What Future for the Female Subject? Some Implications of the Women's Movement for Psychological Research

The scientific effects of the recent changes in perspectives on female role are reviewed, in terms of the rapid rise of research in the area of sex-role development, attribution of sex differences, and the attention paid to the biases consequent upon scientific as well as popular sex-role stereotyping. It is argued that not only more, but new, questions are being asked as a consequence of this change of perspective. A number of studies are examined that indicate the effects on female self-definition and self-evaluation of the cultural stereotypes. Studies of women's movement participants are reviewed that illustrate something of the processes and prerequisites involved in the rejection of sex-role stereotypes and the redefinition of the self. The interaction of political and scientific thought that is particularly manifest in this area of psychological investigation is commented upon.