Journal of Family Issues

The author examines the advantages and challenges of using Black feminist theory and critical race feminist theory to study the lives of Black women and families in family studies. The author addresses the ways in which these per spectives, both of which are intentional in their analyses of intersectionality and the politics of location, are also distinct. She provides empirical examples from how family researchers have used Black feminist theory or a critical race fem inist lens to examine the lives of Black women and families, and suggests ways for colleagues to embrace an explicit integration of Black consciousness and critical race feminist perspectives in family studies.

Integrating thought from critical feminist and disability theorists via a strategic social constructionist perspective, the authors analyzed 10 in-depth qualitative interviews to begin to understand the dialogue between (a) how nondisabled sisters understand themselves and their siblings with developmental disabilities and (b) wider systems of power or discourse. The women in this exploratory study described themselves as good sisters by portraying their siblings with disabilities as normal, emphasizing opportunities for moral enhancement, minimizing personal sacrifices, and accepting the gendered nature of family care. This study suggests that nondisabled sisters co-opt ideology that holds women accountable for moral conduct in families to oppose discourse that devalues people with disabilities. This ideology does not, however, help them transcend a gender system that requires mothers and sisters but not fathers and brothers to engage in family care.

Researchers suggest that backlashes to feminism may appear in the form of pro-family campaigns. Social scientists have observed themes in the current pro-marriage movement to support this claim; others note historical cycles of pro-family backlash to feminism. This article is a sociohistorical analysis of texts from a leading organized advocate of 19th-century pro-family reform that examines emergent rhetorical themes illustrative of a backlash to women's rights. I draw on critical feminist theory to suggest that these strategic rhetorical themes were used to stimulate 19th-century women's ambivalence about family and independence. I also briefly engage gender social movement's literature and research on current pro-family campaigns to point out similarities between the backlash rhetorical strategies of the historical and current movements. In accord with previous feminist scholarship, this study is important in “making visible” the often hidden antifeminist bias in pro-family rhetoric.

In this article, we share our challenges and positive experiences of using feminist pedagogy to teach an undergraduate course on gender development. We use a developmental contextual, feminist perspective to address issues related to (a) internalized sexism, (b) contrasts in student's religious beliefs and sexism, (c) students' developmental level, and (d) teaching intersectionality. In response to the challenges, we offer practical applications of integrating feminist pedagogy in the classroom. Finally, we delineate the ways in which our application of feminist pedagogy has benefited us in our growth and offer suggestions for future research.

In this article, the authors draw from feminist, critical, and multicultural research traditions to identify fundamental assumptions for researching from a feminist-informed, critical, multicultural stance. Core considerations include amplifying marginalized voices, interrogating the politics of knowledge production, ensuring research benefits to those at the center of analysis, attending to culture and context, holding ourselves accountable as researchers for our own multicultural competence, and using diverse methodologies to support social equity. They offer examples of critical multicultural research and argue for the potential of this approach to contribute to a corrective research agenda in the field of family studies.

Women use legacies to help family members articulate family identity, learn family history, and provide succeeding generations with information about family culture. Using feminist standpoint theory and the life-course perspective, this qualitative study examined the intergenerational transmissions that 30 older Armenian American mothers received and transmitted to succeeding generations within the sociohistorical experience of genocide. Mothers passed on legacies that included family stories, rituals/activities, and possessions. Because of multiple losses during the Armenian Genocide, they emphasized legacies that symbolized connection to family, underscored family cohesion, and accentuated ethnic identity. Tensions were evident as well because women's sense of responsibility for legacies clashed with their limited cultural knowledge, few inherited possessions, and the inevitable assimilation of their children and grandchildren into the dominant U.S. culture.