THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL IDENTITY AND MATERIAL SELF-INTEREST ON ATTITUDES TOWARD AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PROGRAMS FOR WOMEN.

This research examined the effects of feminist self-identification on attitudes toward affirmative action (AA) programs for women in Australia. Standpoint theory was used to develop hypotheses predicting that feminist identity has a significant, unique effect on factors associated with support for AA beyond the effects of gender. Factors under investigation included perceptions of self-interest, egalitarianism, individualism, belief in the existence of gender discrimination,and traditional attitudes toward women.Study participants were 238 academics in a single Australian university who responded to a mail survey in Fall, 1999. Results supported most of our predictions. Feminist identity had a significant, unique effect on perceived interests, individualism, belief in gender discrimination,and traditional attitudes toward women when gender was controlled. Perceived interests, belief in discrimination, and traditional attitudes toward women were significant predictors of AA attitudes.The effect of gender on AA attitudes was fully mediated by interests, beliefs and attitudes toward women. Feminist identity retained a significant direct effects on AA attitudes when the mediators were controlled.Our results support the tenets of standpoint theory, which argue that the different experiences lived by women and men cause them to develop different worldviews. Standpoint theory also argues that marginalized groups must work to achieve their standpoints in the fact of a dominant worldview foisted on all by the powerful. Because not all women achieve a feminist perspective,and because men can embrace a feminist ideology, feminist identity adds significantly [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]