Women's Career Plans and Maternal Employment

Maternal employment, perceived maternal satisfaction and goodness of mothering, and sex role conceptions were studied as they relate to future life plans of college senior women. Twenty-five women in a working mother group and 26 in a nonworking mother group were administered the Strong Vocational Interest Blank for Women, the Sex-Role Stereotype Questionnaire, the Inventory of Feminine Values, the Maternal Satisfaction and Maternal Goodness scales, and the Life Plan Questionnaire. Daughters of working mothers scored higher on career orientation ( p <.01, Life Plan Questionnaire) than did daughters of nonworking mothers. High perceived maternal satisfaction and maternal goodness correlated with low career orientation for the nonworking sample (the averaged r across variable pairs =.48). For the working sample, perceived maternal dissatisfaction with feminine role values correlated significantly with higher career orientation (r =.42), while the other satisfaction measure showed no relation to career orientation. Daughters of working mothers displayed broader sex role conceptualizations (p <0.01).     

First-Year Maternal Employment and Adolescent Externalizing Behavior

Associations between first-year maternal employment and mother—and youth-reported externalizing behavior at age 15 were examined paying attention to potential mediating roles of home and child care environments by 36?months, effortful control at 54?months, and externalizing behavior at 54?months and middle childhood. We used data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n?=?922 non-Hispanic White children) which is a prospective birth cohort study that followed children from birth to age 15. Full-time first-year maternal employment was associated with higher levels of externalizing behavior at age 15 through higher maternal depressive symptoms by 36?months, lower effortful control at 54?months, and higher externalizing behavior at 54?months and middle childhood. Part-time first-year maternal employment was not associated with higher externalizing behavior at age 15.     

Intent and Choice Regarding Maternal Employment Following Childbirth

This study examined the impact of personal values, perceived spouse preference, and family income on maternal employment intent and maternal employment following childbirth. This study followed a sample of 70 expectant working mothers from the last trimester of pregnancy to 6 months following childbirth. Traditional gender role values and perceived spouse preference influenced maternal employment intent measured prior to childbirth. Maternal employment intent and marital partner's income influenced maternal employment 6 months after childbirth. The results of this study provided support for Brown's (1996) value-based theory of career choice. Results also suggested that some women who preferred to be withdrawn from the labor force had to work to provide greater family income.     

Sex-Role Differentiation in Preschoolers: Effects of Maternal Employment

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether maternal employment affects sex-role differentiation in preschoolers, and whether this relationship varies as a function of the sex of the child, father's presence or absence, and/or the sex of the child's siblings (N = 398 boys and girls, mean age 51.2 months). The dependent measure consisted of a maximally reliable composite z score derived from five tests (Draw-A-Person, Occupational Preference, Nadleman Recall, Toy Preference, It Scale for Children). The fact of the mother working and the social status of her occupation were unrelated to sex-role differentiation, regardless of whether the child was a girl or a boy; had brothers, sisters, both, or was an only child; or came from an intact or nonintact family. However, the main effect for sex and the sex of child × sex of sibling interaction were significant.     

Measuring Androgyny in Adulthood

A critique is presented of trends in sex differences studies over the past few years. Such studies have failed to study possible integration of sex role identity as a developmental process, and have often neglected self-definitions in favor of stereotypes. A new approach for measuring androgynous competencies is suggested which utilizes Bakan's (1966) concepts of agency and communion. Adult women high on both agentic and communion competencies seem to have many advantages over those who are low on both competencies or who are competent in only one area.     

Discussion: Androgyny, Personality Theory, and Psychotherapy

Recently formulated conceptions of psychological androgyny appear to involve a variety of metaphorical models whereby masculinity and femininity are said to be balanced, tempered one by the other, integrated, or transcended. Through an application of Stephen Pepper's (1942) root metaphor theory to these models, it is argued that validational research will prove more profitable than theoretical debate over which vision of androgyny is "best". The importance of including measures of self-esteem in sex role research is also emphasized.     

