Is our feminism bullshit? The importance of intersectionality in adopting a feminist identity

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographics by feminist identification

Demographic	All participants n (%)	Feminists n (%)	Not a feminist n (%)
Average age in years		28.11	28.86
Ethnicity
White	290 (81.7%)	218 (82.9%)	72 (78.3%)
Black	3 (.8%)	2 (.8%)	1 (1.1%)
Mixed-race	26 (7.3%)	18 (6.8%)	8 (8.6%)
Asian	19 (5.4%)	12 (4.6%)	7 (7.6%)
Other	17 (4.8%)	13 (4.9%)	4 (4.4%)
Nationality
American	198 (55.9%)	147 (56.1%)	51 (55.4%)
Canadian	125 (35.3%)	90 (34.4%)	35 (38%)
Other	31 (8.8%)	25 (9.5%)	6 (6.6%)
Highest education level
High school	124 (35.4%)	87 (35.4%)	37 (35.6%)
Associate’s degree	55 (15.7%)	28 (11.4%)	27 (26%)
Bachelor’s degree	113 (32.3%)	85 (34.5%)	28 (26.9%)
Graduate degree	58 (16.6%)	46 (18.7%)	12 (11.5%)
Personal annual gross income
Less than $9,999	134 (38.5%)	101 (41.4%)	33 (31.7%)
$10,000–$24,999	96 (27.6%)	66 (27.1%)	30 (28.8%)
$25,000–$49,999	62 (17.8%)	40 (16.4%)	22 (21.2%)
$50,000–$74,999	35 (10.1%)	26 (10.7%)	9 (8.7%)
$75,000 or more	21 (6%)	11 (4.4%)	10 (9.6%)
Gender/sex
Male	92 (25.9%)	51 (19.3%)	41 (45.1%)
Female	234 (65.9%)	187 (70.8%)	47 (51.6%)
Trans man (ftm)	2 (.6%)	2 (.8%)	0 (0%)
Trans woman (mtf)	2 (.6%)	2 (.8%)	0 (0%)
Gender queer	14 (3.9%)	12 (4.6%)	2 (2.2%)
Other	11 (3.1%)	10 (3.8%)	1 (1.1%)
Sexual identity
Lesbian	16 (4.5%)	13 (5.2%)	3 (2.9%)
Gay	21 (5.9%)	13 (5.2%)	8 (7.6%)
Queer	39 (11%)	36 (14.5%)	3 (2.9%)
Straight	215 (60.7%)	136 (54.6%)	79 (75.2%)
Bisexual	41 (11.7%)	30 (12%)	11 (10.5%)
Other	22 (6.2%)	21 (8.4%)	1 (.9%)

Notes: For the purpose of this study, sexual orientation was defined as a clinical term that describes a person’s consistent sexual attractions over time. Sexual identity was defined as the label a person uses to describe their sexual orientation or personal identity.

Figure 1. Organization of Themes. This figure illustrates the organization of the global and basic themes.

Table 2. Logistic regression predicting likelihood of identifying as a feminist based on gender and qualities of feminism definition

	B	SE	Wald	df	p	Odds ratio	95% CI for odds ratio
							Lower	Upper
Ethnicity	−.437	.414	1.113	1	.291	.646	.287	1.455
Gender	1.125	.340	10.953	1	.001	3.080	1.582	5.996
Negative	2.452	.551	19.780	1	.000	11.608	3.940	34.197
Intersectional	1.445	.345	17.543	1	.000	4.240	2.157	8.335
Constant	−2.687	.584	21.146	1	.000	.068

Notes: Ethnicity is for non-white compared to white; Gender is for females compared to males; negative is for those who were not coded as negative definitions compared to those who did have a negative definition, Intersectional is for those who were coded as having an intersectional definition compared to those who did not have an intersectional definition of Feminism.