Gender-related Characteristics Research Articles

Father-Child Relationships from the Preschool Years Through Mid-Adolescence

In this study, we examined variations in fathering and father-child relationships from the children's preschool years through mid-adolescence. One hundred seventy-seven fathers with first-born children ages 4, 8, 12, and 16 years responded to five sets of questionnaires tapping four domains of childrearing: practices, attitudes, parental role involvement, and role satisfaction. A multivariate analysis of variance identified significant variability among the four age groups in fathers' use of acceptance in childrearing practices, role involvement (frequency and task sharing), satisfaction with paternal role performance, and attitudes about the modifiability of child behavior. The results contribute new information about the nature of fathering throughout the childhood years and adolescence and provide additional support for the view of parenting as dynamic and responsive to the developmental level and gender-related characteristics of the child.

Relationship of Therapists' Sex, Sex-Role, and Age to Awareness of the Salience of Gender-Related Concepts in Analogue Research: A Preliminary Finding regarding Distribution of Therapists by Sex-Role

In response to speculation that awareness of feminist concerns had made patient analogue studies transparent, the present study was done to estimate the extent and correlates of therapists' awareness of the gender-related characteristics of such a sex-role questionnaire. A national sample of 131 male and 120 female therapists showed that male therapists tend to be sex-typed and female therapists are predominantly androgynous. No significant relationship obtained between the therapists' sex-role and their awareness that this experiment involved gender. The relationship between sex of therapist and awareness only approached significance. Younger therapists tended to be more aware than older ones.

RELATIONSHIP OF THERAPISTS' SEX, SEX-ROLE, AND AGE TO AWARENESS OF THE SALIENCE OF GENDER-RELATED CONCEPTS IN ANALOGUE RESEARCH: A PRELIMINARY FINDING REGARDING DISTRIBUTION OF THE RAPISTS BY SEX-ROLE

In response to speculation that awareness of feminist concerns had made patient analogue studies transparent, the present study was done to estimate the extent and correlates of therapists' awareness of the gender-related characteristics of such a sex-role questionnaire. A national sample of 131 male and 120 female therapists showed that male therapists tend to be sex-typed and female therapists are predominantly androgynous. No significant relationship obtained between the therapists' sex-role and their awareness that this experiment involved gender. The relationship between sex of therapist and awareness only approached significance. Younger therapists tended to be more aware than older ones.

Social Perception of Bodybuilders

Engaging in bodybuilding, especially by a woman, may have a pervasive influence on the impressions others have of the bodybuilder. The first experiment examined the effects of the label bodybuilder on subjects' ratings of the probability that the stimulus person possessed gender-related characteristics. The second experiment was designed to determine whether female bodybuilders, compared to attractive and unattractive female nonbodybuilders, are (a) assumed to possess less socially desirable personality traits, (b) expected to lead less successful lives, and (c) viewed as less physically attractive. Results indicate that bodybuilding information plays a dominant role in influencing judgments. Stimulus persons who engage in bodybuilding are judged to be more likely to perform masculine role behaviors and less likely to be employed in feminine occupations, irrespective of gender. Female bodybuilders are viewed as relatively unattractive and are attributed with less desirable personality traits than are attractive female nonbodybuilders. The significance of these findings in understanding the perpetuation of stereotypes is discussed.

LABOR MARKET GENDER INEQUALITY IN MINORITY GROUPS

Women's small share of professional and managerial occupations compared with their share of the total labor force is examined for the 11 largest racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. Gender-related characteristics—women's labor force participation rates, marital status, and the sex ratio—influence women's share of the top jobs, as do class and ethnic variables such as place of birth, population size, and class of worker. Labor market gender inequality is greatest among the smaller, more affluent minorities, many of whom are recent immigrants to this country. The larger, frequently indigenous, minority groups exhibit less of this kind of inequality. Minority and gender status intersect, so that men monopolize surplus resources among the more affluent minority groups and use these resources to secure a more advantaged labor market position.

