Gender Role Development in Japanese Culture: Diminishing Gender Role Differences in a Contemporary Society

Abstract

This paper presents the development of the Japanese Gender Role Index (JGRI) and Japanese men's and women's self-ratings on the scale. Two hundred ninety-six Japanese words that describe masculine and feminine characteristics were gathered. Examination of endorsements by 200 Japanese participants indicated 66 items as socially desirable characteristics for either men or women in the society. The validation process, including social desirability ratings, factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis, identified 2 subscales with 10 items for each. Internal consistency and the means and standard deviations of social desirability ratings for the subscales were also examined. Self-ratings on the JGRI by 423 Japanese participants showed that there was no significant difference between men and women on feminine and masculine characteristics. It was also found that both men and women possessed an equivalent amount of masculine and feminine characteristics.