Appleton, Lynn M.

Data from the 1992 American National Election Study are used to examine three issues: first, who is most likely to identify as a feminist; second, who is likely to show a feminist consciousness; and finally who possesses both the feminist identification and feminist consciousness that demonstrate a feminist collective identity. The results indicate that feminist identification and feminist consciousness are separate but related constructs and that overall feminist collective identity among women is weak. The findings indicate a need to make clear which dimension--feminist identification or feminist consciousness--is being used in efforts to understand women's feminist collective identity and how these three concepts interact with cohort, employment status, income, education, race, and marital status.

Academic and non-academic authors argue that middle-class lesbians present themselves as butch or fem less than working-class lesbians. Theorists also have argued that butch and fem were discoursed by 1970s feminist stigma but are reemerging in post-feminist decades. By analyzing "women seeking women (WSW)" personal ads, this study provides a longitudinal, quantitative analysis of the validity of these assumptions. The results suggest that middle-class lesbians were less likely to present themselves as butch or fem than working-class lesbians. Also, butch and fem were found to be much more prevalent in the 1990s than in the 1970s or 80s. Generational cohorts of WSW based on feminist political ideologies about butch and fem were not found. Prevailing cultural norms within lesbian communities appear to affect all WSW in an era. The impacts of bisexuality and race on lesbian communities are also discussed. The results are discussed using theories of gender, social class, and social movements.

American and Austrian subjects responded to the questionnaire used in the "International Survey on Emotion Antecedents and Reactions" with regard to anxiety and fear, the Self-Monitoring Scale, and the Social Desirability Scale. As hypothesized, results show differences between the two emotions and between the two countries with regard to antecedents, recency, duration, intensity, body symptoms, expressive and verbal reactions, control, expectation, level of unpleasantness, evaluation of appropriateness, effect on goals, coping responses and causal attributions. Findings also support the hypothesis that social norms prescribe a taboo on anxiety--but not on fear--that is stronger for Americans than for the Europeans in this sample. In addition, the potential of the Social Desirability Scale and the Self-Monitoring Scale and its factors to identify cultural informants was explored and found promising. High scorers on social desirability appear to reflect normative attitudes. High self-monitors show potential as indicators of normative behavior.

In the 1960s and 70s, menopause was actively promoted by some members of the medical profession as a debilitating disease. The promotion extended from medical journals to popular books and magazines. Despite these efforts, by the 1980's and 90's, the medicalization of menopause has not been an unequivocal success. Using Conrad and Schneider's theory of the Medicalization of Deviance as a framework for my discussion, I provide evidence that medicalization is only partially successful. The promoters of the concept of menopause as a disease have succeeded in formulating this definition, have been partially successful in institutionalizing it, and failed to implement their goal of treating all menopausal women with estrogen.

A theory is developed to account for the emergence of the phenomenon of codependency. Codependency is targeted primarily at women since inequality constrains women from self-development outside relationships. It is argued that women experience relative deprivation and seek a socially acceptable way to avoid self-blame. Codependency's emergence in the late 1980s can be partly attributed to efforts of the recovery movement to secure legitimacy as agents of social control. The theory is tested by examining the emergence of the nineteenth-century illness called neurasthenia. It is argued that both codependency and neurasthenia are metaphors for female discontent. The particular expressions taken by discontent are largely determined by agents of social control.

Views on general urban, commercial, and light industrial growth are analyzed to determine the effect of substantive differences. While consistency across issues is often assumed, public opinion theory and recent findings on environmental concern suggest otherwise. Also, "utility-maximizing" actors (Coleman, 1986) may be influenced by the tax and employment benefits of economic growth. As suggested, growth views varied across issues and intercorrelations were only moderate. Strongest support was for attracting light industry. Bivariate and regression analyses of the effects of sociodemographic and community evaluation variables indicated that while no predictor was significantly related to all three growth issues, the strongest were city's performance controlling growth, age, and homeownership. Best predicted were views toward general growth, while views on attracting industry were least explained. An index of growth views resulted in generally weaker relationships although one variable, sex, became significant.