Female Labor Force Participation,Status Integration and Suicide, 1950–1969

ABSTRACT: Using Census data covering the 29 year period starting in 1950 this, study tests the hypothesis that (1) female labor force participation may result in more married women committing suicide due to the strain of household and outside working responsibilities and that (2) female labor force participation may also be associated with higher rates of male suicide due to the fact that it represents apparent failure of the husband as sole breadwinner ( Stack, 1978 ). Results show that during the 1950's male suicide was not associated with growth in the female labor force, but female suicide was. During the 1960s male suicide was negatively associated with female labor force participation, but the opposite was true for females. It is argued that working women represented a weakening of norms concerning sex roles. Apparently as more and more women entered the labor force, role conflict did ensue, but contrary to the above hypothesis it only increased female suicide potential. These results are discussed in terms of different normative sex role contexts of the 1950s and the 1960s.     

Women preparing for traditionally male professions: Physical and psychological symptoms associated with work and home stress

Gender differences in well-being often are attributed to differential exposure of women and men to stressors, either from different distribution of the genders across roles or from different stressors within roles. An alternative hypothesis is that men and women differ in their vulnerability, although not necessarily in their exposure, to stressors. The relevant research often has confounded gender with work roles. Therefore, women and men preparing for the same traditionally male professions, as well as another group of women preparing for traditionally female professions, were included as participants in the current study (n = 397, almost all white). Even with exposure to stressors controlled statistically, nontraditional women were more susceptible than men with the same professional goals to several physical and psychological outcomes. These gender differences were not accounted for by differential vulnerability to the stressors measured in this study. However, chronic job tension and home (non-work) life events were stronger predictors of certain symptoms for these women preparing for traditionally male professions than for women preparing for traditionally female professions. Thus, both gender and career track differences were demonstrated, in susceptibility to symptoms developed and in vulnerability to stressors, respectively.     

Another Look at Sex Differences in Preferred Mate Characteristics: The Effects of Endorsing the Traditional Female Gender Role

This research used an individual differences approach to test Eagly and Wood's (1999) claim that sex differences in the characteristics that people prefer in mates reflect the tendency for men and women to occupy different social roles in a society. The study related the extent to which participants endorsed the traditional female gender role to their preferences for their future mate's traits and age relative to their own age. In general, the sex–differentiated preferences that are consistent with the traditional division of labor were more pronounced, especially in male participants, to the extent that they endorsed the traditional female role.     

Association of suicide rates for elderly age bands with gender equality

A lower sex ratio (male to female) of elderly suicide rates in several Asian countries have been attributed to gender inequality on several parameters. The association of two proxy measures of gender equality (value of the gender empowerment measure and the gender-related development index) and the male to female sex ratio of suicide rates in the age bands 65-74 yr. and 75+ yr. was examined using multiple linear regression. The two proxy measures of gender equality did not account for significant variance in the male to female sex ratio of suicide rates in the age bands 65-74 yr. and 75+ yr. Association of gender equality with the male to female sex ratio of suicide rates requires further clarification in both cross-sectional studies across different countries and longitudinal studies within individual countries for all age bands. Such studies should, in addition to the GEM and the GDI, include other measures of gender equality including sex differences in educational attainment, income, poverty, housing, employment, access to healthcare and social welfare services, and urbanisation.     

Come-ons and Put-offs: Unmarried Students' Strategies for Having and Avoiding Sexual Intercourse

One-hundred and twenty male and 109 female unmarried college students participated in a questionnaire study of actual and expected male-female differences in the use of 10 strategies for having and avoiding sexual intercourse. As predicted, both men and women viewed strategies for having sex as used predominantly by males and strategies for avoiding sex as used predominantly by females. However, sex-role attitudes were unrelated to students' expectations of sexual encounters. Both traditional and profeminist students expected that strategies for having sex would be used predominantly by males and strategies for avoiding sex would be used predominantly by females. It appeared that students still stereotyped having sex as a male goal and avoiding sex as a female goal. Men and women were unexpectedly similar in their personal strategies for influencing a sexual encounter. Both men and women reported using more indirect strategies to have sex and more direct strategies to avoid having sex. These findings suggest that when men and women share the same goals (such as having or avoiding sex), expected differences between male and female influencing agents disappear     

The effect of race,sex, and career goal differences on sex role attitudes at home and at work

Male and female blacks and whites whose career goals differed as to sex role stereotypy were administered two sex role inventories. One measured attitudes toward women's expanding sex roles in the home/personal environment, while the other measured sex role attitudes in the working environment. The major finding of the present study is that black women had more traditional sex role attitudes in the home environment than white women but the same sex role attitudes about working, whereas both black and white women were more liberal in their sex role attitudes in both environments than black and white men.     

