Sex‐role change is examined in terms of three models which focus on the relationship between norm and behavior in the process of change. Allport's J‐curve as a cross‐sectional description of change is illustrated by data on the participation of married women in the labor force over time. The diffusionist model is appropriate as a means of illuminating aspects of individual differences in readiness to accept innovations and to describe the succession of norms or expectations. Lipman‐Blumen's crisis model of change applies particularly to periods of forced or accelerated modification and allows also for retrogressive alterations in patterning. The conversion or “click” experience by which the individual absorbs the new innovative reality is discussed, as are some speculations as to eventual sex‐composition of specific roles, occupational and familial.