Gender and distributive justice: The influence of gender-related characteristics on allocations

The influence of dispositional and situational gender-related factors on the distributive justice behavior of males and females was examined in this research. Using the self-other allocation paradigm, traditional and andrognyous subjects outperformed traditional or androgynous opposite-sex co-workers (Experiment 1) or same-sex co-workers (Experiment 2). The task gender-linkage and the physical attractiveness of the opposite-sex co-workers were also considered. The results indicated that androgynous persons were more generous in their allocations and were less influenced by the gender-related characteristics of an opposite-sex co-workers than traditional persons. In same-sex dyads, males were more equitable than females and were uninfluenced by gender-related factors. Traditional, but not androgynous, females adjusted their allocation behavior according to the gender-linkage of the task, allocating more equitably on gender-congruent tasks than on gender-incongruent tasks. The significance of these findings to understanding sex differences in distributive justice behavior is discussed.

Structure and Content of Gender Stereotypes: Effects of Somatic Appearance and Trait Information

Two components of gender stereotypes were examined in order to determine their influence on judgments of gender-related characteristics. Male and female subjects were presented with photographs of female stimulus persons who differed in somatic appearance and were given information about traits. Subjects were asked to estimate the probability that the stimulus person possessed other gender-related traits and engaged in gender-related behaviors. Results provide support for a multiple-component construction of stereotypes, with physical appearance being the most potent component. An unfavorable image of low attractive women was also indicated.

Structure of gender stereotypes: Interrelationships among components and gender label.

Various components of gender stereotypes were examined in three studies to determine their interrelationship and their influence relative to gender label. In the first two experiments, male and female college students were given information about gender and either role behaviors or traits and were asked to assess the probability that the stimulus person possessed other gender-related characteristics. In the third experiment, each of four gender stereotype components was presented in a within-subjects design and subjects made judgments about each other component. Results indicate that (a) information about one stereotype component can implicate other components; (b) specific component information may outweigh gender identification; and (c) components differ in their ability to implicate other components of gender stereotypes, with physical appearance playing a dominant role. The significance of these findings in understanding the structure and operation of gender stereotypes is discussed. Stereotypes play an important role in human judgment, and investigators have shown sustained interest in exploring the content and consequences of such judgments. From Lippman's (1922) early and insightful analysis of the pictures in our heads, through the work of Katz and Braly (1933), Allport (1954), Campbell (1967) and others, stereotypes have continued to hold the interest of social scientists concerned with ways in which we judge and misjudge members of recognizable groups. In recent years, interest in the topic has accelerated, with new attention focused both on the general nature of stereotypes as well as on specific content categories (Hamilton, 1979, 1981; Miller, 1982). At the general level, investigators are increasingly coming to conceptualize stereotypes as one particular instance of more general cognitive processes (Ashmore D Hamilton, 1979;McCauley,

Some methodological comments on labels, traits, interaction, and types in the study of "femininity" and "masculinity": Reply to Spence.

We concur with Spence that the labels femininity and masculinity refer to a multidimensional domain and have been used inappropriately for scales that measure more circumscribed gender-related traits such as dominance and nurturance. It is nevertheless possible to investigate more encompassing constructs, such as androgyny and gender identity, through appropriate multivariate methods that incorporate, for example, interactions between dominance, nurturance, and other gender-related variables. In contrast, the common practice of exclusively relying on feminine, masculine, and other types or patterns, and treating these as purely nominal categories, hinders rather than aids recognition of underlying simple and complex (for example, interactive) relations. Furthermore, the study of interactions among measures of individual differences should be distinguished from a search for real types. Interactions do not imply types, types do not imply interactions, although empirically the two phenomena may co-occur. The study of types does have a place in the study of gender-related characteristics and individual differences generally; it bears directly on questions of continuity and discontinuity important in personality and psychopathology and requires its own methodology.