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Multicultural Perspective on Middle‐Class Women's Identity Development
Author(s) -
Petersen Suni
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of counseling and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.805
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1556-6676
pISSN - 0748-9633
DOI - 10.1002/j.1556-6676.2000.tb02561.x
Subject(s) - oppression , gender studies , perspective (graphical) , identity (music) , multiculturalism , grounded theory , embeddedness , sociology , face (sociological concept) , qualitative research , middle class , cultural identity , social psychology , psychology , anthropology , aesthetics , social science , political science , feeling , pedagogy , politics , law , philosophy , artificial intelligence , computer science
In this qualitative study using grounded theory, Caucasian women and African American women told the story of their identity development across a lifetime. The Difference Model (U. Oleyamade & P. Rosser, 1980) was used to analyze the interviews separately for each cultural group. The pattern of development for each group is explained and comparisons between the groups were explored. The present study provides an explanation of how African American women sustain their identities in the face of oppression and how Caucasian women struggle to emerge from embeddedness in their self‐definitions and regain their sense of identity.