54 Chapter 2In contrast to the BSRI, the PAQ (Spence,
Helmreich, & Stapp, 1974) was developed by
focusing on the perception of howlikelymen
and women are to possess certain traits. Col-
lege students were asked to rate the typical
adult male and female, the typical college male
and female, and the ideal male and female. The
items on this instrument are shown in the top
half of Table 2.5.
The masculinity scale included items
that students viewed as more characteristic
of men than women but also as ideal for both
men and women to possess. “Independence”
was a masculinity item; the typical college
male was viewed as more independent than
the typical college female, but independence
was perceived as equally desirable in both men
and women. The femininity scale included
items that were more characteristic of women
than men but viewed as ideal in both women
and men. “Understanding of others” was a
femininity item; the typical college female
was rated as more understanding of others
than the typical college male, but respondents
viewed being understanding of others as a so-
cially desirable trait for both women and men.
Spence and colleagues (1974) also created a
third scale, called the M/F scale, that was bi-
polar. That is, one end represented masculin-
ity and the other end represented femininity.
These were items on which college students
believed the typical college male and the typi-
cal college female differed, but they also were
items that students viewed as socially desir-
able for one sex to possess but not the other.
For example, the typical college male was
viewed as worldly, whereas the typical college
female was viewed as home oriented. And, re-
spondents viewed it as more socially desirable
for men than women to be worldly and for
women than men to be home oriented. This
scale is seldom used in research.
The items on the masculinity scales of
the BSRI and PAQ were thought to reflect anParsons and Bales (1955) extended the
instrumental/expressive distinction to gender.
They saw a relation between superior power
and instrumentality and a relation between
inferior power and expressivity. They believed
the distinction between the husband role
and the wife role was both an instrumental/
expressive distinction as well as a superior/
inferior power distinction. The instrumental
orientation became linked to the male gender
role and the expressive orientation became
linked to the female gender role.
Two instruments were developed dur-
ing this period that linked the instrumental
versus expressive orientation to gender role.
In 1974, Sandra Bem published the Bem Sex
Role Inventory (BSRI) and Spence, Helm-
reich, and Stapp published the Personal At-
tributes Questionnaire (PAQ). The BSRI and
the PAQ are still the most commonly used
inventories to measure masculinity and femi-
ninity today. The innovative feature of both
instruments is that masculinity and feminin-
ity are conceptualized as two independent
dimensions rather than a single bipolar scale;
thus, a person receives a masculinity score
and a femininity score. Masculinity and femi-
ninity were no longer viewed as opposites.
The BSRI (Bem, 1974) was developed
by having undergraduates rate how desirable
it is for a man and a woman to possess each
of 400 attributes. Items that students rated
as more desirable for a male to possess were
indicators of masculinity, and items that stu-
dents rated as more desirable for a female
were indicators of femininity. Items were not
based on respondents’ views of how likely
men and women are to have these traits
but on their views of howdesirableit is for
men and women to have the traits. The final
BSRI consisted of 60 items: 20 masculine,
20 feminine, and 20 neutral items. The neu-
tral items are included in the instrument to
disguise the purpose of the scale.M02_HELG0185_04_SE_C02.indd 54 6/21/11 12:19 PM