Abstract
A Likert-type scale was developed to provide a feminist attitude measure that taps the domains of gender role attitudes, goals of feminism, and feminist ideology. The development and testing of the scale involved two studies. First, a pilot study was conducted to help generate themes and items for the scale. Second, the validity and reliability of the scale was empirically tested. The pilot study was conducted with two samples, an undergraduate sample (N =99; ethnic breakdown unknown) and a group of participants in a women's studies conference (N =54; ethnic breakdown unknown). Subsequent empirical testing was conducted on two samples, an additional group of undergraduates (N =209; 43% Asian American, 37% Caucasian, 12% Hispanic, 4% African American, 2% Native American) and a subsample of the Women's Studies conference participants (N =25; 79% Caucasian, 17% Asian American, and 4% Hispanic). Results demonstrate that the final 60-item form of the Liberal Feminist Attitude and Ideology Scale (LFAIS) scale and each of its domains are highly reliable. Furthermore, the LFAIS has good convergent, divergent, concurrent, and known-groups validity. The scale was not susceptible to social desirability bias. Although tested on samples with fairly narrow demographics, the LFAIS shows promise as a reliable and valid measure of liberal feminist attitudes for use by researchers interested in an overtly sociopolitical measure of feminist attitudes.
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Levonian Morgan, B. Putting the feminism into feminism scales: Introduction of a Liberal Feminist Attitude and Ideology Scale (LFAIS). Sex Roles 34, 359–390 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01547807
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01547807