WOMEN OR FEMINISTS - ASSESSING WOMENS GROUP CONSCIOUSNESS

Social psychological research often relies on measures of group identi fication in assessing levels of group consciousness. However, for wome n, the relationship between gender identification and group consciousn ess may not be a straightforward one. Questionnaire data were used to examine the relationships between measures of group identity and group evaluations with other attitudinal, phenomenological, and development al measures of feminist consciousness. Research participants were 234 undergraduate women; the majority (75%) were white and from middle-to upper-middle-class backgrounds. The results supported the hypothesis t hat use of the reference group ''feminists,'' rather than the more gen eral group ''women,'' would be more strongly related to other dimensio ns of group consciousness in women.