Young Girls' Intelligence and Motivation: Links With Maternal Employment and Education but Not Systems Theory

Family systems theory postulates causal links within the family, including the marital relationship, parenting behavior, and child development. In a sample of midwestern families, few significant correlations were found between measures of spousal relationship and reports of parent behavior, and no spousal relationships or reports of parent behavior were found to be correlated with measures of their preschool daughters' intelligence or motivation. Maternal employment was inversely correlated with daughters' achievement motivation, and maternal education was directly associated with daughters' intellectual performance.     

Androgyny and psychosocial development among college students and adults

The present study examined the relation of androgyny to psychosocial development in the context of Erikson's life-span theory of personality. Samples of male and female college students and adults completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory and the Inventory of Psychosocial Development. The highest scores on psychosocial development were obtained by individuals with an androgynous orientation, followed by those with masculine, feminine, or undifferentiated orientations, in that order. Particular aspects of psychosocial development were differentially associated with masculinity and femininity, in accordance with the agentic or communal quality of successful resolutions of particular developmental crises. Overall, these results support the view that the simultaneous endorsement of both masculine and feminine qualities represents an added adaptive capacity. These findings applied equally to both sexes and both age groups studied.     

Social Change, Positive Mental Health, and Psychological Androgyny

Recent changes in the timing of life stages, the length of the lifespan, labor force participation, marriage and fertility are described. It is argued that highly-differentiated sex-role orientations are less suited to current conditions than are androgynous orientations, especially for women. If this is true, then developing androgynous sex-role orientations may promote greater adaptability and positive mental health.     

The Timing and Intensity of Maternal Employment in Early Childhood: Implications for Canadian Children

This study focused on the associations between timing and intensity of maternal employment in early childhood and the developmental outcomes of young Canadian children. We conducted a secondary analysis of data from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth using multiple linear regression. We tested the associations between mothers’ employment in the first four years of children’s lives and motor and social development of zero to 4-year-old-children and receptive language of 4 and 5-year-old-children. We also examined the association between working more than 20?h a week during the first 2 years of children’s lives and children’s outcomes. We found that mothers who returned to work when their children were between 0 and 4 years old had enhanced motor and social development in comparison to children of mothers who did not work during this time. Additionally, findings showed that relative to children of mothers who worked 20?h or less a week in the first 2 years of their children’s lives, in particular between 12 and 17 months, children of mothers who worked more than 20?h had lower receptive language scores at 4 and 5 years of age. These findings have implications for maternity and parental leave policy in Canada.     

Androgyny,ego development,and psychosocial crisis resolution

The present study examined the relationship of psychological androgyny with ego development in the context of Loevinger's theory and with psychosocial crisis resolution from the perspective of Erikson's theory. A sample of 30 male and 30 female adults completed the Bem Sex-role Inventory, the Washington University Sentence Completion Test, and the Inventory of Psychosocial Development (IPD). The androgynous individuals were predominate in the higher stages of Loevinger's hierarchical model of ego development, with the masculine sex-typed orientation falling between the androgynous and feminine sex-typed groups. The highest scores on psychosocial personality development, as assessed by the IPD, were obtained by those with an androgynous sex-role orientation, followed by those with masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated orientations, in that order. These results support the view that psychological androgyny represents an added adaptive capacity that can be developed in association with the development of higher ego functioning. These findings applied equally to both sexes and all age groups.     

Androgyny and traditional versus nontraditional major choice among college freshmen

The present study investigated the relationship of psychological androgyny to career choice among college freshmen. Women in home economics and engineering and men in engineering (N = 231) completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory and rating scales of satisfaction with and certainty of college major and intended occupation. As a group, women in engineering scored in a more androgynous direction than did either men in engineering or women in home economics. Among sex-typed subjects, more women in engineering scored in a masculine sex-typed category than did women in home economics. Men and women in engineering did not differ on satisfaction and certainty ratings of major or career; however, feminine-typed women were significantly less satisfied with and tended to be less certain of their choice of major than other women in engineering.     

