A cross-cultural study on sex-role stereotypes and social desirability

Abstract

Thirty-nine items of sex-role stereotype questionnaire from Broverman's study were used as the instrument to get three separate responses — male stereotype, female stereotype, social desirability — from 340 college students. Half of the subjects were American, half Chinese. The number of male and female subjects was equal. The major findings were as follows: (1) In rating female sex-role stereotype, American subjects described the female sex-role with more agentic and competent attributes, while Chinese subjects tended to describe the female sex-role with more warm and expressive attributes. (2) In both nations, there was a tendency for males to emphasize the male stereotype as more socially desirable, while the female subjects did not. (3) In both nations, there was a tendency for women to describe the female stereotype differently from males' description (liberated image vs. traditional image).