Neoliberal Feminism and Women's Protest Motivation

IF 2.5 2区心理学 Q2 PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Psychology of Women Quarterly Pub Date : 2024-05-01 DOI:10.1177/03616843241238176

Renata Bongiorno, Michelle K. Ryan, Olivier Gibson, Hannah Joyce

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Abstract

A popular form of neoliberal feminism seeks to advance gender equality in leadership and beyond by encouraging women to be resilient as individuals. By locating career advancement as within an individual's control, recent research has shown that this focus subtly shifts the blame for gender inequality onto women and reduces support for needed structural changes to tackle gender discrimination. We extend research into neoliberal feminism by examining anticipated negative effects on women's protest motivation. Across four studies in the United Kingdom (total N = 1,168), undergraduate women students and employed women with university degrees in both the control and resilience conditions first read about gender inequality. Participants in the neoliberal feminist conditions then read messages promoting individual resilience as key to women's advancement (Study 1–3) or participated in activities designed to build their own resilience as individuals to help them advance (Study 4). In Studies 1, 3, and 4, participants in the neoliberal feminist conditions compared to the control had lower collective action intentions – a negative effect that was either indirect, via reduced perceptions of gender discrimination (Studies 1 and 4) and reduced anger over inequality (Study 1), or direct (Study 3). Together, these studies provided partial support for our hypothesis that neoliberal feminism can undermine women's protest motivation. Future research can help establish how contextual and other factors contribute to the strength of these effects and explore how feminists can better harness messages of resilience. To advance gender equality, our findings suggest that advocates should focus less on individualistic solutions and more on addressing structural barriers, laying the groundwork for effective protest action and social change. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/03616843241238176 .

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新自由主义女权主义与妇女的抗议动机

一种流行的新自由主义女权主义试图通过鼓励妇女作为个体具有坚韧不拔的精神来促进领导层内外的性别平等。最近的研究表明，新自由主义女权主义将职业发展视为个人可以控制的事情，从而巧妙地将性别不平等的责任转嫁给了女性，减少了对解决性别歧视所需的结构性变革的支持。我们通过研究新自由主义女权主义对女性抗议动机的预期负面影响，扩展了对新自由主义女权主义的研究。在英国进行的四项研究中（总人数 = 1,168），在对照组和抗争组中，拥有大学学位的女大学生和就业妇女首先阅读了有关性别不平等的书籍。然后，新自由主义女权主义者条件下的参与者阅读了宣传个人复原力是提高妇女地位关键的信息（研究 1-3），或参加了旨在培养个人复原力以帮助她们提高地位的活动（研究 4）。在研究 1、3 和 4 中，与对照组相比，新自由主义女权主义者条件下的参与者的集体行动意愿较低--这种负面影响或者是间接的，通过减少对性别歧视的感知（研究 1 和 4）和减少对不平等的愤怒（研究 1），或者是直接的（研究 3）。总之，这些研究部分支持了我们的假设，即新自由主义女权主义会削弱妇女的抗议动机。未来的研究可以帮助确定背景因素和其他因素如何导致这些影响的强度，并探索女权主义者如何更好地利用复原力的信息。为了促进性别平等，我们的研究结果表明，倡导者应减少对个人主义解决方案的关注，而更多地关注解决结构性障碍，为有效的抗议行动和社会变革奠定基础。本文的其他在线资料可在 PWQ 网站 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/03616843241238176 上查阅。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Psychology of Women Quarterly Multiple-

CiteScore

6.10

自引率

5.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Psychology of Women Quarterly (PWQ) is a feminist, scientific, peer-reviewed journal that publishes empirical research, critical reviews and theoretical articles that advance a field of inquiry, teaching briefs, and invited book reviews related to the psychology of women and gender. Topics include (but are not limited to) feminist approaches, methodologies, and critiques; violence against women; body image and objectification; sexism, stereotyping, and discrimination; intersectionality of gender with other social locations (such as age, ability status, class, ethnicity, race, and sexual orientation); international concerns; lifespan development and change; physical and mental well being; therapeutic interventions; sexuality; social activism; and career development. This journal will be of interest to clinicians, faculty, and researchers in all psychology disciplines, as well as those interested in the sociology of gender, women’s studies, interpersonal violence, ethnic and multicultural studies, social advocates, policy makers, and teacher education.