A Rose by Any Other Name:

Abstract

Between 1972 and 1984, the American National Election Studies included a feeling thermometer that measured affect toward the "women's liberation movement." In 1988 the survey substituted a new item that asked respondents to rate "feminists," and in 1990, the questionnaire changed the wording to "the women's movement." Using data from the 1985 Pilot Study, we compare responses to these two items for both men and women. We conclude that the new measure is a "harder" measure, eliciting more negative responses. Moreover, the correlates of the new measure differ from the original feeling thermometer. When the feeling thermometer is incorporated into a multi-item measure of feminist consciousness, however, the pattern of correlations is very similar, suggesting that a limited type of longitudinal analysis may still be possible.