Stereotypes, Masculinity-Femininity, Roles, and Doing Gender PSY 345 Dr. Blakemore

Stereotypes Beliefs about members of a particular group simply because they are members of that group Gender stereotypes: beliefs about men and women Many components to gender stereotypes Personality characteristics Physical attributes Roles and occupations Possibly assumptions about sexual orientation

Masculinity and Femininity What is it? (Are they?) For the average person, involve many features, including the things we listed for stereotypes Masculine and feminine personality characteristics: What are they?

Masculine and Feminine Personality Characteristics The positive traits associated with male competence have often been called agentic or instrumental characteristics The positive traits associated with females’ concern for others have been called communal or expressive There are also negative traits for both Stereotypes about women are generally viewed more positively than those about men at least in terms of being warm, kind, or nice. Men are seen as being more competent, powerful, and having higher status.

Pan cultural gender stereotypes Active Adventurous Aggressive Ambitious Autocratic Coarse Courageous Cruel Daring Dominant Energetic Enterprising Forceful Independent Inventive Logical Masculine Progressive Robust Rude Self-confident Stern Strong Tough Unemotional Affected Affectionate Anxious Attractive Charming Complaining Curious Dependent Dreamy Emotional Fearful Feminine Fussy Meek Mild Sensitive Sexy Shy Soft-hearted Submissive Superstitious Talkative Timid Weak Whiny

Are these attributes “obligatory?” Some research finds that college students think that women ought to be: Friendly, cheerful, compassionate, patient, and emotionally expressive, while not being intimidating, arrogant, self- righteous, stubborn, or domineering. Men ought to be: Ambitious, assertive, aggressive, rational, athletic, and leaders with strong personalities, while they ought not to be emotional, naive, gullible, approval-seeking, or weak Would you want to raise children so that boys and girls had these characteristics?

History of Studying Masculinity and Femininity Before the 70s, single dimension M Neither F Women should have feminine personalities, and men should have masculine Measured by single M-F scales on instruments like the MMPI and CPI

Androgyny comes along First, Sandra Bem Bem Sex Role Inventory M-Low High F – Low High M and F independent dimensions You could be low or high on one but not the other, both, or neither http://garote.bdmonkeys.net/bsri.html

Scoring the BSRI Originally, three categories, M, F, and androgynous Andro = male Gyne = female Androgynous = having the characteristics of both Later, four categories

Scoring the BSRI – Four categories Low Masculinity High Masculinity Low Femininity Undifferentiated Masculine High Femininity Feminine Androgynous

Androgyny and Behavior Androgyny is determined by how you score on the scale Is it related to behavior? She thought that androgynous people would be most flexible And have the best mental health Complex findings But mental health seems more related to having masculine characteristics

Gender Roles Shared expectations that apply to individuals on the basis of their socially identified sex (or gender) Behaviors or characteristics or attributes Clothing, jewelry, and other appearance-related accessories The communal and agentic characteristics Positions people hold in a society Homemaker and economic provider roles Occupations Academic subjects Leisure interests Codes of social etiquette and self-presentation Rules for sexual behavior

Changing Gender Roles Labor force participation over the past 50 years 34% of women compared to 86% of men over age 16 in 1950 58% of women and 70% of men now in labor force About 47% of labor force in US is female Bls data

Family roles and egalitarian attitudes Changing labor force participation affects family roles Power in family Also changes in egalitarian attitudes (especially in girls and women) In attitudes about personality characteristics Women now have both communal/agentic to some degree But not men

Sexism Means what? Who experiences it? Are stereotypes negative or oppressive? Different types Old Fashioned Women are not as smart as men Modern I don’t know what women are complaining about; discrimination isn’t a problem any more Hostile Once a woman gets a man to commit to her, she usually tries to put him on a tight leash Benevolent Women should be cherished and protected by men

Having Gender or Doing Gender? If you have it – it’s a characteristic If you do it, you enact it in social roles

Social Dominance People (both men and women) in how dominant they are in social interactions So, how does this personality characteristic affect social interactions? Dominant man interacting with more submissive man -- how often would he dominate? 90%

Social dominance cont’d Dominant woman with submissive woman? 75% Norm in female interactions more egalitarian – more on this later Dominant man with submissive woman? 90% Dominant woman with submissive man?

People enact gender roles 20% The individual’s characteristics may be less important than gender, if they are in conflict