Attributed motivations for feminism as a function of occupation, marital status, and age

Abstract

Male and female undergraduates were given brief biographical descriptions of women which varied in occupation (housewife, secretary, lawyer), marital status, and age. They were also given a list of possible reasons why each woman was a feminist and asked to evaluate the strength of each of these reasons on a 7-point scale. It was hypothesized that more positive reasons for being a feminist would be attributed to lawyers, to married rather than single women, and to younger rather than older women. Analyses of the ratings on each reason indicated that, with but a single exception, the lawyer was seen as being more motivated by positive reasons than were secretaries or housewives. Although age and marital status appeared in a number of significant interactions, the hypotheses concerning these variables were not directly supported and must be interpreted along with other factors.