Feminism, Psychology and Social Policy: Constructing Political Boundaries at the Grassroots

Abstract

Dominant ideologies of motherhood, reproduction and the family powerfully pervade public policies and are perhaps influential enough to define aspects of everyday life. Ideology and how best to challenge it therefore constitute important issues for psychology, social policy and feminism. In this article I argue for a feminist psychology of resistance that departs from a feminist critique of mainstream psychology or academic politics based on voice. Drawing on my experiences as a researcher involved in social activism around reproduction and motherhood, I aim to highlight the dilemmas and possibilities of making challenges through the genre of ‘voice’ (that is, as problematized through the politics of experience and representation). I argue that such dilemmas should not simply be reconciled in a textual way, but that we must use the spaces they create to forge connections between those researching social issues and those who have experience in their everyday lives of resistance and challenge.