Are Feminists Empowered Activists or Entitled Whiners? A Thematic Analysis of U.S. Adolescents’ Definitions of “Feminist” in a Diverse, Mixed-Gender Sample

“What defines a feminist ?” is a heavily debated question within scholarly and mainstream discourse. Although prior studies have examined adults’ definitions of feminist , less is known about adolescents’ conceptualizations. This study explores definitions of “feminist” in a mixed-gender, racially/ethnically diverse sample of high-school adolescents in the Southeastern United States ( n = 213; M age = 16.23, SD age = .76; 61% adolescent girls; 47% White/Caucasian, 25% Hispanic/Latinx, 23% Black/African American). Participants responded to the open-ended prompt: “How do you define the word ‘feminist’?” Thematic analysis identified three overarching themes: (1) supporting gender equality and women’s rights (63% of responses), with four subthemes: gender equality, women’s rights, activism, pro-women ; (2) seeking attention and power over men (24% of responses), with three subthemes: gender adversaries, pejorative views of feminists, feminism is unnecessary ; and (3) confusing feminist with other terms and concepts (14% of responses), including mixing up terms and concepts and unsure. Participants expressed multiple subthemes in their individual responses, with some defining “feminist” in both positive and negative ways. Overlap among themes is discussed in the context of multifaceted notions of feminism. Although definitions about gender equality were more common than those focused on feminists seeking power over men, most adolescents (58%) did not identify as a feminist, suggesting additional barriers to self-identifying beyond misunderstanding the goals of feminism or holding negative views of feminists. Findings illuminate both the stability of long-standing tensions about feminists and the novelty of emerging trends in adolescents’ conceptions of feminists.