The Feminist: Familial Influences on Adherence to Ideology and Commitment to a Self-Perception

A number of familial background variables were examined in relation to women's adherence to feminist ideology and commitment to a self-perception as a feminist: religiosity, birth order, presence of a working mother, perception of mother's ideology, mother's education, and parents' occupational and educational differentials. Subjects were 400 unmarried, undergraduate women attending 27 social science classes during the spring of 1979. While birth order, mother's education, and parents' educational differential appeared unrelated to either ideology or selfperception, the presence of a working mother tended to influence women's perceptions of themselves as feminists. These same women tended to have mothers whose occupations were equal to or higher in status than their father's occupations and tend to perceive their mother's ideology as supportive of feminist tenets. The only factors differentiating women who uphold feminist ideology from those that do not is perception of mother's ideology and a nonreligious background. There also appears to be an inconsistency between women's attitudes and self-perceptions. A number of possible explanations and the theoretical possibility of an intergenerational feminism are presented.