against victim-blaming perspectives that essentialize the social problems of women or positions that treat categories of gender and identity as fixed or foundational, she calls for greater attention to the production of abjection that crosses lines of gender, race, class, disability and other possible categories, as well as theorizing about abjection.…”

Contextualized perspectives of well-being for adolescent girls: a qualitative metasynthesis

“…Grounded in feminism, this qualitative metasynthesis rejects essentialist assumptions of female adolescents and their well-being. Feminist theorists in psychology have advocated for researchers to recognize that gender differences exist and need to be identified and studied, illuminating the androcentrism pervasive in the discipline (Cosgrove, 2003). Among those, for example, Jean Baker Miller (1976) proposed that specific psychological ways of functioning are common for all women.…”

“…Thus, although these researchers have advanced feminism within psychology, they have also been accused of essentialism, as they promote one point of view that claims to represent all women and womanhood (and girls and girlhood), locating their processes and experiences from an individual, intrapsychic focus (Cosgrove, 2003), and ignoring the undeniable differences made by a multiplicity of intersecting social contexts that shapes people's lives.…”

“…In this metasynthesis, a different feminist approach is adopted to acknowledge the forces of the environment involved in the production of the individual itself (Cosgrove, 2003). Therefore, ideas of gender-based normativity through trying to establish theories that point out a "women's relational style" (Cosgrove, 2003) are contested and avoided. In that sense, this metasynthesis advocates for a non-essentialist perspective that centres on changing the structural rather than the individual.…”

Feminist critiques of psychology.

“…Essentialism also reinforces and reifies gender distinctions, the very mechanisms of oppression that feminists encourage women to resist. Cosgrove (2003) summarized essentialism as viewing women as a group, one with a single point of view or a shared set of traits (e.g., that women are caring). It is consistent with the simplified standpoint position that women have a shared perspective or a unique voice or capacity (different from men's).…”