Conventional Sex Role Stereotypes and Actual Perceptions

Abstract

Theoretical constructs of marital sex-role differentiation have not generally been substantiated in studies sampling the role perceptions and expectations of groups of married Ss. In an initial phase of the study reported here, masculinity-femininity scale values were obtained for the items of the Interpersonal Check List, and from these values a Femininity Score was derived. The ICL responses of two samples of wives of alcoholics were compared with the role perceptions of two samples of wives of non-alcoholics. In neither group of comparison Ss was there any significant sex-role differentiation between the wife's perception of herself and her husband. However, in both samples of wives of alcoholics there was significant role differentiation in the wife's perception of herself and her spouse, residing almost entirely in the wife's tending to view herself as highly feminine. The data were construed as lending support to the view that in the “normal” family of today the roles of husband and wife are more likely to be analogous than they are to be differentiated.