While much of the research on sex roles has treated gender self-perceptions and stereotypes in terms of chronic traits, sex role stereotypes may apply to specific situations and activities as they do to more global traits. Perceptions of masculinity and femininity, therefore, may vary across situations. This study used a situational approach to…

Data from the authors' previous research (1979, 1980, 1987), consisting of responses to five masculinity-femininity (M-F), two esteem, and two social desirability instruments, were reanalyzed. The subjects were 104 male and 133 female college students who completed the: Bem Sex Role Inventory, Personal Attributes Questionnaire, ANDRO instrument…

Research has shown sex differences in performance favoring males are likely to be reported on cognitive tasks requiring spatial skills. It has also been suggested that the reason why individuals who describe themselves as masculine also tend to do well on spatial tasks may be a function of activity preference. To examine the relationship among…

Most research examining the relationship between sex role orientation and psychological well-being has been guided by either the congruence, androgyny, or masculinity model. The congruence model predicts that low self-esteem and high depression are consequences of gender/sex role incongruence. The androgyny model predicts that high self-esteem and…

Noting recent media stories claiming that gender reform in schools has benefited girls at the expense of boys, this book offers an overview of the issues surrounding boys and education. The book argues that popular constructions of masculinity affect boys in all parts of their lives: in families, peer groups, and work cultures--at home, at school,…

Examines existing analyses of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory and further investigates the psychometric adequacy of the instrument. Proposes a revision with 10 items each measuring masculinity and femininity. (PD)

Discusses rape prevention in the context of a problematic masculinity. Reviews conservative, mythopoetic, and feminist perspectives on masculinity. Proposes a feminist foundation for rape prevention programs for college males. (Author/KW)

Explores the "interactional work" of one boy in a technology lesson as he elaborates, through "play" with workshop tools, a sexual fantasy of masturbation and penetration. This action is contextualized by his relations with others and by the dominance of a prevailing myth of male sexuality in his construction of a masculine…

Four hundred undergraduates were asked to describe their construals of male and female stereotypes. Results support the notion that people's perceptions of maleness are more stereotypically framed than their perceptions of femaleness, suggesting that more draconian notions of gender appropriateness are applied to males than to females in our…

Results of 2 experiments involving 305 college students suggest that instructor gender role is more important than instructor gender in affecting student evaluations and that both female and male students prefer instructors with both feminine and masculine characteristics, regardless of gender. (SLD)

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese argues that the defense of single-sex education for women, with its demonstrated benefits, must include its defense for men as well. Leon Podles agrees that there is a place for single-sex education but supports it as a way to give boys an initiation into masculinity. (SLD)

Presents two studies articulating the features of everyday conceptions of masculinity and femininity and determines the dimensions that underlie these constructs. Results show that conceptions of masculinity and femininity do exist, that they can be articulated, that lay conceptions of masculinity and femininity are multidimensional, and that…

Children of 4 to 10 years of age were told about children whose sex was not specified and who had a masculine or feminine toy or characteristic. Results indicated that children first learn characteristics relevant to their own sex, and that older children's stereotypic judgments about gender are more extreme than those of younger children. (BC)

Argues that ways in which the experience of manhood has structured the course and meanings of American men's activities must be examined. Pioneering work of feminist scholars has made us aware of the centrality of gender in shaping social life. It is now necessary to extend these studies to men. (SLD)

Argues that the myth of the self-made man commits a fundamental error by downplaying the importance of social definition and equating masculine growth with an escape from the boundaries of origins (race, class, sex) and institutions. Discusses the myth in terms of its history and writing pedagogies employed in some classrooms. (TB)