The Effect of Feminist and Anti-Feminist Speeches on Feminist and Nonfeminist Women\u27s Self-Esteem

Three groups of women from undergraduate psychology classes at the University of Central Florida were exposed to an experimental treatment which consisted of either a feminist, anti-feminist or a sex-role neutral speech. All subjects were administered the Feminism II Scale prior to the treatment, and the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale both prior to and immediately following the treatment conditions. No posttest differences in total self-esteem scores were noted among the treatment conditions. The anti-feminist treatment sample did have significantly lower scores on the family self subscale of the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale than either the feminist or control groups. Additionally, there were no significant posttest self-esteem differences between subjects scoring high versus low on the Feminism II Scale. A test for homogeneity of variance revealed significant treatment effects on the overall variability of the self-esteem change scores among the three treatment groups. Implications for the psychotherapeutic situation are discussed