Women’s Empowerment

The dynamic and interactive role of theory in community psychology research, practice, and policy.

“…Though the treatment of feminist perspectives in this overview chapter is brief, Volume 1, Chapter 6 of this handbook provides a historical account of various feminist theoretical perspectives and methodologies, along with a description of common principles shared by feminist and community psychology. Although values of human equity and diversity are shared among community psychology and feminist perspectives, there was only one woman among the 39 attendees at the Swampscott Conference where U.S. community psychology was initiated in 1965 (Swift, Bond, & Serrano-García, 2000). In the years following, research on issues concerning women began to emerge in community psychology, giving voice to approaches that moved beyond individualistic, victim-blaming perspectives of women's issues, to considerations of the ways in which structural and cultural inequities hampered the development of women of varied economic and racial-ethnic backgrounds (Bond & Mulvey, 2000;Mulvey, 1988).…”

“…Liberal or structural views focus on issues of gender inequities, examining the degree to which women earn less and have less fulfilling and autonomous work available to them, leading to a host of health and mental health problems among women and their families (Campbell & Wasco, 2000). The core beliefs underlying the abuse of women physically and socially are often predicated on the idea that women are property, chattel, and fundamentally inferior to men in intellect and abilities, ideas that have been disproven by the growing ranks of women in academia and industry (Swift et al, 2000; see also Volume 1, Chapter 6, this handbook). Socialist or Marxist feminist perspectives see capitalist society as inherently male and antithetical to the goals and needs of women and view only extreme structural change as a remedy.…”