Southern traditionalism and sex-role ideology: A research note

Sociological literature, as well as popular folklore, suggests the existence of a Southern regional subculture, of which sex-role traditionalism is an integral part. To test the empirical validity of this assumption, the present study employed the 1975 National Fertility Study data, a probability sample of 3,403 currently married white women, of whom eight sex-role questions were asked. A factor analysis of these questions was used to calculate a sex-role summary score for each respondent. Wife's employment in 1975 and her attainment of high levels of education were the two strongest predictors of a nontraditional sex-role score. The sex-role attitudes of Southern and non-Southern women did not differ significantly. The implications for research and policy are discussed.An earlier version of this article was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society, Atlanta, Georgia, April 4–7, 1979. This project was supported by the Center for the Study of Population and Natural Resources at Michigan State University and by Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station Project No. 3243 S. This report is Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station Journal Article Number 11107. The authors thank Merwyn R. Nelson and an anonymous reviewer for constructive comments on an earlier draft.