What Makes a Liberal Feminist? Identifying Predictors of Women's and
Men's Liberal Feminist Ideology
Abstract
In the wake of the #Metoo movement, liberal feminism has garnered the
spotlight on equal rights for women. However, what factors contribute to
men and women developing liberal feminist ideologies? This is important
to understand as this ideology is predictive of support for political
and social policies that are currently under debate in the United
States. In this survey study (149 heterosexual men and 233 heterosexual
women) we examined attitudinal and ideological variables that underlie
liberal feminist ideology. The results of this study indicate that men
scored significantly lower on liberal feminist ideology and
significantly higher on traditional attitudes toward women, hostile and
benevolent sexism, gender-specific justification, rape myths and
conservative political affiliation compared to women. Furthermore,
traditional attitudes toward women, hostile and benevolent sexism,
gender-specific justification, rape myths, political leanings, and
gender accounted for almost 70 percent of the variance in liberal
feminist ideology. Participant gender did not moderate the regression
analyses, suggesting that men and women are influenced similarly in
determining what attitudes predict liberal feminist ideologies.
Implications for support for public policy are addressed.