1. Sandra Bem
Lindsay Farrar
Rachel Wiedeman
Sam Lytal
Katie Richter

2. Overview Family/Academics Zeitgeist Historical Antecedents
Personal Obstacles
Bem Sex-Role Inventory
Gender Schema Theory
The Lenses of Gender
An Unconventional Family

3. Family
Born: June 22, 1944
Her father was a postal clerk and her mother was a secretary
Financial struggle
Parents always fighting
Mother emphasized the need to work outside the home.

4. Early Academics Hillel Academy (kindergarten -8th grade) Jewish school
Was not interested in what she studied here and did enough just to get by
Her ideas about gender began during her time here
Expulsion due to wearing pants

5. College Academics Carnegie-Mellon University Bachelors in psychology
Hypothesis testing
Developmental psychology
Daryl Bem (assistant professor)
Egalitarian marriage

6. College Academics University of Michigan
Graduate school in child clinical psychology
Ph.D dissertation
The Role of Task Comprehension in Children’s Problem Solving

7. Professor Sandra Bem Seminars on Daryl and Sandra Bems marriage life
An Unconventional Family
Career comes first for both units in the marriage
Equality of men and women
Carnegie-Mellon until 1971 (assistant prof)
Began to focus on ideas involving gender issues rather than the psychology of children
Stanford University until 1978 (assistant prof)
“healthy person” = male + female traits
sexually-biased job discrimination
The effects of gender-specific job advertisements
BSRI Bem Sex Role Inventory
Cornell University 1981 – professor
Psychology
Director of Women Studies

8. Zeitgeist Social Climate of the 20th Century Women Gender Issues
Inequality in the workforce

9. Historical Antecedents
Psychology during the mid-1900’s to late-1900’s
Behaviorism
Humanistic Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Developmental Psychology

10. Historical Antecedents
Developmental Psychology
Majority of research during the time she was in grad school and after she graduated
She was not interested in this so she began to experiment on her own original ideas of gender.

11. Personal Obstacles Family Problems Financial Issues
Minority/Inequality Issues
Jewish
Very few women in Psychology programs
It took longer for her to become a professor in psychology than it would take a man.
She had her own ideas that she chose to study

12. Bem Sex-Role Inventory
Description
60 personality characteristics
Likert scale 1-7
Three scores
Administration Rules
Male or female high school student or older
10 to 15 minutes
Individual to large group
Bem, S. L. (1976). Bem sex-role inventory; Bem, S. L. (1974).

13. Scoring of BSR Inventory
Masculinity Score
Femininity Score
Androgyny Score
Difference between Masculinity Score and Femininity Score
Conversion factor = 2.322
Bem, S. L. (1974); Bem, S. L. (1975).

14. Androgyny? Meaning of Androgyny Score Androgyny:
Reflects the relative amount of masculinity and femininity that the person includes in his/her self-description.
Best characterizes the nature of the total sex role and sex identity of the individual.
Bem, S. L. (1975); Bem, S. L. (1977).

15. Strengths of the BSRI Normative Data Large normative sample
Stanford Introduction to Psychology Course
444 Males and 279 females
Foothill Junior College
117 Males and 77 Females (paid volunteers)
These normative samples helped create the cut points for the data and the conversion factor to calculate the Androgyny Score
Large normative sample
Bem, S. L. (1976). Bem sex-role inventory; Bem, S. L. (1974).

16. More Strengths of the BSRI
Both Masculine and Feminine characteristics included and they are on different continuums.
Social Desirability Score
To verify that the androgynous score is valid
Applicability of the findings to other areas
Inventory is easy to complete and has short administration time.
Bem, S. L. (1974); Bem, S. L. (1975); Bem, S. L. (1977).

17. Weaknesses of the BSRI Face Valid Self-Evaluation only
Created and Normed in 1970’s

18. BSRI Influence on Future
Masculinity and Femininity should be conceptualized on separate continuum.
Androgyny research
metrosexual
Sex Typing Research
Children and parenting
Bem, S. L. (1976). Sex typing and the avoidance of cross-sex behavior; Andersen, S. M., & Bem, S. L. (1981); Bem, S. L. (1974).

19. Gender Schema Theory Overview
Conditioning
Results
Characteristics

20. Study 1: Gender Clustering in Free Recall
The BSRI
Experimental Phase: Free Recall

21. Study 2: Gender-Schematic Processing of the Self-Concept
Basic Self Concept
Non-sex typed Self Concept

22. The Heterosexuality Subschema
Common experiences
Universal Symbolism
Phone Attraction

23. The Antecedents of Gender-Based Schematic Processing: Some Speculations
From the beginning children are taught two things:
Associations
A Dichotomy

24. Strengths and Weaknesses
Environment
Methods of assessment
Weaknesses
Nature Verses Nurture

25. Consequences for the Future
Consequences of gender typing

26. Lenses of Gender 1) Androcentrism 2) Biological Essentialism
3) Gender Polarization
“These 3 gender lenses provide the foundation for a theory of how biology, culture, and the individual psyche all interact in historical context to systematically reproduce male power.”

27. Biological Essentialism
Definition
Division of labor
Not the only way for society to function
Differences should be considered, not devalued
“Yes, women might turn out to be more biologically nurturant than men on the average, but that should make them psychiatrists, not secretaries”

28. Androcentrism
Defines males (and male experience) as a standard or norm and females (and female experience) as a deviation from that norm.
3 explanations:
Judeo-Christian
Greek Philosophy
Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory

29. Gender Polarization
Superimposes male-female differences on virtually every aspect of human experience (from modes of dress and social roles to ways of expressing emotion and sexual desire.)

30. Bem’s suggestion
“we need to sever all the culturally constructed connections that currently exist in our society between what sex a person is and virtually every other aspect of human experience”
Bem, S. L. (1998). An Unconventional Family.

31. An Unconventional Family
Autobiographical account
“If The Lenses of Gender is the statement of my theory, An Unconventional Family is the statement of my practice”
Egalitarian Partners
Feminist Child-rearing
Interviews
Bem, S. L. (1998)

32. Summary
Influential in personality and gender research through her work with the BSRI, the Gender Schema Theory, and theories of societal gender roles.
Her writings influenced feminist thought and parenting beliefs.

33. Bibliography
Andersen, S. M., & Bem, S. L. (1981). Sex typing and androgyny in dyadic interaction: Individual differences in responsiveness to physical attraction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 74 – 86.
Bem, S. L. (1974). The measurement of psychological androgyny. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42, 155 – 162.
Bem, S. L. (1975). Sex role adaptability: One consequence of psychological androgyny. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 634 – 643.
Bem, S. L. (1976). Bem sex-role inventory. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
Bem, S. L. (1976). Sex typing and the avoidance of cross-sex behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 33, 48 – 54.
Bem, S. L. (1977). On the utility of alternative procedures for assessing psychological androgyny. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 45, 196 – 205.

34. Bibliography continued
Bem, S. L. (1981). Gender schema theory: A cognitive account of sex typing. Psychological Review, 88, 354 – 364.
Bem, S. L. (1993). The Lenses of Gender. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Bem, S. L. (1998). An Unconventional Family. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Bettis, N. (n.d.). Sandra Ruth Lipsitz Bem. Retrieved June 18, 2007, from ple/s1b8/s1b6_vita.pdf
Koesterer, M.(n.d.). Dr. Sandra Lipsitz Bem: An Unconventional Life. Retrieved June 18, 2007, from
Synder, M., Tanke, E. D., & Berscheid, E. (1977). Social perception and interpersonal behavior: On the self- fulfilling nature of social stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 656 – 666.