Rationale: This activity introduces students to a scale intended to measure one’s gender and asks students to think critically about whether an objective measurement of gender identity is even possible.
The vertical access represents adherence to traditional male gender norms, and the horizontal access represents adherence to traditional feminine gender norms. In this example, the test taker is being classified (just barely) as “undifferentiated” meaning they don’t really adhere to either masculine or feminine gender norms. You do not need to post a picture of your results, but in your response to this assignment, you will need to report your classification. You will also need to reflect on the validity and reliability by addressing the following prompts: What do the terms masculine and feminine mean? Can we capture ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’ on a questionnaire? How might the results of this scale be helpful and/or hurtful? Which questions on the test did not seem to ‘fit’ with ‘masculinity’ or ‘femininity’? Do you think the results of the questionnaire will translate into behaviors?
These are the results from the Open Sex-Role Inventory.
The OSRI measures two scales. Scores are adjusted so the average is 100.
Masculinity
78
Femininity
84
Sandra Bem’s theory was that both masculinity and femininity were good and the ideal was high levels of both, which she called androgyny. Your scores are graphed below according to her typology.
The vertical access represents adherence to traditional male gender norms, and the horizontal access represents adherence to traditional feminine gender norms. In this example, the test taker is being classified (just barely) as “undifferentiated” meaning they don’t really adhere to either masculine or feminine gender norms.
You do not need to post a picture of your results, but in your response to this assignment, you will need to report your classification. You will also need to reflect on the validity and reliability by addressing the following prompts: What do the terms masculine and feminine mean? Can we capture ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’ on a questionnaire? How might the results of this scale be helpful and/or hurtful? Which questions on the test did not seem to ‘fit’ with ‘masculinity’ or ‘femininity’? Do you think the results of the questionnaire will translate into behaviors?
