Who-Stole-Feminism.-How-Women-Have-Betrayed-Women

142 WHO STOLE FEMINISM?"Why do you want it?" asked a curious woman in the AAUW office inWashington. I said, truthfully enough, that I was doing research for abook and would like to review the data. She told me to leave my numberand someone would get back to me. No one did. I tried again. This time,there was a tentative understanding that they would send me the study.But first they would send me a letter outlining certain terms. A lettereventually came, signed by Anne Bryant. She wrote: "Please send a statementoutlining how you plan to use the survey instrument and results,along with your payment for the full research report. If your review andanalysis of the data results in a possible publication or presentation, thatuse of data must receive advance written approval from AAUW."I sent the money and a bland "statement" about my plans. I also usedthe 800 number to order all the high-priced pamphlets, newsletters, andsummaries and, of course, the video. When the full report finally arrived,after several weeks and three more phone calls, I saw immediately whyAAUW was so cautious. For one thing, it contained nothing like a definitionof self-esteem, or even an informal discussion of what they meantby it.The concept of self-esteem is generally considered to be unstable andcontroversial, yet few psychologists doubt its central importance. Theinstability and fluidity of the concept makes it ill-suited for a pollsterapproach. Polling firms are good at tallying opinions, but self-esteem is acomplex personal characteristic, and people's expressed opinions ofthemselves may have little to do with their sense of inner worth. Yetthe AAUW/Greenberg-Lake procedures relied almost exclusively on selfreports.Self-esteem and a host of related personal characteristics such as selflove,humility, pride, and vanity have been under study since Aristotle.The scientific study of self-esteem by developmental psychologists andsociologists is in its infancy. At the moment, there is little agreementabout how to define it and far less agreement on how to measure it.Oxford University psychiatrist Philip Robson says, "It has even beenquestioned whether self-esteem exists as an independent entity." 17Whatis more, different tests produce different results. According to Dr. Robson,"The same people do not get high scores on all of them." Self-reports onfeelings of inner worth are not consistent over time, nor are they easy tointerpret. High scores on a self-esteem test, says Dr. Robson, may indicate"conformity, rigidity, or insensitivity." 18Jack Block, a research psychologist at the University of California,Berkeley, has also criticized self-esteem questionnaires for failing to determinewhy people like or dislike themselves. Dr. Block points out that