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PubMed1986

Perinatal androgen manipulations do not affect feminine behavioral potentials in voles.

Adult voles show sexual differences in their behavioral responses to estrogen. To determine whether this sexual dimorphism is related to early androgen exposure as it is in other rodents, female voles were treated neonatally with testosterone. In addition, males were castrated neonatally or treated perinatally with either the antiandrogen, flutamide or with the antiaromatase, ATD. When androgenized females were treated with estrogen in adulthood, they exhibited normal sexual behaviors. Males deprived of androgen or treated with ATD during development did not display feminine behaviors when injected with estrogen in adulthood. These results suggest that the organizational hypothesis of sexual differentiation cannot explain the development of feminine behavior potentials in the vole. It is possible that the development of feminine behaviors in voles requires exposure to ovarian hormones during prepubertal development.

Androgens↗
PubMed1990

Neonatal serotonin reduction alters the adult feminine sexual behaviour of golden hamsters.

HPLC analysis of hamster hypothalamic 5HT indicated higher levels in females than in males on day 12 after birth. Levels of 5HT and 5HIAA could be reduced in both sexes by pCPA administration. Male and female hamster pups were treated on days 1-7 or 7-14 after birth with either pCPA, 5HTP or buffer, and tested for feminine and masculine sexual behaviour in adulthood. 5HTP had no effect on behaviour in either sex. pCPA had no effect on masculine sexual behaviour nor did it affect feminine sexual behaviour when given between days 1-7. When administered on days 7-14, pCPA significantly decreased the time that females spent displaying feminine sexual behaviour, while significantly increasing it in males. We, therefore, suggest that serotonin may be modulating a neural substrate already differentiated by androgens.

Aging↗
PubMed2006

The effectiveness of oral resonance therapy on the perception of femininity of voice in male-to-female transsexuals.

Ten male-to-female transsexuals participated in five sessions of oral resonance voice therapy targeting lip spreading and forward tongue carriage. Acoustic analysis of recordings made pre- and posttherapy found that participant formant frequency values (F1, F2, and F3, from the vowels /a/, /i/, and /mho/), as well as fundamental frequency (F0), underwent a general increase posttherapy. F3 values, in particular, increased significantly posttreatment. Trends in listener ratings of these recordings showed that the majority of participants were perceived to sound more feminine following treatment. Participants' self-ratings of their voices pre- and posttreatment also indicated that participants perceived their voices as sounding more feminine and that they were more satisfied with their voices following treatment. The present study supports the findings of previous studies that have demonstrated that resonance characteristics in male-to-female transsexuals can be changed to more closely approximate those of females through oral resonance therapy. This intervention study also demonstrates that a spontaneous increase in F0 is achieved during the course of therapy. Further, this study provides preliminary evidence to suggest that oral resonance therapy may be effective in increasing femininity of voice in male-to-female transsexual clients.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Masculinity-femininity as a national characteristic and its relationship with national agoraphobic fear levels: Fodor's sex role hypothesis revitalized.

Hofstede's dimension of national culture termed Masculinity-Femininity [. Cultures and organizations: software of the mind. London: McGraw-Hill] is proposed to be of relevance for understanding national-level differences in self-assessed agoraphobic fears. This prediction is based on the classical work of Fodor [. In: V. Franks & V. Burtle (Eds.), Women in therapy: new psychotherapies for a changing society. New York: Brunner/Mazel]. A unique data set comprising 11 countries (total N=5491 students) provided the opportunity of scrutinizing this issue. It was hypothesized and found that national Masculinity (the degree to which cultures delineate sex roles, with masculine or tough societies making clearer differentiations between the sexes than feminine or modest societies do) would correlate positively with national agoraphobic fear levels (as assessed with the Fear Survey Schedule-III). Following the correction for sex and age differences across national samples, a significant and large effect-sized national-level (ecological) r=+0.67 (P=0.01) was found. A highly feminine society such as Sweden had the lowest, whereas the champion among the masculine societies, Japan, had the highest national Agoraphobic fear score.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Breast cancer, personality and the feminine role.

