Mainstreaming 'Women' without feminisms in psychology. Issue 11 (17th October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Thompson, Lucy
• Is Part Of: Social and personality psychology compass. Volume 11:Issue 11(2017)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2017-10-17
• Subjects: Social psychology -- Periodicals; Personality -- Periodicals; 302
• DOI: 10.1111/spc3.12359
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-9004

Abstract

Abstract: Although it has been argued that feminist work has gained recognition in mainstream psychology (Eagly, Eaton, Rose, Riger, & McHugh, 2012 ), these arguments tend to cite a proliferation of research in high‐ranking Euro‐American academic journals, on topics that concern women or gender in psychology. However, the majority of this work is not presented as explicitly feminist. Rather, it tends to be incorporated into mainstream spaces under the umbrella of the psychology of women. This is often interpreted uncritically to mean the study of womanhood as a stable category or variable, reproducing binary accounts of sex and gender that are largely devoid of feminist analysis. Not only do these interpretations reify essentialist constructions of womanhood; they also convert transformative feminist politics into singular and special interest 'women's issues'. Indeed, broad feminist theoretical perspectives remain largely absent at the fundamental levels of mainstream psychological knowledge production (Eagly et al., 2012 ; Eagly & Riger, 2014 ). Thus, while credit has been given to the growing visibility of issues concerning women and gender in the discipline, less critical attention has been paid to the broader absence of feminist language in this work. As such, instances of mainstream inclusion have come to take priority over broader issues of feminist exclusions in psychology. Taking a critical position on the discipline from within the context of the Global North, this paper questions the state of mainstream inclusions and reasserts the transformative potentials of diverse feminisms (Liebert, Leve, & Hui, 2011 ), arguing that current inclusions of women without feminisms in psychology are problematic. Drawing on recent mobilisations of the psychology of women in the interests of 'male psychology', it is argued that the transformative potentials of feminist psychologies are more likely to be stifled than supported by mainstream inclusions.