Sex, Gender, and Androgyny

Sex

Biological differences between men and women e.g. chromosomes and genitals

Primary Sex Characteristics

Differences in the phenotype from birth e.g. genitals

Secondary sex characteristics

Non genital differences in the phenotype from puberty e.g. facial hair

Gender

A social constructed identity involving how a person identifies and how they express their identity

Androgyny

A personality type that is characterised by a balance of masculine and feminine traits

Bem - Aim

To reduce gender stereotyping and prove that androgyny was the ideal gender identity

Bem - Pilot Method

Asked 50 males and females to identify what traits they believed the be most ideal for each gender. Created a list of 20 feminine, masculine and neutral traits then tested 1000 college students

Bem - Examples and metric

Masc traits - Leader, aggressive, independent

Fem traits - Affectionate, sympathetic, shy

Andro traits - Friendly, sincere, unsystematic

Participants asked to rank on a scale from 1-7 (never true of me-always true of me)

High validity

Piloted the study with 1000 students and asked both men and women to identify the ideal traits

High reliability

Out of the 10000 students, a small sample were retested and provided similar results HOWEVER participants likely remembered their previous answers as it had only been a month