This article argues that it may be illuminating to look at breast cancer also from a cultural point of view. It is built around a hypothesis which proposes that, on a certain level, breast cancer can be seen as an attempt by women to rid themselves of the breast as a symbol of some of the essential aspects of their femininity, as feminine qualities are seen as of little import in today's industrialized Western world. The argumentation begins by showing that there is a certain type of personality which is prone to cancer: One of the main characteristics of this personality is either the repression or the inability to express or feel anger. Furthermore, studies on sex-roles and defence mechanisms have shown that persons with feminine sex-role orientations use more repressive, self-blaming defence mechanisms. The author finally goes on to discuss the psychic mechanisms thought to lie behind somatization and cancer as a psychosomatic disease.

Anger↗
PubMed1996

Adult feminine hygiene practices.

Adult feminine hygiene practices are the focus of this exploratory descriptive study. In a sample of 193 women, the typical respondent lived in the Southeast and was a single student who was 23 years of age, and White. Body cleansing, feminine hygiene, and menses management practices were examined. It was found that handwashing varied according to bodily involvement or specific feminine hygiene practices. Assorted menses management products were used for menses management and were used when the woman was not menstruating. The results of this study suggest that it might be possible for health care providers to teach women safe and economical health care practices, such as not douching and handwashing before and after use of menses management products to prevent infections.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Masculinity, femininity, type A behavior, and psychosocial adjustment in medical students.

The freshman class of a midwestern medical school completed measures of masculinity and femininity, Type A behavior, and a variety of dependent variables concerning psychological well-being, adjustment, and interpersonal satisfaction. Appropriate statistical treatment of the data revealed strong and consistent masculinity effects on neuroticism, depression, self-esteem, confidence, hedonic capacity, locus of control, and relationship satisfaction. Femininity main effects varied in number as a function of the statistical method employed and involved a more diverse group of variables than is typically reported. Additive androgyny formulations of mental health were supported; balance androgyny formulations were not. No evidence for a Type A X Masculinity effect on adjustment was found. Discussion focuses on the correct interpretation of masculinity and femininity scales, comparability of analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple regression statistical analyses, and the viability of the concept of androgyny.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Sex typing and the social perception of gender stereotypic and nonstereotypic behavior: the uniqueness of feminine males.

The social perception of masculine, feminine, androgynous and undifferentiated males was examined. Preadolescent boys (n = 251) were shown a video film portraying a male target playing either a masculine game with boys, a feminine game with girls, a neutral game with boys, or a neutral game with girls and were required to make a variety of inferences about him. All 4 groups made similar cognitive stereotypic inferences that varied in accordance with the gender stereotypic nature of the target's behavior. However, for the affective judgments (e.g., liking the target and wanting to engage in activities with him), the feminine males showed a pattern of inferences that was not only different from other sex role orientations, but often the reverse. The implications of these results for S. L. Bem's gender schema theory (1981) and H. Markus's self schema theory (H. Markus, M. Crane, S. L. Bernstein, & M. Siladi, 1982) are discussed.

Child↗
PubMed1975

Ratings of self and peers on sex role attributes and their relation to self-esteem and conceptions of masculinity and femininity.

Male (N = 248) and female (N = 282) subjects were given the Personal Attributes Questionnaire consisting of 55 bipolar attributes drawn from the Sex Role Stereotype Questionnaire by Rosenkrantz, Vogel, Bee, Broverman, and Broverman and were asked to rate themselves and then to compare directly the typical male and female college student. Self-ratings were divided into male-valued (stereotypically masculine attributes judged more desirable for both sexes), female-valued, and sex-specific items. Also administered was the Attitudes Toward Women Scale and a measure of social self-esteem. Correlations of the self-ratings with stereotype scores and the Attitudes Toward Women Scale were low in magnitude, suggesting that sex role expectations do not distort self-concepts. For both men and women, "femininity" on the female-valued self items and "masculinity" on the male-valued items were positively correlated, and both significantly related to self-esteem. The implications of the results for a concept of masculinity and femininity as a duality, characteristic of all individuals, and the use of the self-rating scales for measuring masculinity, femininity, and androgyny were discussed.

