Androgyny

What is androgyny?

A personality type characterised by a balance of masculine and feminine traits, attitudes and behaviours.

E.g. someone who is competitive at work, but a caring parent

Sandra Bem believed that androgynous people are better equipped to cope with life due to this balance

What did Sandra Bem create to measure androgyny?

Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI)

What is the BSRI?

• Created in 1974 by Sandra Bem

• The scale presents 20 characteristics that would be commonly identified as ‘masculine’ (e.g. aggressive), 20 that would be identified as ‘feminine’ (e.g. gentle) and 20 ‘neutral’ traits (e.g. secretive)

• Respondents rate themselves on a 7-point rating scale for each item (where 1 is ‘never true of me’ and 7 is ‘always true of me’)

• Scores are classified on the basis of 2 dimensions (masculinity-femininity and androgynous-undifferentiated)

What is a strength of research into androgyny?

Androgyny is measured quantitatively

Bem’s numerical approach is useful for research purposes e.g. to quantify a dependent variable in a research study

COUNTERPOINT

However, Spence argues that there is more to gender than a set of behaviours typical of one gender, so qualitative methods offer a better way of analysing gender.

One compromise is to combine different scales. E.g. the ‘personal attribute questionnaire’ adds another dimension (instrumentality and expressivity) to Bem’s masculinity and femininity dimension

This suggests that both quantitative and qualitative approaches are useful for studying androgyny

What is another strength of research into androgyny?

BSRI is a valid and reliable way of measuring androgyny

The scale was developed by asking 50 male and 50 female judges to rate 200 traits on ‘maleness’ and ‘femaleness’ → no beta bias

The BSRI was piloted on over 1000 students and the results corresponded with the participants’ own description of their gender identity → demonstrating validity

A follow-up study involving a smaller sample of the same students produced similar scores when the students were tested a month later → demonstrating test-retest reliability

What is a limitation of the BSRI?

It lacks temporal validity and generalisability

The BSRI was developed over 40 years ago and so ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ behaviours have changed since then!

BSRI is made up of stereotypical and outdated ideas of masculinity and femininity!

It was devised using only people from US → culture bias → cannot be generalised to individualistic cultures

What is another limitation of the BSRI?

Bem emphasised that androgynous individuals are more psychologically healthy as they are best placed to deal with situations that demand a masculine, feminine or androgynous response.

Adams and Sherer challenge this assumption as they argue that people who develop a greater proportion of masculine traits are just better adjusted as these are more highly valued in individualist cultures.