The relationship between sex-role orientation and marital adjustment was investigated. Using a sample of 112 married couples, husbands and wives separately completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. The hypotheses tested were based on the assumption that an androgynous sex-role orientation, which incorporates both instrumental and expressive capacities, would be most positively related to self and spouse's marital adjustment, while an undifferentiated orientation would be least related. Results indicated that in general both androgynous and sex-typed individuals and their spouses were significantly higher in marital adjustment than were undifferentiated individuals and their spouses. In addition, spousal sex-role types were found to be related and couples in which both partners were classified as undifferentiated reported the lowest levels of marital adjustment while androgynous couples and sex-typed couples reported greater levels of marital adjustment. The results were discussed in relation to their support for a symbolic interaction/ role theory interpretation of the association between sex-role orientation and marital adjustment.
In order to examine the relationship between sex-role development and number of parents in the home, 129 adolescent age college students (73 women, 56 men) were administered a life history questionnaire and the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (short form) (BSRI). With the sexes combined, 54 individuals were classified as androgynous and 75 as nonandrogynous. As predicted, there was a higher percentage of androgynous individuals who were reared in single-parent households as opposed to "intact" households. These results indicate that the development of an androgynous sex role has a strong relationship to number of parents in a family, particularly single parent homes in which the mother is the parent. An implication of these results is that parents who model adaptive yet nontraditional roles may play an important role in the healthy development of their children.
Seventy-two androgynous and sex-role stereotyped male undergraduates participated in a study which sought to explore the possible cognitive mediation of sex-role orientation. After reading a paragraph consisting of contrived thought listings of an individual considering the purchase of a car, Ss rated the individual on a set of 60 neutral and sex-typed bipolar constructs, each presented along 13-point Likert-type scales. It was predicted that: (1) Sex-role Stereotyped individuals would employ sex-typed constructs more frequently and more meaningfully (a) than they would utilize neutral constructs, and (b) than would their Androgynous counterparts; and (2) Androgynous individuals would employ neutral constructs more frequently and more meaningfully (a) than they would employ sex-typed constructs, and (b) than would their Sex-role Stereotyped counterparts. Results support all predictions with one exception: androgynous subjects employed sex-typed and neutral constructs with equal meaningfulness. Results were interpreted as lending support to the suggested cognitive mediation of sex-role orientation.
Occasionally there appears a social phenomenon so broadly expressed, so repeatedly presented as to require no specific documentation - agreement is found among many and diverse persons, on the basis of easily observable phenomena. Such seems to be the case with the changing sex role in North American society. Where, not so long ago, there was general beUef that "men were men and women were women," and "vive la différence," now, with some unease, and occasional outright friction, there is recognition that "la différence" is slim and becoming slimmer. A perusal of contemporary society indicates that women are dressing more and more in a style resembling that of men, e.g. shirts, shorts, longpants and, in an overall sense, are tending toward undress (nudity), a style once distastefully assigned to males only. Too, an increasing percentage of women enroll at colleges and universities. More and more traditionally-male work positions are filled by females (armed services and government). There is a rapid increase in legal rights of women (e.g. voting, handling of finances). And if all these changes were not enough, there is now a Royal Commission examining ways of assuring an even closer approach to equality.
Cette recherche vise à démontrer comment les classes des jardins d'enfants contribuent à l'apprentissage des rôles sexuels, comme les décrivent les trois principales théories des processus de socialisation. Cette analyse nous amène à conclure que le processus de formation de l'identité sexuelle, tel qu'il est developpé dans les contextes familial et pré‐scolaire, se perpétue dans le milieu scolaire.The paper shows how kindergarten classrooms manifest sex‐related social processes which are consistent with each of the three major theories of socialization. The general conclusion is that schools continue the process of gender identity formation begun in the family and other preschool settings.
"Descriptive research from the '70's suggests that management has traditionally been a sex-typed masculine profession; that men collaborated to develop a management science based on the tenets of masculinity; and that by understanding men's experience in military organizations and team sports, much of the mystique of masculine management may be understood.1 Empirical research from this same time period documents that effective managerial performance is associated with attributes of masculinity in the eyes of both women and men.2 The research focus on sex roles and managerial rotes is, of course, a response to the entry of large numbers of women into management positions during the '70's. In the 80's, the popular management literature urges us to consider the flexibility of the "androgynous" manager, one who is neither sex-typed masculine nor sex-typed feminine.3 The androgynous manager is not limited by the traditional constraints of masculinity of femininity in his or her expectations of self or others. Rather, androgynous managers exhibit a high degree of both masculine and feminine characteristics. As such, they have a wider range of behaviors with which they may respond to the contingencies of the leadership/management situation, including the gendered behavior of the people they supervise. Two important questions arise Out of a review of the above knowledge. How do our students describe the good manager in terms of masculine and feminine personality characteristics? How does each view himself or herself in terms of these characteristics? To answer these questions, organizational behavior professors have often used the Bem Sex-Rote Inventory (BSRI) to measure students' descriptions of the good manager and/or their perceptions of themselves as feminine and masculine.4 The BSRI instrument asks individuals to describe their behavior on a seven-point scale for each of 60 phrases. Twenty are feminine characteristics, twenty are masculine characteristics and twenty are neutral., socially desirable characteristics. Scoring of the instruments yields one of four possible outcomes: an individual may be categorized as feminine, masculine, androgynous (high values for both masculine and feminine characteristics) or undifferentiated (low values for both masculine and feminine characteristics). The median scores for classifying individual scores may be based on group scores or on median scores from Bern's research. The BSRI has been a useful research tool, but as a teaching or training tool, some adverse effects have been noted, for example, by Davis, Powell and Randolph.6 They point out that males who score feminine feel, threatened about their self-concept and sexuality. Our use of the BSRI in teaching and training situations has produced many additional undesirable responses. Some women have felt their femininity threatened by masculine scores, many who scored androgynous have expressed concern that their scores reflect deviance, and those who have scored undifferentiated have joked that they are nerds, nebbishes, asexual, not yet formed into anything, don't have personalities, and the like. Further, when students or workshop participants are told that median scores differ for different populations tested, the instrument and, perhaps even what it purports to measure, seems arbitrary, and artificial. Justifying and explaining this to the black-andwhiters of the world is a tedious task. This experiential exercise is designed to take the sting and stigma Out of the BSRI scores and labels, and to use its masculine and feminine constructs to guide personal exploration of each individual's gendered aspect of his or her self concept. Participants have the opportunity to reflect on their beliefs about themselves and about what a good manager is like in terms of masculine and feminine dimensions. The exercise is effective for introducing issues of managing a mixed sex work team and for examining leadership style in various situations. It is especially relevant for use in classes such as Women and Men in Organizations or Women in Management in colleges of business administration, or classes in other departments in which gender roles and organizational roles are studied. These include: sociology, anthropology, psychology, communication, human development, education and social work. "
