African American and Anglo-American Gender Identities: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Although research has shown that the gender identities ofAfricanAmericans are more androgynous than the gender identities ofAnglo-Americans, little effort has been made to determine how representative of the African American population these gender patterns are. A study was designed to determine whether the gender identities of African American male and female middle-class subjects are the same as the gender identities of theirAnglo-American male andfemale counterparts. Usinga modifiedversionoftheBemSex-RoleInventory, AfricanAmerican men and women were found to be more androgynous than Anglo-American men and women. African American males and females have an equal propensity to regard masculine traits as more self-descriptive, whereasAnglo-American males regard masculine traits as more self-descriptive than do Anglo-American females. Females of both races regardfeminine traits as more self-descriptive than do males, but this tendency is slightly stronger for Anglo-Americans than for African Americans. Anglo-Americans have a greater tendency than African Americans tofind "gender-appropriate" traits to be self-descriptive in subscales of masculinity andfemininity.