TY - JOUR
T1 - Intersectional political consciousness
T2 - Appreciation for intragroup differences and solidarity in diverse groups
AU - Greenwood, Ronni Michelle
PY - 2008/3
Y1 - 2008/3
N2 - This article introduces an intersectional approach to political consciousness and presents data to demonstrate its importance for predicting solidarity in diverse social change organizations. Women activists (N = 174) completed measures of political consciousness, diversity, and solidarity. As expected, women differed in the degree to which their political consciousness reflected intersectionality (sensitivity to intragroup differences arising from intersections of social identities, such as ethnicity with gender) and singularity (focus on intragroup similarities arising from a shared social identity, such as gender). Although high group diversity related to lower solidarity, the content of political consciousness moderated the negative association of diversity to solidarity. High diversity had a negative association with solidarity only when political consciousness reflected a high degree of singularity and a low degree of intersectionality. These findings challenge the common assumption that diversity undermines a group's ability to work together and suggest that, when appreciation of difference is an important aspect of an individual's identity, solidarity with a social change organization may be greater when group diversity is high rather than low.
AB - This article introduces an intersectional approach to political consciousness and presents data to demonstrate its importance for predicting solidarity in diverse social change organizations. Women activists (N = 174) completed measures of political consciousness, diversity, and solidarity. As expected, women differed in the degree to which their political consciousness reflected intersectionality (sensitivity to intragroup differences arising from intersections of social identities, such as ethnicity with gender) and singularity (focus on intragroup similarities arising from a shared social identity, such as gender). Although high group diversity related to lower solidarity, the content of political consciousness moderated the negative association of diversity to solidarity. High diversity had a negative association with solidarity only when political consciousness reflected a high degree of singularity and a low degree of intersectionality. These findings challenge the common assumption that diversity undermines a group's ability to work together and suggest that, when appreciation of difference is an important aspect of an individual's identity, solidarity with a social change organization may be greater when group diversity is high rather than low.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=40149094488&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1471-6402.2007.00405.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1471-6402.2007.00405.x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:40149094488
SN - 0361-6843
VL - 32
SP - 36
EP - 47
JO - Psychology of Women Quarterly
JF - Psychology of Women Quarterly
IS - 1
ER -