The Formation of Feminist Consciousness Among Left- And Right-Wing Activists of the 1960s

This article examines the formation of consciousness among women at the beginning stages of the women's movement. The author analyzes the complexity of pathways to feminism across the political spectrum, comparing women who were active on the Left in Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) with women active in the leading conservative organization of the 1960s, Young Americans for Freedom (YAF). She finds an unexpected division among women in both groups between those who identify discrimination by their male peers and those who do not. The author argues there are three stages in the formation of feminist consciousness: identification of inequality or mistreatment, discovering a language or framing by which to interpret these experiences, and the social construction of a collective identity. Factors for each of these three stages that help or hinder the formation of feminist consciousness are discussed.