Description

The major themes covered in the units were related to feminist psychology. All of the units and course readings elaborated on the domain of psychology that is centred on gender and social structures. They focused on a plethora of gender issues, in relation to who individuals identify their gender and the way they are affected by a range of societal structures like gender hierarchy (Marecek, 2016). The themes also elucidated the impact of gender on the life of an individual. The primary objective of the units was to provide a sound understanding of a person within the greater political and social aspects of the society. The units also put special emphasis on the rights and privileges of women.

One major theme identified from unit 1 was related to the ethical issues that psychologists typically encounter in their practice and the standards that they must abide by, while conducting counselling sessions (Levitt & Aligo, 2013). The unit focused on the core ethical principles of respect, non-discrimination, confidentiality, privacy, protection, and consent. Unit 2 focused on feminist counselling, which encompasses an integrative strategy to psychotherapy for addressing the stressors and challenges that are faced by women due to bias, discrimination, and oppression (Rice, Enns & Nutt, 2015). An individualistic type of feminist theory, liberal feminism formed the core theme of unit 3 and 4, which shed light on the capability of females to maintain their freedom through own decisions and actions (Eagly et al., 2012; Gilbert & Sewpaul, 2015). Third Wave Feminism formed the major aspect of unit 5, which sought after reclaiming, questioning, and redefining the philosophies, disagreements, and notions about gender and womanhood (Enns, 2010).

Feelings

The ideas and themes that had been covered in the units mentioned above made me realise the fact that during the earlier days, societies used to prioritize the perception and point of view of men, and often treated women unfairly. In recent years however, efforts have been taken for fighting the gender discrimination and stereotypes, with the aim of establishing equal prospects and opportunities for females (Cundiff & Vescio, 2016). I gained a sound understanding of the fact that all feminist movements have the prime purpose of campaigning for human rights. By conducting a thorough analysis of the unit readings, I comprehended that women are generally denied the rights of equal pay, property possession, education attainment, marriage, vote, and hold public office. This called for the need of feminist movements that encouraged feminists to work, with the aim of protecting women, while encouraging their equal rights (Thwaites, 2017). I also felt that feminist therapy plays an important role in providing assistance to females to overcome the stressors that they encounter, in relation to cultural, social, and political factors.

I was quick to understand that feminist therapy contends that females are in an underprivileged situation owing to gender, sex, race, sexuality, religion, ethnicity, age and other factors. It was understood that third wave feminism views the lives of women as intersectional and also promotes the reproductive rights of women, regarding their access to abortion and contraception (Evans, 2016). I also appreciated the work that third wave feminism has done in the area of sexual liberation and violence against females, in order to transform the outmoded standards of sexuality.

Evaluation

Earlier, I was not much aware about the different forms of violence against women and the impact that it creates on the wider society. However, the unit readings helped me understand that that violence against women can be classified into different categories and is not merely restricted to sexual harassment, domestic violence or rape. The rights and privileges of women are also denied under circumstances that involve prenatal sex selection, honor killings, reproductive coercion, trafficking, forced abortion, or female infanticide (García-Moreno et al., 2015). Moreover, I did not know that violence against females typically prevents them from completely contributing to economic, social, and political advancement of their communities. The learnings also added to my knowledge that at the time of conducting feminist therapy, there exist an egalitarian association between the client and the therapist, which helps in addressing the intrinsic power differentials.

I had the previous notion that feminist therapy always recalls its accountability. However, the readings also increased understanding on the fact that the therapy is based on a model of non-victim blaming (Garcia & Johnson, 2019). It challenged my earlier understandings about the issues that are addressed by third wave feminism. It changed my view and helped me realise that reclamation of pejorative terms against women form an essential aspect of the feminist movement since use of derogatory words directly violate the dignity and rights of women. Moreover, it also helped to identify the different components of feminist counselling like power analysis, sex role analysis and assertiveness training, thus providing an insight into issues related with conventional therapies (Vegter, 2017).

Action

The knowledge that I would take away from the unit readings is based on the fact that all feminists work with the aim of providing liberty to women who do not have equal rights, freedom and privilege. The primary aim of feminists is to put an end to the cruelty done against women, while helping them gain freedom and offering them opportunities to exercise their rights (Smith, 2018). I understood from the unit readings that it is not mandatory for women to follow sex-roles, while remaining in the society. I would like to engage in group discussions and share that all gender differences are not biologically based. I would never encourage my female acquaintances and clients to be submissive and compliant, in order to accomplishment fulfilment. Moreover, I would also disseminate the information that psychotherapy is not a male-dominated practice. I would take all possible efforts to prevent adjustment of women to the stereotypical gender roles, and would work for women liberation.

The acquired knowledge would be incorporated in the personal theory of counselling by evaluating the outcomes and goals of counselling therapies in accordance to the values and beliefs of women (Schwarz, 2017). Moreover, the therapy sessions would be based on the primary goal of segregating the internal from the external factors, such that the female clients are aware of the oppression and socialisation that they have been subjected to (Vasquez & Vasquez, 2017). This would help them attribute the psychological problems that they are facing to accurate causes. In addition, I would leave behind my ideas and notions about traditional therapies and associated issues of androcentrism and gender bias.

References

Cundiff, J. L., & Vescio, T. K. (2016). Gender stereotypes influence how people explain gender disparities in the workplace. Sex Roles, 75(3-4), 126-138.

Eagly, A. H., Eaton, A., Rose, S. M., Riger, S., & McHugh, M. C. (2012). Feminism and psychology: Analysis of a half-century of research on women and gender. American Psychologist, 67(3), 211.

Enns, C. Z. (2010). Locational feminisms and feminist social identity analysis. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 41(4), 333.

Evans, E. (2016). What Makes a (Third) Wave? How and why the third-wave narrative works for contemporary feminists. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 18(3), 409-428.

Garcia, E. S., & Johnson, C. M. (2019). Using Feminist Family Therapy and a Multidisciplinary Collaboration to Address Issues Regarding Sexism in Gamers. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 31(1), 19-39.

García-Moreno, C., Zimmerman, C., Morris-Gehring, A., Heise, L., Amin, A., Abrahams, N., … & Watts, C. (2015). Addressing violence against women: a call to action. The Lancet, 385(9978), 1685-1695.

Gilbert, I., & Sewpaul, V. (2015). Challenging dominant discourses on abortion from a radical feminist standpoint. Affilia, 30(1), 83-95.

Levitt, D. H., & Aligo, A. A. (2013). Moral orientation as a component of ethical decision making. Counseling and Values, 58(2), 195-204.

Marecek, J. (2016). Invited reflection: Intersectionality theory and feminist psychology. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 40(2), 177-181.

Rice, J. K., Enns, C. Z., & Nutt, R. L. (2015). Transforming psychological practice with women: An introduction.

Schwarz, J. E. (2017). Counseling Women and Girls: Introduction to Empowerment Feminist Therapy. Counseling Women Across the Life Span: Empowerment, Advocacy, and Intervention.

Smith, H. (2018). Pawns of Patriarchy?: Rethinking the Early Feminist Movement in Quebec. Liberated Arts: a journal for undergraduate research, 4(1).

Thwaites, R. (2017). Making a choice or taking a stand? Choice feminism, political engagement and the contemporary feminist movement. Feminist Theory, 18(1), 55-68.

Vasquez, M. J., & Vasquez, E. (2017). Psychotherapy with women: Theory and practice of feminist therapy. Comprehensive textbook of psychotherapy: Theory and practice, 299-314.

Vegter, V. (2017). “We are doing this together”: Processes of Feminist Identity Among Professional Counsellors (Doctoral dissertation, University of Calgary).