Nobody's free until everybody's free: how feminist identification influences white Americans' willingness to recognize and respond to racial discrimination

Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and the Racialization of Attitudes Toward Descriptive Representation

“…Respondents with greater egalitarian beliefs, more positive evaluations of Hillary Clinton, those who perceive higher levels of discrimination against racial/ethnic groups, those who are politically knowledgeable, liberals, and those who are least likely to hold negative stereotypes of racial/ethnic groups are all more supportive of increased representation of marginalized groups in our combined model. These findings reinforce that attitudes toward increased representation by members of marginalized groups seem to be strongly correlated with racialized perceptions, linked fate, and awareness of structural differences for dominant and marginalized groups, as the feminist variable suggests (Harbin & Margolis, 2020). These views are also consistent with a growing body of research indicating that the concept of racial resentment captures attitudes about systemic discrimination and the need to rectify structural inequities, including in hiring and unemployment (DeSante & Smith, 2020;Kam & Burge, 2018, 2019.…”

“…Similar to arguments about linked fate, feminists-and white feminists in particular-may have a greater awareness of structural inequality for which descriptive representation is a potential remedy (Harbin & Margolis, 2020). Thus, our fourth hypothesis anticipates that a feminist identity will be associated with support for increased representation by Hispanics and women, and particularly among white women respondents.…”

“…Yet, given that "feminism is often viewed by both blacks and whites as the cultural property of white women" (Collins, 1996, p. 13), we anticipate that a feminist identity will distinctly influence white women and women of color. Harbin & Margolis (2020) demonstrate that, among whites who self-identify as feminists, this identification with a group marginalized on nonracial grounds is also associated with greater awareness of discrimination by race/ethnicity. We anticipate that strong connections with one marginalized group will correlate with greater support for descriptive representation both within and across groups: H3: Among Latino and Black respondents, a strong sense of linked fate with their own group will be associated with support for increased representation by both Hispanics and women; and H4: Among women, a strong feminist identity will be associated with support for increased representation by both Hispanics and women.…”

“…First, we examine linked fate, or the extent to which members of a racial/ ethnic group see their own fate as tied to that of other group members (Dawson, 1994). While measures of linked fate are far less common in gender and politics research (but see Gay et al, 2016), surveys frequently include questions about attitudes toward feminism, which captures a combination of gender policy attitudes and group identity (Bittner & Goodyear-Grant, 2017;Harbin & Margolis, 2020;Zucker, 2004). Thus, our second measure uses attitudes about feminism as an indicator of shared interest or group connection among women.…”

“…While all respondents were asked this question, because we are most interested in individuals' attitudes about an identity-based group consistent with their own characteristics, we include only women in our coding of "feminist." Building onHarbin and Margolis (2020) andPhillips (2018), in addition to studying feminist attitudes across the full sample, we additionally evaluate the views of non-Hispanic white women separately from Black women and Latinas. For both hypotheses, we anticipate that a stronger sense of group connection will be associated with greater support for descriptive representation, including for members of other marginalized groups.In our multivariate models, we also include several factors specific to 2016.…”