Maxie Holman June 29, 2016

WOMEN & SEXISM

Maxie Holman | Multicultural Counseling

Womens
Websites
Twitter.com/
HuffpostWomen
https://twitter.com/HuffPostWomen
This twitter feed posts
regularly articles and news
specifically involving women
and current issues.

NOW.org
http://now.org/ Applied Counseling Article
NOW stands for National
Organization for Women. This American Psychological Association, (2007). Guidelines for Psychological Practice
With Girls and Women. American Psychologist, 949-979. (Retrieved June 8, 2016
site offers the opportunity for
from, https://www.apa.org/practice/guidelines/girls-and-women.pdf)
women to connect with other
women, join together to fight This article is a good starting point for new counselors because it
for equality, provide programs discusses a large range of topics and connects them to to current
for women and girls, and share statistics and counseling methods. Covered in the article:
information.
Bias in Diagnosis and Treatment, Trauma and Other Stressors,
Treatment and Prognosis, Culture, Ethnicity, and Other
Feminist.com
Diversities, Women With Disabilities, Contemporary Social
http://feminist.com/ Forces, Media, Workplace, Education, Legal system, Families and
This site has many resource for couples, Reproduction, Older Women, and Definitions.
women who are learning
about or identity as a feminist.
There is news, opportunities to
get involved, networking
events, resource sharing, and
much more all around the
topic of being a women and
feminism.

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Dos and Donts

DO the following: DONT do the following:

Know about the 3 forms of Sexism: Overt, Covert, Use of sexist/heterosexist language terms exclude
and Subtle or degrade women are make assumption about
the client.
The counselor must start with empowerment and
helping the client to understand the contextual
influences on the female experiences.
Believe the myth that its all in their head

Help women and girls develop an improved Normalize sexist ideas

sense of initiative, resilience, and personal power
and to help them expand their non-stereotyped
Blame a survivor.

alternatives and choices Be insensitive to women who choose to take on

Encouragement of a full range of behaviors from more traditional gender roles
autonomy to interdependence is necessary;
ideally the client will find a balance between the Ignore other cultures values and how that may
shape gender roles a woman may enact
two.
Fosters a more assertive communication skills Impose their views on client
Use Feminine Therapy and Counseling (FTC)
Empower women to reclaim power in
relationships
Women Specific App:
Develop an Egalitarian counseling relationship
EmpowHER
Know the four philosophies of FTC: Liberal,
Cultural, Radical, and Socialist
This app is free. It is
Be aware of ability to stay unbiased when an interface where
working with clients with different views.
women can share,
Recognize that clients know what is best for explore, and read news
themselves and are experts on their own lives. related to women. It is customizable and
Be familiar with Feminist Identity Theory: Passive allows the user to select areas of interest
Acceptance, Revelation, Embeddedness, and the app adjusts for the user.
Synthesis, and Active Commitment

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Meet Randi Lite

Randi Lite works at Simmons College as
Associate Professor of Practice and Program
Director for Exercise Science. She is a women who
identifies as a feminist and was open to being
interviewed about her experiences and perceptions
of being a women.
When asked how she would like to be referred
to regarding being a women she brought up an
interesting point, Why do gender terms have to
reflect marital status or age? ( R.Lite, Personal
Communication, June 6,2016). She challenged the
interviewer to think about the gendered terms such
as Ms., Mrs., Miss, and mam for women compared
to Mr. for men. Her philosophy around this
concept is to refer to all women as Ms. so that is
can be a neutral term like Mr..
Randi on multiple occasions during the
interview highlight how Women are social and
communal beings. This is something that echoed
most of the literature referenced through this
newsletter. Women are socialized to value
connection and relationships ( R.Lite, Personal
Communication, June 6,2016). She spoke about
how they tend to be strong communicators and
that women are relationship focused. As she
mentions in her interview this could lend itself well
to the counseling setting. At the same time, Randi
advised that the counselor needs understand that
women will be seeking out and assessing the
relationship with the counselor. If a counselor is
aware of this quality of most women, they can
spend time in the first few sessions focusing on
developing a relationship with the client and
tapping into the womens strength of
communication.
Another key idea that Randi emphasized is
that women tend to have very complicated lives.
She discussed how women have to develop the
ability of being a strong multitasker to balance and
juggle all of the demands placed on them. She

