Developing a Sociological Model for Researching Women’s Self and Social Identities

Abstract

This paper presents an empirical model for researching women’s self and social identities. The model was devised as a theoretical and methodological framework to assist the author to recognize self-identity and social identity in single women’s narratives of their lives. Self-identity is understood as our own sense of ourselves as persons while social identity is categorizations of us by others. For those interested in researching the consequences of strong ideologies (such as familism) on women’s identities, or for recognizing resistance and understanding the development of new conceptions of womanhood, an empirical model which focuses our research attention on the self-identity of individual women is helpful.