Magnusson, E., & Marecek, J. (2010). Sociocultural means to feminist ends: Discursive and constructionist psychologies of gender. In S. R. Kirschner & J. Martin (Eds.), The sociocultural turn in psychology: The contextual emergence of mind and self(pp. 88–110). Columbia University Press.
Abstract
In this chapter, we describe work that has integrated feminist theories and critical gender studies with various strongly relational approaches to psychology. First, we describe some major theoretical and metatheoretical assumptions of feminist discursive psychologists. Next, we describe the variety of projects and topics that they have pursued. Because gender figures so prominently as an organizing feature of social life in most societies, the topics of research span the range of human activity. Feminist psychologists have also given priority to reflexive critical practice. That is, they have cultivated self-awareness of their own practices as researchers and those of the discipline at large. In this regard, they have examined how historic and contemporary psychological knowledge and practice have served to reaffirm certain meanings of gender, especially those that perpetuate the status quo. We subsequently discuss in some detail two illustrative examples of feminist discursive research, one on boys’ masculinities and the other on women’s experiences of coercive heterosexual relations. In the final part of the essay, we step back to assess the powers and limits of feminist discursive psychology. What questions, theoretical insights, and methodological developments have feminists brought to psychology? What do discursive approaches uniquely contribute to understanding gender? What new questions, avenues of investigation, and practical applications have these approaches opened? What obstacles have researchers who use these approaches encountered?