Methods and History of Gender Research 63One instance in which gender-role
strain may be prevalent among women is
when they find themselves in tradition-
ally male settings, such as medical school or
law school. McIntosh and colleagues (1994)
found that women experienced greater
strains than men during law school. Over the
course of the first year of law school, wom-
en’s health declined and levels of depres-
sion increased relative to those of men. The
investigators identified two major sources
of strain among women: (1) the women felt
they were treated differently from men, and
(2) the women were affected by a lack of free
time and a lack of time with one’s partner or
spouse. The latter source of strain may reflect
a conflict that women face between pursuing
achievement and tending to relationships.
Partners may be less supportive of women
than men putting their personal lives on hold
to pursue a career.
The main points of each historical
period are summarized in Table 2.7.TAKE HOME POINTS
■ Two shifts occurred in the most recent thinking about
gender roles: (1) the realization that gender roles are
multifaceted constructs that cannot be fully captured by
single trait measures of agency and communion and
(2) the idea that gender roles are influenced by the
social context, time, place, and culture.
■ Masculinity and femininity are now conceptualized as
broad categories that include personality traits, physical
appearance, occupational interests, and role behaviors.
■ One outgrowth of the emphasis on the social context in
studying gender has been to consider the strains people
face from the gender roles society imposes. Strains arise
when our behavior is discrepant from the role that society
has set forth, and when the behaviors required of the role
are not compatible with mental and physical health.experiences in school, less likely to graduate
from high school, less likely to achieve every
level of education, and less likely to be hired
with the same criminal record (Royster,
2007). Thus gender-role strain arises among
African American men in part due to self-
role discrepancy theory, the idea that African
American men are not given the opportunity
to achieve the male gender-role ideal as ar-
ticulated by American culture.
One avenue that African American
men are encouraged to pursue to validate
masculinity is athletics. A focus on athletics
can be healthy, but African American men
might neglect their education to spent time
on athletics. The reality is that few people will
be able to make a living as successful athletes.
However, participating in sports can vali-
date masculinity in other ways. Basketball,
in particular, is a strong component of Afri-
can American culture—especially for males
(Atencio & Wright, 2008). African Ameri-
can males see basketball not as a means to
become famous but as a means to connect
with other males, to do well in school, and to
avoid gangs.Female Gender-Role Strain. Gender-role
strain rarely has been studied in women. In
1992, Gillespie and Eisler identified five areas
of strain for women: (1) fear of unemotional
relationships (e.g., feeling pressured to engage
in sexual activity); (2) fear of physical unat-
tractiveness (e.g., being perceived by others
as overweight); (3) fear of victimization (e.g.,
having your car break down on the road);
(4) fear of behaving assertively (e.g., bargain-
ing with a salesperson when buying a car);
and (5) fear of not being nurturant (e.g., a
very close friend stops speaking to you). This
female gender-role strain scale was associated
with depression and was independent from
the PAQ femininity scale.M02_HELG0185_04_SE_C02.indd 63 6/21/11 12:20 PM