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A Grounded Theory of Women’s Assertive Identity Negotiation
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- Author / Creator
- McLean, Michelle
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Assertiveness can be taboo for women. This is highlighted by recent social movements (i.e., #METOO) where women describe considerable self-doubt about their right to stand up to abuse.
The onus for abusive behaviour lies with perpetrators. Assertiveness, though, is shown to mitigate the extent of abuse and is related to better mental and social health outcomes overall. Given the internal and external barriers women face to assertiveness, it is crucial to understand how women become assertive in spite of the obstacles. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to examine the processes through which women develop assertiveness. Questionnaire and interview data were collected from 11 women. Six reported currently struggling with assertiveness and five struggled in the past but considered themselves more assertive now. The resulting theory conceptualizes how women negotiate an assertive identity within the tensions of their social context. Participants’ main concerns centered on belonging, evaluating, and costs of
belonging. Processes in resolving these main concerns related to pursuing change, finding belonging, challenging evaluations, and developing an assertive identity. Assertive identity negotiation involved continual reflection and commitment to becoming assertive while balancing concerns about belonging and interpersonal consideration. Through this process of negotiating
and balancing intra and interpersonal factors, women were able to move from a view that an assertive identity is one that does not belong to a view that an assertive identity can belong. This
theory provides an empirical model to inform counselling practices in helping women overcome internal and external barriers to negotiating an assertive identity. -
- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- Fall 2020
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Education
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- License
- Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.