Relation of Maternal Role Concepts to Parenting, Employment Choices, and Life Satisfaction Among Japanese Women

Japanese women are often described as heavily invested in the role of mother, yet young women in contemporary Japan are increasingly likely to postpone or opt out of marriage and child rearing. To understand the psychological dynamics of parenting among Japanese women who have chosen to become mothers, we examined the relation of maternal role salience beliefs, personal maternal role commitment, and parenting self-efficacy to life satisfaction, number of children, and employment status. Survey data were obtained from 116 urban Japanese women with children in the 2nd grade. Mothers with more children expressed greater personal role commitment. Those who had sought employment were less likely to hold strong maternal role salience beliefs. Life satisfaction was predicted by having more children, feeling efficacious as a parent, and being employed. These findings suggest that even in a society characterized by strong normative expectations for women, women's life satisfaction and choices about family life and employment are related to individual beliefs, attitudes, and judgments about their role.     

Androgyny,stress, and satisfaction: Dual- career and traditional relationships

Forty-one female and 61 male assistant professors, of whom 46% were involved in dual-career relationships, responded to a mail questionnaire that assessed (1) androgyny; (2) satisfaction at work, home, and in their personal life; (3) stress at work, home, and in their personal life. A 2×2×2 analysis of variance was conducted to evaluate the effects of relationship status, androgyny, and sex of subject. The results indicated that being androgynous was associated with increased work stress, but simultaneously increased personal satisfaction. A significant interaction between androgyny and relationship status demonstrated that androgynous dual-career persons reported highest personal satisfaction; androgynous nondual-career persons reported highest work satisfaction. Dualcareer status increased personal and work stress, as well as relationship satisfaction. The importance of considering each person's specific life situation when evaluating androgyny as a positive or negative attribute is discussed.     

Masculinity, Femininity, and Androgyny: Relations to Self-Esteem and Social Desirability

ABSTRACT The present investigation is a reanalysis of data from Antill and Cunningham (1979,1980) consisting of responses to five Masculinity-Femininity (MF) instruments, two self-esteem instruments, and two social desirability instruments The present study examined recently developed models of the MF/ esteem relation and the influence of social desirability on this relation The unique contribution of Masculinity (M) to esteem was consistently more positive than that of Femininity (F) which was either ml or negative, did not vary with sex as posited by sex-typed models, and did not interact with F as posited by interactive androgyny models Partialing out the effects of social desirability failed to alter the general pattern of results In contrast to esteem, social desirability was more correlated with F than M, and these findings were consistent with the observation that esteem items may reflect stereotypically masculine characteristics whereas social desirability items reflect stereotypically feminine characteristics The findings of the present study, and those of previous research, were examined in relation to important methodological issues that have been largely ignored by previous research in this area     

Theoretical and Operational Conceptualizations of Psychological Androgyny: Implications for Measurement

Research has demonstrated that the original operationalization of psychological androgyny using the t-ratio procedure accurately represents four of its five fundamental theoretical components. A new operationalization of androgyny, the median split technique, has recently been adopted, and this procedure also adequately denotes the same four theoretical components. However, the two procedures differ in the distribution of scores produced and in the results obtained in two recent studies. The implications of these differences are discussed and future directions for the measurement of psychological androgyny are investigated.     

Positive and Negative Androgyny and Their Relationship with Psychological Health and Well-Being

A new method of scoring the Extended Personal Attributes Questionnaire (EPAQ) was used to assess the constructs of positive and negative androgyny. The EPAQ was administered to 196 adult women and men; their responses were categorized into a differentiated androgyny. Significant differences were obtained between positive and negative androgynous people as well as between positive and negative feminine and positive and negative masculine people on a set of measures of psychological health and well-being. These findings support the validity and utility of differentiating androgyny into positive and negative categories of gender role identity.     

Adolescents' Conceptualization of Adult Roles: Relationships with Age,Gender, Work Goal,and Maternal Employment

This study concerns the construction of thepersonal stereotypes of “adult” andadulthood roles and the influence of gender, maternalemployment, and employment goals of adolescents informulating a concept of “adult” during twoperiods in adolescence. A sample of 237 adolescents, 12%non-Caucasian, responded to statements reflectinginterpersonal expectations and gender responsibilities attributed to adults. Exploratory factoranalysis indicated a four-factor structure in attitudestoward familial and career roles, ideology of fairness,social status, and rational characteristics, which were gender differentiated by contexts and normreferences. Analyses of variance on the factor scoreindicated girls' and young boys' conceptualizations of“adult” were related to maternal employment status and their career goals; older adolescentboys structured the roles ofparent,worker,and spouse astraditionally gender typed.