Properties of gender identity and their implications for gender consciousness

Abstract

Three properties of gender identity-perceived similarity to other women, sense of common fate and centrality of gender to the sense of self-were measured in national surveys of women in the United States. Analyses of their relationships to gender consciousness support the general proposition that these properties of identity are implicated in different ways in collective discontent, criticism of the legitimacy of gender disparities and acceptance of change-oriented collective action. As predicted, the sense of common fate proved the most important, even after adjustments were made for the structural resources in women's lives that help them develop both a sense of common fate and gender consciousness.In the literature on political mobilization of collectivities, an important distinction has been drawn between group identity and group consciousness. Identity connotes the member's awareness of membership and feelings attached to being a member (Tajfel, 1978;Miller et al., 1981), while consciousness refers to the member's ideology about the group's position in society. Although writers who employ the concept of group consciousness invoke somewhat different terms, they all define it multidimensionally , involving a sense of collective discontent over the group's relative power, material resources or prestige; an appraisai of the legitimacy of the stratification system by which the group is favoured or disfavoured; and the belief that collective action is required to realize the group's interests (Morris & Murphy 1966; Portes, 1971; Jackman & Jackman, 1983; Gurin et al., 1980).* Validation of the distinction between identity and consciousness has been demonstrated in studies of subordinate groups prominent in American life. These studies show that consciousness is the more powerful predictor of political action (Miller et al., 1981) and identity of efficient processing of group information (Thomas, 1984; Gurin & Markus, 1985).relationship has been treated simplistically in the studies of mass publics as well as the experimental studies of intergroup relations. It is often assumed that identity and consciousness develop simultaneously as effects of social categorization and comparison (Tajfel, 1978) o r that consciousness follows automatically from identity-the inexorable culmination of a process, variously labelled decolonization (Fanon, 1963; Memmi, 1968), identity transformation (Hall et al., 1972), disassimilation (Hayes-Bautista, 1974) or nationalism (Isaacs, 1979) set in motion by the assertion of group identity. (Although Tajfel does not use the term consciousness, the new cognitions, reinterpretations and action orientations that he suggests parallel the components that constitute group consciousness. These components come into play when identity is insecure and members of denigrated groups either cannot or d o not want to leave the group.) However, the dynamics by which consciousness arises out of identity are usually not delineated, and the possibility that the relationship is problematic rather than automati...

When fiends become friends: The need to belong and perceptions of personal and group discrimination.

“…Gardner et al, 2000). Similarly, past research has shown that perceived discrimination against one's group sometimes leads to increased identification with the group (e.g., Dion & Earn, 1975;Gurin & Townsend, 1986;Tajfel & Turner, 1986).…”

Utilization of global attributions in recognizing and responding to gender discrimination among college women

“…In order to assess the extent to which women felt a sense of common fate with other women, participants indicated on a scale ranging from disagree totally (0) to agree totally (10), how much they disagreed or agreed with six statements. To remain consistent with Gurin and Townsend's (1986) generalized two-item measure of common fate, two items assessed a general sense of common fate: "The status of women has nothing to do with my own personal status"; "Realizing the kinds of discrimination women face has led me to believe that I too could face discrimination". While these items were based on Gurin and Townsend's (1986) measure, they were reworded, as the original wording which asks about the impact of the women's movement on one's life was suspected to have less relevance to a university sample in the 1990s.…”

“…To remain consistent with Gurin and Townsend's (1986) generalized two-item measure of common fate, two items assessed a general sense of common fate: "The status of women has nothing to do with my own personal status"; "Realizing the kinds of discrimination women face has led me to believe that I too could face discrimination". While these items were based on Gurin and Townsend's (1986) measure, they were reworded, as the original wording which asks about the impact of the women's movement on one's life was suspected to have less relevance to a university sample in the 1990s. Four additional items were developed to assess the impact of more explicit instances of gender discrimination on individual women.…”

“…In other words, the personal experience of discrimination became viewed as a function of a pervasive political system. A more commonly known psychological conceptualization of this slogan has been referred to by Gurin and Townsend (1986) as a component of a political consciousness, namely common fate.…”

Escala Trifatorial da Identidade Social (ETIS): Evidências de sua Adequação Psicométrica

“…Os itens da Escala de Identificação Social foram constituídos com base: em estudos de Cameron e Lalonde (2001), que desenvolveram uma escala de 28 itens de identificação social, derivados de diferenças de gênero; nos itens de medidas de identidades sociais (Brown et al, 1986;Hinkle et al, 1989) e autoestima coletiva (Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992), bem como, em trabalho anterior sobre a identidade social de mulheres (Gurin & Markus, 1989;Gurin & Townsend, 1986).…”