androgyny

androgyny

a gender identity characterised by a healthy balance of masculine and feminine traits. Androgynous individuals adopt traits and characteristics that are advantageous in coping with the demands of the real world.

What did Sandra Bem claim?

that rigid gender identities are not conducive to good mental health and proposed ‘androgyny’

(BSRI)

Bem Sex-Role Inventory

what is the Bem Sex-role inventory (BSRI)

* Self-report questionnaire to measure levels of androgyny
* 20 stereotypically masculine/feminine/neutral traits
* Participants asked to rate themselves on all traits using a Likert scale where 1 indicates ‘never true’, and 7 indicates ‘almost always’

how was the (BSRI) developed

* 50 male and 50 female students rated 200 traits for how desirable they were for males and females
* BEM selected the top 20 masculine and feminine traits as agreed by the students
* BSRI piloted with 1000 students
* 600 participants completed the published BSRI

evaluation of Androgyny

* advantage - links to mental wellbeing
* androgynous more likely to have higher self-esteem
* lacks temporal validity (developed 1970’s)
* lacks internal validity - may have been affected by demand characteristics