Feminist PerspectivesSarah Holmgren & Katrina Lessard

Feminism

• MovementFor women’s rights!

• More to it than most think

Three Challenges

1. Denotative

2. Connotative

3. Credibility Bias

Denotative

• Defines feminist terms

• Asks the actual questionWithout specific detail

ConnotativeResult of Dennotative

• Worldwide view of women through…

– Personal Identities– Social roles– Cultural mores

• Mainstream media issues– Negative images (“bra burner,” “femi-nazi,” “man-

hater”)

– “Real women” natural or constructed?

Credibility Bias

• Goals: Objectivity and Replication

• Question, Focusand Method(Scientific Approach)

• Scholarly criticism(only interests/positive to women,threats)

Diversity

• Eisenberg and Goodall (2004) – Organizational Communication Scholars

• Ideology and Power– Primary focus of feminist scholars– “Assert ideology is the basic, often unexamined

assumptions about how things are or should be”

Sources

Hansen-Horn, T. L., & Neff, B. D. (2008). Public Relations:

from theory to practice. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.