Gender Development

The difference between sex and gender Definitions Androgeny Bem’s Sex Role Inventory

Introduction People do not necessarily make a clear distinction between sex and gender. For example, some job applications ask for a person’s sex, while others may ask for a person’s gender, even though they will be requesting the same information. Strictly speaking if you need to know whether a person is M or F you should be asking what sex a person is, not their gender.

Definitions Sex refers to whether an individual is female or male, whereas gender refers to whether an individual is masculine, feminine or androgynous. Sex relates to the physical differences between men and women or boys and girls, whereas gender relates the differences in their attitudes or behaviours.

Masculine and feminine behaviours

Your personal Gender Identity

Androgyny In psychological terms, androgyny is used to describe a flexible gender role. An androgynous individual displays similar levels of masculine and feminine behaviour it is not associated with a particular sex – male or females can be androgynous. Whether or not a person is androgynous, or just masculine or just feminine, can be assessed by questionnaires or inventories. Bem (1974) compiled one of the best known inventories.

Follow the instructions to get your rating on the scale. Your own BSRI Follow the instructions to get your rating on the scale.

Bem’s Sex Role Inventory Aim : To construct an inventory to measure masculinity, femininity and androgeny Method : 50 male and 50 female judges rated 200 traits for how desirable they were for men and women. Based on judges’ ratings, 20 traits were chosen for a masculinity scale and 20 for a femininity scale.

Feminine traits included compassion, sympathy, warmth, shyness and gullibility. Masculine traits included ambition, athleticism, being analytical, self-sufficiency and aggression. These traits were then used on the BSRI where people had to rate themselves between 1 and 7 on each trait.

Results : When the BRSI was tested on 1’000 students it showed itself to be valid when checked against the sample’s own description of their gender identity. A smaller sample of students were tested a month later and got similar scores indicating the study was reliable. Conclusion : Having established the BSRI was reliable and valid, Bem found that some people do score highly on masculine and feminine traits. Men normally on masculine and women more on feminine. However, many people were more androgynous than at the extremes and that these people were more psychologically healthy. A small number scored low on both sets of traits and were described as ‘undifferentiated.’

Evaluation The problem with inventories or questionnaires is that rely on people having insight into their personality and behaviour which not all respondents have. Respondents may also lie or exaggerate to give socially desirable answers – particularly in the case of gender which is a sensitive issue for many. However, Bem’s inventory was confidential which reduces the likelihood of dishonest responses.

This study also shows that people cannot simply be categorised as either masculine, feminine or androgynous. There are different levels of each behaviour. In addition it is not easy to measure gender precisely. Gender is more subjective than sex. Whereas a person’s sex can be objectively designed by their genes and physical appearance, their gender may be more open to interpretation.