Gender and Suicide in India: A Multiperspective Approach

The gap between male and female suicide rates in India is relatively small. However, society's views on female and male motives are quite different. In order to investigate the perceptions of male and female suicide, we interviewed a focus group of university professors as well as police inspectors, crime reporters, and hospital nurses in Bangalore. We also obtained four narratives of suicide. Women tended to be blamed for their own or their husband's suicide, although they were also viewed more often as victims of life adversities than men. A historical review illustrates that both men and women have been associated with culturally sanctioned suicides. One known form is sati, and we discuss the recent case of sari-murder of Roop Kanwar in 1987. The social sciences and the media also pay a lot of attention to the typical female suicides, symbolizing their role as martyrs of society, which seems to compensate for attribution of blame.     

Sex role attributes, symptom distress, and defensive style among college men and women

Eighty-four male and 90 female college students completed the PRF-Andro masculinity and femininity scales, a symptom checklist, and a defense mechanism inventory. Results indicated that interrelations among sex role attributes, defense preferences, and symptom distress differed for men and women. Cross-sex-typed persons mostly accounted for differences in symptom distress within each sex: Masculine women reported relatively low and feminine men reported relatively high degrees of symptom distress. In addition, sex roles interacted with sex in determining defense preferences. We also explored the possibility that defensive styles mediated between sex role attributes and symptom distress. Among women, an association between masculine attributes and a rejection of self-blaming defenses accounted for the negative relation between masculinity and symptom distress. Among men, sex role attributes and defensive styles, for the most part, contributed independently to symptom distress.     

Gender, sexuality, and the authoritarian personality

The political correlates of the authoritarian personality have been well established by researchers, but important linkages to other major constructs in psychology need fuller elaboration. We present new data and review old data from our laboratories that show the myriad ways in which authoritarianism is implicated in the important domain of gender roles. We show that women and men high in authoritarianism live in rigidly gendered worlds where male and female roles are narrowly defined, attractiveness is based on traditional conceptions of masculinity and femininity, and conventional sexual mores are prescribed. As a construct, authoritarianism is not just relevant for understanding people's politics, but it also affects the most personal of domains--romantic partnerships, lifestyle goals, and basic attitudes about male and female relationships.     

Relationship between self-confidence and sex role identity among managerial women and men.

The self-confidence and sex role identities of 437 American female and male managers were examined by using three subscales of the Adjective Check List. Results showed that, contrary to stereotypes and older research, female and male managers were strikingly similar. Women and men with cross-sex role identities showed lower levels of self-confidence than those did with androgynous orientations; high self-confidence was linked with masculine and androgynous orientations. The managers were not significantly different in self-confidence when demographic variables and sex role identity were held constant. Sex role identity (but not gender) was a major factor in the level of self-confidence.     

Perceived Work Competency and Sex Role Conflict: An Empirical Study

The present study examined sex role conflict, perceived work competency, and motivational needs among a broad sample of 298 working women and men (135 men, 163 women) at different hierarchical levels to see what possible gender differences existed in relationships among the variables. Correlation analysis and analysis of variance indicated that the female subjects had significantly higher levels of sex role conflict than the men, but a similar sense of work competency. Sex role conflict and perceived work competency were found to be negatively linked for the women but not for the men. Significant relationships were found between certain motivational needs and both sex role conflict and sense of work competency.     

Sex difference trends in completed suicide

The recent suicide literature increasingly has contained statements suggesting that the differences in completed suicide between the sexes are lessening. A compilation of official suicide data for 1933-1980 verifies such a trend from the 1950s through 1971. However, increased differences (as measured by the ratio of male to female rates) were consistently observed from 1971 to 1980. These trends were found for data for the nation, for whites and nonwhites, for numbers of suicides, for crude rates, and for age-adjusted rates. Decreased sex differences were obtained for those 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, and for 65+ years of age, but increased sex differences were observed for those aged 15-24 and 25-34. Possible explanations for these findings are presented.     

Attempting to change sex role attitudes in adolescents: explorations of reverse effects.

Previous interventions designed to reduce sex role stereotypes have been successful with women, but frequently have had no effects, or reverse effects, with men. These interventions have generally used presentations emphasizing women's roles. In the present study, three experiments were conducted using media presentations focusing on men. Two of these produced reverse effects in women. Despite the brevity of the interventions, the effects persisted three or four weeks later, and were intensified, suggesting a sleeper effect. These male-focused presentations produced positive effects in the male subjects in all three experiments, though these did not reach statistical significance. The results strongly suggest that current sex differences in sex role attitudes are partially due to situational determinants (as well as developmental factors). Implications of reverse effects for counselors and educators are discussed.     

