About

Professor Shelly A. Grabe, Ph.D., is a social psychologist whose program of research focuses on training a new generation of feminist researchers to apply theoretical and methodological perspectives from social psychology to contribute to positive social change for women. Her mentorship aligns with broader program goals to prepare social scientists to conduct applied research on justice-related issues across diverse cultural, political, and policy contexts using a variety of research methods. Professor Grabe's work emphasizes understanding structural and ideological power and inequality, particularly as they relate to gender and women's experiences. She integrates intersectional theories of gender and power, feminist psychological theories, and liberation and empowerment frameworks to explore how gender-based inequalities within patriarchy create barriers to women's well-being and social justice. Her research program also investigates the psychology of activism, resistance to oppression, and the mechanisms that enable individuals and communities to work toward social change, with a focus on international contexts such as Nicaragua, India, and Tanzania. Through her applied research, Professor Grabe aims to advance psychological knowledge while promoting sociostructural transformation and policy change to improve women's lives globally.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Law
• Gender studies
• Social psychology
• Social Science
• Psychology
• Demography
• Political economy

Selected publications

• Women’s Movement Activism in Authoritarian States: Lessons from the Global Feminisms Project

  Signs · 2023 · 6 citations

  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Gender studies

  In this article we examine three transnational women’s movements in countries currently led by dictators—Nicaragua, Russia, and China—to uncover lessons they might offer feminist activists across the world as authoritarian regimes increase in the context of globalization. Although the rise in feminist action within these countries paralleled social movement mobilization elsewhere, what distinguishes feminist activism in these three countries is the national political context in which they each operated: a demonstrably repressive turn in which feminist activities became dangerous. In the three countries under investigation, the leaders’ rise to power included feminist repression. To understand how these three different states could evolve from encouraging feminist action to engaging in strategic repression a decade later, we examine oral history interviews with feminist activists in Nicaragua, Russia, and China that were recorded as part of the Global Feminisms Project. Thus, we had thirty-seven unique first-person accounts of the period in question from the perspective of feminist activists. Our analysis suggests that these states employed three mechanisms that disempowered the women’s movement over time: suppression of the international flow of ideas and funding, state control of the media, and public criminalization of dissent and activism. We focus on the first as critical to transnational feminism and review the other two as enhancing the effort to suppress the flow of ideas, people, and funding. Among other implications, the conclusion suggests that to protect feminist activism, we directly work to protect the free flow of ideas and funds across national boundaries, as well as a freely operating media that conveys accurate information, and freedom of protest and dissent where they currently exist.

  PublisherDOI

• Decolonizing feminist knowledge: The standpoint of majority world feminist activists in Perú

  Feminism & Psychology · 2022-09-13 · 5 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  From its beginnings, feminism has challenged knowledge about women and gender and questioned the methods by which that knowledge is produced. Feminist psychologists are well-positioned to engage in a critical re-examination of the assumptions underlying theory or the constructs employed in the construction of knowledge. Macleod et al. noted that feminists have rarely adopted a single theory, recognizing that every feminism bears the stamp of its place of origin. The current study contributes to feminist decolonizing efforts by using the standpoint of activists in Perú to conduct an examination of feminism. The project involves scholar-activist collaborations with the Global Feminisms Project, at the University of Michigan, and a feminist organization in Perú, Flora Tristán. Nine key feminist activists were interviewed through testimonio. Participants held positions including: Indigenous leaders, scholars, Congresswomen, directors of organizations, and youth leaders. Key findings reveal that the feminist activists interviewed believe that production of knowledge is not a monopoly of the academy, feminism is inherently intersectional and is a process, not an academic definition, and one crucial for political action.

  PublisherDOI

• Feminist Approaches to Gender Equity in Perú: The Roles of Conflict, Militancy, and Pluralism in Feminist Activism

  Frontiers in Psychology · 2022-03-18 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  For the past several decades, coordinated efforts from within the women's social movement in Perú have led to groundbreaking legislation surrounding gender equity - for example, the National Gender Equality Policy of 2019 and the Gender Parity Law of 2020. These institutionalized policy changes mark milestones on the path to gender equity, certainly in Perú, but activist efforts that targeted these outcomes can inform women globally. The current study investigated key components of feminist activism by social movement actors themselves through the use of testimonio with nine key leaders in the movement. Using a liberation psychology approach and thematic narrative analysis, the findings suggested three key components of feminist activism: conflict, militant identity, and pluralism that were critical in processes of change. Centering majority world women's voices contributes to the production of knowledge regarding approaches to gender equity, in particular because much that has been written about feminist action in psychology has been produced among samples of white women in the United States. Implications for understanding how the findings have the potential for global change are discussed.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Research Methods in the Study of Intersectionality in Psychology: Examples Informed by a Decade of Collaborative Work With Majority World Women’s Grassroots Activism

  Frontiers in Psychology · 2020 · 42 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Social Science
  • Sociology

