Gender schema theory revisited: men's stereotypes of American women

Bem's gender schema theory is reconsidered in terms of connections among schemas, stereotypes, and perceptions of self and others. The supposition that schematic, as opposed to aschematic persons, are more prone to think about others in stereotypic ways is tested. Primarily Caucasian adult men from all social classes (n=142), classified with the Bem Sex Role Inventory as masculine, androgynous, or undifferentiated, completed measures designed to assess strength of stereotypic views of American women and the tendency to think unidimensionally (the likelihood of perceiving women as feminine vs. androgynous). Results analyzed with multivariate analysis of variance, indicated significant differences among subject categories. Masculine (schematic) men were the most prone to see women as stereotypically high in femininity and low on masculinity. Androgynous men were more likely to perceive women as having androgynous characteristics.