Locational Feminisms and Feminist Social Identity Analysis

Locational feminisms encompass the many manifestations that feminisms assume as they emerge, travel, and are transplanted in a wide range of temporal, spatial, and cultural settings. Locational feminisms explore the interlocking oppressions and privileges associated with multidimensional and complex social identities associated with race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, culture, disability, and other social statuses. They also critique feminisms based on generalizations about middle class women's lives, and move the experiences and perspectives of diverse groups of individuals from the margin to the center of exploration. The locational feminisms addressed in this article include postmodern feminism, women of color feminisms, lesbian feminisms and queer theory, transnational and postcolonial feminisms, and third wave feminisms. Social identity analysis refers to the assessment of the social categories a person occupies and how these memberships are relevant to personal identity; perceived sources of strength and challenge; and experiences of empowerment, privilege, and discrimination. The locational feminisms hold substantial potential for informing social identity analysis, which supports comprehensive assessment relevant to social justice approaches. The article begins with a summary of the theoretical literature that informs locational feminisms, and is followed by a discussion of implications and applications relevant to feminist and other social justice practices in psychology.