Feminism and Attachment Parenting: Attitudes, Stereotypes, and Misperceptions

This paper investigated attitudes and stereotypes about what feminist women, primarily from the United States, believed about
a number of practices associated with attachment parenting which is theorized to be both feminist and non-feminist. The goals
of this study were to determine whether feminists endorsed attachment parenting and whether stereotypes of feminists’ beliefs
corresponded to actual feminists’ attitudes. Women were recruited online, primarily through blogs, to complete an online survey
about feminism and mothering. Four hundred and thirty one women comprised the sample for the current investigation and included
heterosexual-identified feminist mothers (n = 147), feminist non-mothers (n = 75), non-feminist mothers (n = 143), and non-feminist non-mothers (n = 66). Participants were asked to rate their own attitudes towards specific practices associated with attachment parenting
and to indicate their perceptions of the beliefs of the typical feminist. Results indicated that feminists were more supportive
of attachment parenting practices than were non-feminists. Non-feminists, particularly mothers, held misperceptions about
the typical feminist, seeing them as largely uninterested in the time-intensive and hands-on practices associated with attachment
parenting. Feminist mothers also held stereotypes about feminists and saw themselves as somewhat atypical feminists who were
more interested in attachment parenting than they thought was typical of feminists. Our data indicated that feminists did
endorse attachment parenting and that stereotypes of feminists related to attachment parenting are untrue. Furthermore, the
role of feminism in the identity of feminist mothers and whether attachment parenting is truly a feminist way to parent are
discussed.