Cultural Contradictions and Sex Roles: A Repeat Study

Abstract

Komarovsky concluded from her data that college women are exposed to two contradictory roles. These are characterized by her as the and the roles. In describing the former, she states that, While there are a number of permissive variants of the feminine role for women of college age ('the good sport,' 'the glamour girl,' 'the young lady,' 'the domestic home girl,' etc.), they have a common core of attributes defining the proper attitudes to men, family, work, love, etc., and a set of personality traits often described with reference to the male sex role as 'not as dominant, or aggressive as men,' or 'more emotional, sympathetic.' 2 The modern role, on the other hand, partly obliterates the differentiation in sex. It demands of the woman much the same virtues, patterns of behavior, and attitudes that it does of the men of a corresponding age.3 During the college years the conflict between the feminine and modern roles apparently centers about academic work, social life, vocational plans, excellence in specific fields of endeavor, and a number of personality traits.4 Komarovsky studied the nature and incidence of some components of these roles in I53 women seniors. (The socio-economic characteristics of the group are not reported.) Half the women were members of an undergraduate family course who wrote autobiographical papers on the topic. The other were all the students of a class in social psychology at the same eastern institution. Each of these women was interviewed for approximately an hour. The auto-

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