The Roles of Experiences of Discrimination, Collective Identification, and Structural Awareness in Own-group and Ally Activism.

Abstract

This dissertation examined how social location (e.g. gender, race, and age), as well as experiences of discrimination, collective identification, and structural awareness of group inequalities— which were assumed to be shaped by women’s particular locations—relate to own-group and ally activism in a sample of older middle-aged heterosexual Black and White women graduates of the University of Michigan. Three types of activism were included as outcomes: Women’s Rights activism (measure of own-group activism), and Lesbian and Gay Rights activism and International Human Rights activism (both defined as ally activism for the current sample). It was hypothesized that personal experiences of discrimination would be associated with both own-group and ally activism via their relationships with two intervening variables: collective identification (for own-group activism) and structural awareness of group inequalities (for both own-group and ally activism). Although previous research has examined the role of collective identification in predicting activism, the current project examined the independent roles of discrimination, collective identification, and structural awareness of group inequalities in predicting own-group activism; and the role of structural awareness of group inequalities and discrimination in ally activism. Results replicated previous findings that collective identification plays a key role in predicting own-group activism. Additional results showed that discrimination exerted significant indirect effects on own-group activist engagement, via its relationship with collective identification. Structural awareness of group inequalities played a significant role in predicting ally activism, though it did not predict own-group activism. Experiences of personal discrimination also predicted ally activism, independent of the effect of structural awareness of group inequalities. Results highlighted the value of considering the role that life experiences, such as discrimination, play in predicting activism both on behalf of one’s own group, as well as in alliance with groups to which one does not belong. Further, they showed that structural awareness of group inequalities plays a key role in understanding ally engagement.