Attitude↗
PubMed1976

Masculinity-femininity in fathers of creative male adolescents.

This study investigated the relationship of paternal masculinity-femininity to filial creativity in a sample of high school students and their fathers. Thirty-one male high school students were identified as creative on the basis of teacher nominations and scores on the Remote Associates Test. An equal size control group of students matched on sex, educational level, grade point average, and geographical residence was formed. Fathers of both experimental and control students were administered a battery of tests which included a variety of masculinity-femininity measures. The results seem to support the general hypothesis that creativity is related to parental identification as a function of a less conventional sex-role stereotype, and the more specific hypothesis that there is a relation between paternal masculinity-femininity and filial creativity.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Masculinity, femininity, and women scientists' self-esteem and self-acceptance.

The literature suggests women scientists are a unique population. The present study investigated differences in self-esteem, self-acceptance, masculinity and femininity among several sample populations of women, including scientists (n = 62), professionals (other than scientists) (n = 89), college students (n = 83), clients (n = 52), and victims of domestic violence (n = 57). The Personal Orientation Inventory (Shostrom, 1974) and Bem Sex Role Inventory (Bem, 1974) were administered to subjects, together with a demographic data sheet. An ANOVA was used to investigate differences between women scientists and other groups of women, and correlations were used to examine the relationship of masculinity and femininity with self-esteem and self-acceptance. Masculinity was found to correlate with self-esteem for all but the student group and with self-acceptance for all but the student and scientist group. Self-acceptance scores were significantly lower for women scientists than for professional and student groups, and femininity scores were significantly lower for scientists than for all other groups of women.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

The use of masculine and feminine to describe women's and men's behavior.

The hypothesis that the terms masculine and feminine would not have the same connotations as the personality traits that are typically associated with them was investigated. Two hundred five undergraduates (116 women and 89 men) at a US university rated how much they expected to like various hypothetical women and men, each of whom was described by a single trait adjective. Ten instrumental-trait and 10 socioemotional-trait adjectives, including the terms masculine and feminine, were associated with a targeted female or male character (e.g., "an independent woman" or "an understanding man"). Although "a masculine woman" and "a feminine man" both received low ratings, female targets described by instrumental adjectives and male targets described by socioemotional adjectives received high ratings. Nonstereotypic characters were rated more positively by the female respondents than they were by the male respondents. Stereotypic targets were rated more positively by other-gender respondents than by same-gender respondents.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Implications and applications of recent research on feminine development.

The traditional feminine role pattern is no longer adaptive and functional for many women, because of pressures for change associated with such components of the social climate as the lengthening life span and concern about the population explosion. It is no longer physically possible nor considered socially valuable to spend a lifetime bearing and rearing children, even for those women who desire to do so. Thus the prospect or actuality of defining one's life by the wife-and-mother role creates anxiety and anger, which is increased by the awareness that society pays only lip service to so-called "feminine" qualities and behaviors, reserving power and prestige for those who achieve high status in the world of work. Clearly women need alternate bases of gratification and identity. However, these involve interconnected changes that are often painful and that require understanding and support from others which has been slow in coming. The general purpose of this paper is to provide evidence that changes in the feminine role pattern are a matter of urgency and will be beneficial to both sexes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Reproduction and resistance to the culture of femininity and masculinity in secondary school physical education.

