What makes a feminist? Predictors and correlates of feminist social identity in college women

What factors predict self-identification as a feminist? College women (N = 233) were given measures of feminist ideology; feminist identity developmen t; evaluation of feminists, collectivism, and individualism. Feminist ident ification was measured both as a dichotomous and a continuous variable. Mea sured dichotomously, feminist self-identification was predicted by not havi ng conservative beliefs and having a positive general evaluation of feminis ts. In addition, self-identified feminists were more likely to believe in c ollective action; to hold liberal, radical, and womanist ideologies; and to endorse items in the Synthesis stage of identity development. They were le ss likely to believe a feminist is a lesbian, to endorse items in the Passi ve Acceptance stage, and to believe in the existence of a meritocracy Measu red continuously, degree of feminist identity was predicted by having a pos itive general evaluation of feminists, not having conservative beliefs, and endorsing items in the Revelation and Embeddedness/Emanation stages of ide ntity development. The two measures of feminist identity were not entirely congruent, underlining the importance of methodological differences in meas uring social identity.