Sex-Role Stereotypes: Perceived Childhood Socialization Experiences and the Attitudes and Behavior of Adult Women

Abstract

Summary Spence-Helmreich's (13) Attitude Toward Women Scale and a questionnaire developed by the author were administered to 63 mature women community college students and to their acquaintances who were not enrolled in school. All were married or previously married. Investigation concerned (a) the association of perceived early socialization experiences with sex-role stereotypes in the attitudes and behavior of mature women, and (b) the impact of the Women's Liberation Movement upon these women. A second phase of the study consisted of case studies of eight subjects selected from among those whose scores on the Attitude Toward Women Scale indicated very liberal or very traditional ideologies. Results revealed that a large majority of subjects in both groups reported stereotyped childhood socialization experiences relating to career aspirations, education, recreational literature, and romantic anticipation of marriage. These women's adult lives were characterized by low levels of education, few employable skills, and traditional attitudes and behavior. Subjects who recalled wide social experiences and a lack of stereotyped reinforcement made wider education choices. They reflected more liberal attitudes and behavior in their adult lives. These latter were a small minority in both groups. Sex-role stereotypes were revealed in the present attitudes and behavior of most subjects in both groups including women who saw themselves as liberated. In a projective exercise subjects showed a strong tendency to place their own needs below those of their husbands and children, to meet their own needs through extraordinary effort only after their families' needs were met, and to rationalize their behavior in the rare instances where they put their own ahead of their families' needs. There was a marked dissatisfaction with past education among both groups. Subjects reported more positive than negative feelings about the Women's Liberation Movement; there was a strong trend among subjects with liberal ideologies to perceive themselves as having been influenced by the feminist movement.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 14 citations exist upstream.