The Social Construction and Socialization of Gender during Development

A feminist approach to psychology is distinguished by two underlying assumptions. First, equal value is placed on the study of women and men (or girls and boys). In this regard, feminists have criticized many of the theories and research approaches in psychology for emphasizing males as the norm and either ignoring females or considering them somehow deficient in comparison to males (Gilligan, 1982; Tavris, 1992; Weisstein, 1993). Second, a feminist analysis stresses power and status in interpersonal relationships and societal institutions as fundamental sources of gender inequities. ¹ A related goal of feminism is to identify directions for social change (Unger & Crawford, 1992; Wilkinson, 1997). Consequently, feminist psychology is “avowedly political” in its approach (Wilkinson, 1997, p. 248).