Can Reframing the Label Feminist Reduce its Stigma?

While there is strong public support for women\u27s rights and gender equality, feminism, a belief in gender equality and an awareness of gender discrimination, receives lower levels of support. People tend to misunderstand the term feminism and generally describe feminists with negative attributes. This serves as a barrier for people to self-identify as feminists. Based on the past research that most Americans want to view themselves as egalitarians, in the present research, I hypothesize that when feminists are reframed as people who endorse equality between men and women, people will see feminism more favorably and self-identify more as feminists. The present research used a 2 (Participant gender: Male vs. Female) x 2 (Feminism: Reframe vs. Control) between-subjects design. One hundred and fifty people (78 women, 72 men) from the United States were recruited to participate. The results revealed that reframing feminism did not improve people\u27s identification with feminism and attitudes toward feminists. While women were unaffected whether feminists were reframed or not, men self-identified significantly less as feminists and expressed more hostile attitudes toward them when feminists were reframed as people in support of gender equality. Implications of this research and suggestions for future research are discussed