On Becoming a Feminist Psychologist

Abstract

Feminists have seen profound changes in psychology both in the amount of research on women and gender and in the inclusion of women and others who have been underrepresented in psychology faculties. But beyond promoting those changes, what does it mean to be a feminist psychologist? Here, I discuss ways in which grounding my work in feminism has led to emotional reactions that have fueled my research but also, at times, been depleting. Researchers’ emotions have typically been thought of as contaminants to their work, but I suggest that they may be a critical part of our practice and should be acknowledged and explored. Reflecting on my own emotional reactions to doing research on violence against women has led me to recommend two ways to work for social justice: by changing the narrative about social problems and by working with advocates to do research that is useful to bring about change.