Is Feminist Identity Beneficial for Women's Career Aspirations? Examining Feminist Identity Profiles

Abstract

Sexism harms women’s career aspirations by emphasizing domestic responsibilities over career competence. Having a feminist identity, however, has been shown to buffer against certain negative effects linked to sexism. The present study uses a person-centered approach to identify profiles of feminist identity based on feminist attitudes, private feminist identification, and public feminist identification and examines how the identified profiles are differentially associated with career aspirations, anticipated family-interference-with-work, and willingness to compromise career for family among women. Three profiles of feminist identity (egalitarian, private feminist, public feminist) emerged from responses from 282 female undergraduate and graduate students (Mage = 20.47). Results showed that public feminists and private feminists were less willing to compromise career for family than women who reject the feminist label despite holding feminist attitudes (i.e., egalitarians). Moreover, public feminists reported higher career aspirations than both private feminists and egalitarians. Limitations and implications of these findings are discussed.