The effect of sex and gender on self-esteem: introducing global gender salience
Date
2015
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Despite the theoretical contributions to gender theory since the 1970s and the
increasing public awareness of gender identity, a gap exists between contemporary
gender theory and quantitative social science research methods. Quantitative
researchers oftentimes conflate sex and gender when conceptualizing and
operationalizing their variables. They usually measure sex (with only male/female
options), but make claims about respondents’ masculinity and femininity. Some
researchers try to combat sex/gender conflation by measuring gender identity (with
options such as male/female, genderqueer, transgender, etc.), but they may also make
assumptions about respondents’ masculinity and femininity in their analyses. Gender
measurements such as Bem’s Sex Role Inventory and the Personality Attributes
Questionnaire operationalize gender, but these measurements are arguably outdated
and unpractical given their length. To address these theoretical and methodological
issues in the literature, this paper introduces two gender scales—a 100-point
masculinity and 100-point femininity scale—that will illustrate the importance of
measuring gender independently and in addition to sex in quantitative research using
the example of self-esteem. Survey results from 414 undergraduate and graduate
students in a Northeastern university show differences in self-esteem outcomes when
measuring for only sex and measuring for both masculinity and femininity by sex.