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

2. 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

3. 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?

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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?

7. 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

8. 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

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

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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

15. 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

16. 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

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

18. 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%

19. 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?

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