The purpose of the study was to investigate ways in which gender-related perceptions and actions influenced students' construction of realities in curriculum-in-action in secondary school physical education. The participants were junior and senior secondary school students in a midwestern city in the United States. Data collection methods included observations and interviews. Data were analyzed with inductive analytical procedures. The findings of the study revealed that a majority of the female and male students reproduced traditionally dominant forms of femininity and masculinity. Female students patterned their behavior consistent with feminine ideology in selecting and participating in class activities, and male students chose and participated in class activities along masculine conceptions. The results were interpreted with reproduction and resistance theories. While femininity and masculinity cultures were reproduced through students' choice of activities and participation patterns, these cultures were resisted through students' construction of oppositional behavior.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Masculinity, femininity, academic performance, and health: further evidence concerning the androgyny controversy.

Spence and Helmreich's (1978) claim that individual differences in four components of achievement motivation (mastery, work, competitiveness, and personal unconcern) are attributable to masculinity and femininity rather than to gender was generally supported, with one exception: Masculinity was associated with competitiveness for males but not for females. Furthermore, competitive women were more likely than noncompetitive women to have mental and physical health problems, but there was no such difference for males. In general, masculinity emerged as a beneficial constellation of traits for both males and females, correlating negatively with achievement conflicts and stress symptoms, and positively with mastery and work. Femininity, on the other hand, appeared to be a detrimental cluster of traits for both sexes, at least in terms of academic performance and health. Implications for the controversial concept of androgyny were discussed, and it was suggested that, in the future, research inspired by an ideal conception of adult behavior confront the ideal directly rather than describe it in terms of the traditional concepts of masculinity and femininity. Any such research effort will have to deal with the pivotal role of competitiveness.

Achievement↗
PubMed1995

The phallic castration complex and primary femininity: paired developmental lines toward female gender identity.

I suggest that two developmental lines contribute to the achievement of female gender identity. One is rooted in the phallic castration complex, and the other in primary femininity. Far from being mutually exclusive, the two comprise necessary aspects of every girl's progress toward becoming a woman. To that extent, every woman's analysis will include the analysis of compromise formations that emerge from both. In distinguishing clinical manifestations of each developmental line, I suggest that it may be useful to conceptualize primary femininity and the phallic castration complex as affect-defense configurations which incorporate two fundamentally different ideas about danger. In conflicts of primary femininity, danger is anticipated: anxiety is the signal for compromise formation, since what is actually possessed (the female genital) is valued and is therefore imagined as subject to danger. In the phallic castration complex, danger is imagined already to have occurred. Depressive affect becomes the primary motive for defense, based on a fantasy that what is valued (the male genital) has already been lost. This distinction may facilitate our efforts to specify exactly how recent revisions in theories of female development have explicit implications for practice.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Development of the feminine gender role stress scale. A cognitive-behavioral measure of stress, appraisal, and coping for women.

The cognitive appraisal of threats and challenges to sterotypical feminine gender role coping behavior was defined as feminine gender role stress (FGRS). This article describes the development of a self-report measure of FGRS. Situations perceived as more stressful for women than for men wer categorized by factor analysis, yielding the following constellation of maladaptive stress responses particularly salient for women: (a) fear of unemotional relationships, (b) fear of being unattractive, (c) fear of victimization, (d) fear of behaving assertively, and (e) fear of not being nurturant. Women demonstrated significantly higher FGRS appraisal scores than men, and scores among women showed good 2-week test-retest reliability. The tendency to appraise situations on the FGRS scale as stressful was associated with the tendency to consider daily hassles stressful but was not related to self-perceived femininity in women. It was predicted that women who tend to exhibit the FGRS appraisal style would have more difficulty in coping with stressors related to depression. Supporting this hypothesis, women with higher FGRS scores reported greater depression than those with lower scores. The assessment of FGRS appraisal and coping style in women provides useful information for devising treatment strategies to improve women's health through promotion of adaptive coping.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1980

Equating the social desirability of Bem Sex-Role Inventory masculinity and femininity subscales.

Two experiments investigated the social desirability of Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) items. Mean social desirability of the masculinity subscale was significantly higher than that of the femininity subscale in both experiments. A revision of the BSRI femininity subscale was suggested which replaced three items of questionable social value with three more socially desirable items and virtually eliminated the social desirability difference between masculinity and femininity subscales.

Journal Article↗