  Very few theories have generated the kind of interdisciplinary and international engagement that marks the intellectual history of intersectionality, leaving some authors to suggest that intersectionality is the most important theoretical contribution that the field of women's studies has made thus far. Yet, consideration of intersectionality as a research paradigm has yet to gain a wide foothold in mainstream psychology. The current article uses a program of multimethod research designed in partnership with, and intending to center the intersectional experiences of, majority world women to propose a research agenda for the empirical study of intersectionality. Specifically, it is suggested that a research agenda rooted in intersectional understandings requires that: (1) researchers think carefully about social categories of analysis and how their methodological choices can best answer those questions, (2) psychologists reposition their research questions to examine processes by which structural inequities lead to power imbalances and gender-based norms that sustain women's experience of marginalization and oppression, and (3) we understand how intersectional experiences can be applied toward change. Intersectional investigations hold a key to interrupting the structural dimensions of power that result in egregious consequences to peoples' social, economic, and political lives, but only if we radically restructure what we think about knowledge, our roles, and the products of our research.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Reproductive Justice: The Role of Community‐Based Organizational Participation in Reproductive Decision‐Making and Educational Aspirations among Women in Nicaragua

  Journal of Social Issues · 2020 · 10 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Sociology

  Abstract Across the world, women experience violations to their reproductive health and threats to their educational aspirations that limit their achievement. Reproductive health and education are examples of women's human rights that are connected by systemic gender inequalities that lead millions of women to experience discrimination and stereotyping that threaten these basic rights. The current study uses a reproductive justice framework to examine how a community‐based organization led by a group of women in rural Nicaragua challenges gendered psychosocial processes related to women's rights violations. In partnership with a grassroots local organization, we used structural equation modeling to demonstrate, in a sample of almost 300 women, that organizational participation was positively related to women's reproductive decision‐making and educational aspiration, in part due to relationships with women's self‐esteem and sense of powerlessness in sociopolitical matters. Given the persistent role of gendered inequities in the reproductive decision‐making and educational aspirations of girls and women, considering the social‐structural contexts that enable or limit rights is imperative to creating viable routes to gender justice.

  PublisherDOI

• Toward an inclusive, affirmative transnational psychology.

  American Psychological Association eBooks · 2019-01-01 · 3 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Community intervention in the societal inequity of women’s political participation: The development of efficacy and citizen participation in rural Nicaragua

  Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community · 2019-06-26 · 16 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Globally, limited opportunities for women's political participation and decision-making reflect a widespread societal problem perpetuated through gender inequities that operate at numerous levels of society. Challenging and ending systemic gender-based power imbalances is critical to understanding the potential for women's political participation. The current study uses a liberation psychology approach to examine how a community intervention interrupts traditional gender ideology, enhances women's agency and political efficacy, and increases civic engagement and community leadership among women in rural Nicaragua. Research was conducted in partnership with a grassroots women's organization and data were taken from 261 surveys. Findings suggest that community-level interventions interrupt standard notions of women's political participation, resulting in greater agency and efficacy and thereby higher levels of decision-making and leadership. The findings illustrate the importance of assessing the psychosocial processes involved in transformative political spaces that facilitate women's meaningful citizen engagement, having important implications for women's political participation worldwide.

  PublisherDOI

• Understanding Processes of Transformative Change: A Qualitative Inquiry into Empowering Sources and Outcomes Identified by Women in Rural Nicaragua

  Sex Roles · 2019-01-23 · 13 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Gender Ideology and Social Transformation: Using Mixed Methods to Explore Processes of Ideological Change and the Promotion of Women’s Human Rights in Tanzania

  Sex Roles · 2017-01-11 · 22 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Critical Reflection of Section One

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2017-10-19

  book1st authorCorresponding

  Situated in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and New York City, with women raped in war and LGBQTGNC folks bearing the brunt of poverty, Section One reveals women’s struggles, hunger for recognition, blows of the State, and solidarities. Lindorfer and Wienberg address feminist evaluation, in a fraught policy arena, on a topic that could not be more dis-easing—rape as a crime of war. They critique human rights research practices and reframe evaluation as the radical praxis of recognition and circulation of stories in the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Billies tells a story about feminist activist scholarship and gendered violence, this time woven with vectors of oppression including race, class, disability, immigration, and sexuality. Billies documents the Welfare Warriors Research Collective, where LGBTQGNC researchers gather stories and numbers, exposing their relations with public institutions. Both chapters reflect feminist indictments—of the State, of oppression, and of traditional conceptions of empirical science.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant F32MH071971

  NIH · $147k · 2008

• Collaborative Research: Property, Power, and Gender-based Violence

  NSF · $260k · 2009–2015

Frequent coauthors

• Anjali Dutt

  University of Cincinnati

  14 shared

• Rose Grace Grose

  University of Northern Colorado

  8 shared

• Tiffany Lu

  Albert Einstein College of Medicine

  5 shared

• Janet Shibley Hyde

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  5 shared

• Brooke E. Wells

  4 shared

• Shari L. Dworkin

  University of Washington Bothell

  4 shared

• Danielle Kohfeldt

  3 shared

• Elizabeth A. Bukusi

  Kenya Medical Research Institute

  3 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Spanish and Portuguese

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  1990

• M.A., Spanish and Portuguese

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  1985

• B.A., Spanish and Portuguese

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  1983