Job satisfaction and women's spheres of work

Job satisfaction for women workers is traditionally researched from the job-gender model in which sex roles generate the research framework. Women employed in the labor market are viewed as responding primarily to the confines of sex roles, as opposed to the structural rewards and constraints of the labor market itself. We reexamined earlier studies that found no effect of the labor market on job satisfaction for women. Reanalysis of the 1972–1973 Quality of Employment national survey revealed significantly different levels of job satisfaction, which are in part structured by the characteristics of the labor market sectors in which women and men work. Women working in labor market sectors that are predominantly male or have a balanced proportion of male and female workers jobs have high job satisfaction. This job satisfaction is predicted almost exclusively by their perceptions of fewer income problems, flexibility of hours, and use of job skills. Factors related to maternity benefits and leaves are related only marginally to job satisfaction for women workers in either labor market sector. Women in predominantly female sectors of the labor market have similarly high job satisfaction scores, but these are related to a wider cluster of factors, including fewer perceived income problems, skills, and challenge factors, as well as the socioemotional rewards of their work. This pattern is most similar to males who work in predominantly male sectors. In contrast, males who work in predominantly female or gender-proportionate jobs have significantly lower job satisfaction scores, even after controling for income issues and other benefits. Labor market sectors and the rewards available within them are important structural dimensions of job satisfaction for women and men employees.     

Sex role orientations,attributions for achievement,and personal goals of Chinese youth

The role of women in the People's Republic of China has changed dramatically in the last 40 years. This study assesses what impact these changes have had on the attitudes of Chinese youth. The sample consisted of 164 subjects (77 men and 87 women) who completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory, the Objective Fear of Success Measure, a locus of control scale, and a personal goals questionnaire. They also evaluated a painting attributed to artists of different gender and status. The results indicate that the sex role orientations of Chinese students were similar to those of American students. On the Bem inventory, the direction of the sex differences on the sex role scales was the same for U.S. and Chinese students, but the latter had a sex role orientation that, in our culture, is regarded as more “traditional.” Chinese women were significantly more likely to endorse statements expressing fear of success than were Chinese men. On the locus of control measures, Chinese women were more likely than men to attribute their achievement successes to luck and failures to a lack of ability. The women students also attributed affiliation outcomes more to luck than did the men. The most important personal goal cited by both men and women was that of career success. Chinese men placed greater importance than women on achieving wealth, and their expectancy of actually becoming wealthy was higher. Finally, in an evaluation of a painting, Chinese men, but not the women, devalued a painting when it was supposedly the work of a female student artist.     

The impact of social roles on trait judgments: a critical reexamination

Consistent with social role theory's assumption that the role behavior of men and women shapes gender stereotypes, earlier experiments have found that men's and women's occupancy of the same role eliminated gender-stereotypical judgments of greater agency and lower communion in men than women. The shifting standards model raises the question of whether a shift to within-sex standards in judgments of men and women in roles could have masked underlying gender stereotypes. To examine this possibility, two experiments obtained judgments of men and women using measures that do or do not restrain shifts to within-sex standards. This measure variation did not affect the social role pattern of smaller perceived sex differences in the presence of role information. These findings thus support the social role theory claim that designations of identical roles for subgroups of men and women eliminate or reduce perceived sex differences.     

Self-esteem,self-concept,and the life goals and sex-role attitudes of college students1

Questionnaires that assessed self-esteem, self-concept, educational goals, career goals, preferred and expected career commitment, and sex-role attitudes were completed by 884 male and female undergraduates representing two racial groups and two age groups. Men and women did not differ significantly in terms of self-esteem, but the men described themselves as more attractive than did the women in their age group. For the 18–25-year-old white women, an intelligent, unconventional, and/or nonreligious self-concept predicts nontraditional goals and feminist attitudes, and the interaction between self-esteem and socioeconomic status influences educational goals and sex-role attitudes. For the 18–25-year-old white men, a physically strong and intelligent self-concept predicts higher educational goals and traditional career goals, and lower self-described strength and religiousness and greater intelligence predict more feminist attitudes. Physical self-concept is unrelated to goals or attitudes for the female samples. Self-concept is less strongly predictive of goals and attitudes for the black women and the older men and women. Possible reasons for the sample differences and implications for related research are discussed.     

Sex differences and the own-gender bias in face recognition: A meta-analytic review

We review the literature on sex differences and the own-gender bias in face recognition. By means of a meta-analysis, we found that girls and women remember more faces than boys and men do (g=0.36), and more female faces (g=0.55), but not more male faces (g=0.08); however, when only male faces are presented, girls and women outperform boys and men (g=0.22). In addition, there is female own-gender bias (g=0.57), but not a male own-gender bias (g= ? 0.03), showing that girls and women remember more female than male faces. It is argued that girls and women have an advantage in face processing and episodic memory, resulting in sex differences for faces, and that the female own-gender bias may stem from an early perceptual expertise for female faces, which may be strengthened by reciprocal interactions and psychological processes directing girls' and women's interest to other females.