The black male urban barbershop as a sex-role socialization setting

Two hundred-eighty participants-as-observer hours and eight hours of informal interviewers with “informants” during a two-month period in summer 1983 were data sources in an analysis of a Black male urban barbershop in a midwestern city. The study focused on the barbershop as a sex-role socialization setting in which adult Black males actively negotiate masculinity while Black male youth passively negotiate masculinity and in all likelihood are socialized to become active negotiators. Content analyses of taped barbershop sessions and the researcher's written reports of the session revealed that the barbershop studied perpetuates sex-role stereotypes, encourages sexist attitudes toward women, and, in general, is a sex-role socialization setting that promotes sex-role inequality.