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Maxie Holman June 29, 2016

pointed out that counselors should be aware

that women are often the primary homemaker
and are juggle a tremendous amount of
responsibilities. This is also inline with research
listed in this newsletter. Keeping that in mind
the counselor should work collaboratively with
the female client find ways that work for the
client to incorporate the counseling peice into
their already busy lives.
Other strengths that many women
possess, that Randi identified beyond
multitasking and communicating were: problem
solving, listening, and leadership in a
cooperative way rather than authoritarian way.
Randi oered stereotypes that she had
encountered through her life. One is that
emotion equals weakness ( R.Lite, Personal
Communication, June 6,2016). Randi feels
strongly that this is not true and that showing
emotion is actually a strength. She, being a
women of smaller stature, also brought up the
stereotype that women are weak. Randi feels
that this is not the case for many women
including herself. She advises that, just because
a women is small in size, do not assume that she
is physically weak.
When asked to reflect on her life experience and recall times in which she had experienced sexism,
Randi mention a few situations, Being told I couldnt do things (Personal Communication, june 6, 2016).
She shared a story about her mechanic father not teaching her to change a tire. He had told her that it was
because she was a girl. That if she ever was in that situation that she should just get help from a man.
Another story she shared was about being told that she didnt need to go to college because she was just
going to get married and have kids, that college would be a waste. These moments shaped Randis childhood
and adolescence and she could vividly remember these experiences.
Randi suggested a few dos and donts for counselors working with a woman client:
Dont assume if a woman is emotional, that she is weak if she is emotional and all-over the
place during a counseling session, that she doesnt hold it together incredibly well in her
personal and professional life ( R.Lite, Personal Communication, June 6,2016).

Do, assume resiliency, because a lot of women have had to be resilient in order to move
through the complexity and sometimes the anguish in their lives ( R.Lite, Personal
Communication, June 6,2016).

Do, be supportive and not judgemental ( R.Lite, Personal Communication, June 6,2016).

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REFFERENCES
American Psychological Association, (2003). Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Older Adults.

American Psychologist, 59 (4), 236-260. (Retrieved January 18, 2010 from, http://www.apa.org/about/
governance/council/policy/older-adults.pdf )

American Psychological Association, (2007). Guidelines for Psychological Practice With Girls and Women.

American Psychologist, 949-979. (Retrieved June 8, 2016 from, https://www.apa.org/practice/guidelines/

girls-and-women.pdf)

American Psychological Association, Task Force on Socioeconomic Status. (2007). Report of the APA Task

Force on Socioeconomic Status. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. (Retrieved

January 18, 2010 from, http://www2.apa.org/pi/SES_task_force_report.pdf )

Corey, G. (2013). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Detailed

Timeline. (n.d.). Retrieved June 24, 2016, from http://www.nwhp.org/resources/womens-rights-

movement/detailed-timeline/

EEO infographic. (n.d.). Retrieved June 19, 2016, from https://www.census.gov/how/pdf/EEO_infographic.pdf

Empowering Women | YWCA Southeastern Massachusetts. (n.d.). Retrieved June 24, 2016, from http://

ywcasema.org/

Enns, C. (1987). Gestalt therapy and feminist therapy: A proposed integration. Journal of Counseling and

Development, v. 66 (p. 93-95). American Counseling Association.

Evans, N., Forney, D., Guido, F., Patton, L., & Renn, K. (2010). Student development in college: Theory,

research, and practice. (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Ivey, A., Ivey, M. B., & Simek-Morgan, L. (2007). The Fourth Force in Counseling and Therapy: Multicultural

and Feminist Perspectives. In M. D'Andrea (Ed.),THEORIES OF COUNSELING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY:

A Multicultural Perspective(Vol. 6/e). Retrieved June 21, 2016, from http://www.ablongman.com/
ivey6echapterchallenge/ivey_ch11.pdf Chapter 11

New Hope. (n.d.). Retrieved June 24, 2016, from http://www.new-hope.org/

R.Lite, Personal Communication, June 6,2016

Stand Together. (n.d.). Retrieved June 24, 2016, from http://www.heforshe.org/

Sue, D.W. and Sue, D. (2016). Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice (7th edition). New York:

Wiley.

Timeline: The UN at 70 Gender Equality Milestones & Memorable Moments. (n.d.). Retrieved June 24, 2016,

from http://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/multimedia/2015/9/timeline-un-at-70-gender-equality

Womens History Month: March 2016. (n.d.). Retrieved June 19, 2016, from https://www.census.gov/content/

dam/Census/newsroom/facts-for-features/2016/cb16-03_women_hist_2016.pdf

Women Workforce Slides. (n.d.). Retrieved June 23, 2016, from https://www.census.gov/newsroom/pdf/

women_workforce_slides.pdf

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