The Times Were A-Changin

The women's movement drastically altered the personalitiesof participants.

By Marcus Wynne, published on November 01, 1998 - last reviewed on August 30, 2004

The personal is political, according to one of the mantras of the women's movement. But research shows that the relationship flows in the other direction, too: participation in women's lib actually changed women's personalities.

In a study conducted by psychologists Gall Agronick, Ph.D., of the University of California-Berkeley, and Lauren Duncan, Ph.D., of Harvey Mudd College, a group of women was interviewed at the time of their college graduation in the late 1950s or early 1960s, and then again in the early 1980s. Those who found the feminist movement personally meaningful became more dominant, empathetic, self-accepting, psychologically minded and achievement-oriented in the intervening years, while the personalities of women who were uninvolved in the movement did not undergo such a significant change.

The feminists' greater confidence and self-esteem eased their transition into middle age. "Women to whom the movement was important showed increased feelings of empowerment from college graduation to mid-life," says Agronick. "These women were, and are, insightful, expressive and nonconformist."

Intense interpersonal experiences such as the consciousness-raising groups popular in the 1970s might account for these strong effects on personality, the researchers speculate. Or it may be that the women who changed in these ways would have done so without a movement. Even as 20-something college graduates, the ones who would later embrace women's lib tended to be open, ambitious--and already dissatisfied with traditional gender roles.