POSITIVE MARGINALITY - ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES

This article presents evidence for the view that an important precurso r to a feminist identity is a sense of one's own marginality plus a re definition of what that marginality means. Choosing marginality appear s to be a highly adaptive strategy for social activists who can ''pass '' as members of the dominant majority. Women leaders in psychology ap pear to be more likely to be Jewish and/or to be from working class ba ckgrounds than one would expect by chance. An examination of their aut obiographical narratives indicates that many of them have actively eng aged their marginal identities and redefined them into a source of str ength. This article also explores the historical and contextual factor s that influence overt identification with some form of marginality. T hese factors include historical differences in the danger due to a par ticular stigmatizing social label, familial social activism, and the s ocial power possessed by an individual woman. Finally, it is argued th at positive marginality appears to promote an awareness that injustice is rooted in structural processes rather than personal inadequacy.