Feminist Social Justice Orientation: An Indicator of Optimal Functioning?

This article underscores several themes evident in Yoder, Snell, and Tobias's research; these include the conceptualization of feminism and social justice as inextricably linked, the conceptualization and operationalization of optimal functioning at intrapersonal, interpersonal, and collective levels, and potential connections and disconnections between empowerment and liberation from oppression. In addition, selected patterns of findings from Yoder et al.'s study are elaborated on in the context of prior research on feminism in order to probe potential connections and disconnections among empowerment, oppression consciousness, and optimal functioning. This analysis culminates in the following question: Is feminist social justice orientation, with its potential accompanying sense of discontent, itself a form of optimal functioning? This question is posed, with an invitation to critically evaluate it and its implications, and with the hope of informing future scholarship, practice, and training in feminist social justice orientation and optimal functioning.