Assessing politicized gender identity: Validating the Feminist Consciousness Scale for men and women. Issue 5 (3rd September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Duncan, Lauren E.; Garcia, Randi L.; Teitelman, Ilana
• Is Part Of: Journal of social psychology. Volume 161:Issue 5(2021)
• Page Start: 570
• Page End: 592
• Publication Date: 2021-09-03
• Subjects: Feminist identity -- politicized social identity -- activism -- feminist consciousness -- Feminist Consciousness Scale; Social psychology -- Periodicals; Psychology, Social -- Periodicals; Psychologie sociale -- Périodiques; Sociale psychologie; Electronic journals; 302.05
• DOI: 10.1080/00224545.2020.1860883
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-4545

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Current measures of feminist identity are based on developmental models and cannot be used with men. We introduce and validate a new measure of feminist consciousness, the Feminist Consciousness Scale (FCS) which is based on dominant social psychological theories of politicized social identities, and assesses identity, injustice, and efficacy components of feminist consciousness. In three studies, the 8-item, two-factor FCS demonstrated excellent model fit and validity for college women and more age- and ideologically-heterogeneous men and women. We also established measurement invariance between men and women, meaning that the scale can be used with members of both groups. The FCS possesses several advantages over current measures of feminist identity based on developmental models: it is short and easy to use, can be used with both men and women, and is tied to the extensive literature on group consciousness and politicized social identities.