Race Differences in Feminism and Guilt

A measure of feminism and Mosher's Forced-choice Guilt Inventory, which assesses sexual guilt, guilt about hostility, morality conscience, and total guilt, were administered to 179 white and 34 black women. Correlations indicated that women high on feminism scored lower on the four measures than nonfeminists. Black and white women did not differ in strength of feminist beliefs, but separate correlations performed for black and white women indicated that for black women feminism was related to less guilt about hostility while in white women feminism was related to less sexual guilt and morality conscience but was unrelated to guilt about hostility. The results suggest that the underrepresentation of black women in the women's liberation movement reflects the different needs of black and white women, not differences in strength of feminist beliefs.