What is the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI)?
The idea of gender is distinguished from biological sex. Instead, it focuses on the cultural construct that includes both psychological and social factors (Carver et al., 2013). Bem was the first to identify the idea of gender roles as something other than exclusively feminine and masculine (Carver et al., 2013). The term androgyny represents psychological androgyny, where an individual has both masculine and feminine personality traits (Carver et al., 2013).
The Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) is a self-reported questionnaire designed to understand an individual's feminine and masculine characteristics. It can be used to measure the extent to which respondents sort information relating to themselves into distinct feminine and masculine categories. The BSRI measures masculinity, femininity, and androgyny (neutral) using the masculinity and femininity scales.
Traditional gender roles, once rigidly tied to masculine and feminine traits, shift as gender differences become less defined (Davis, 2017). Perceptions of what men and women can or should do are evolving, weakening the hold of these traditional expectations. Hence, in the current times, recent studies have shown that it is more common for women's femininity scores to decrease, with masculinity scores remaining more stable (Donnelly & Twenge, 2017). While this may be true in certain contexts, it is important to note that cultural influences, such as expectations surrounding gender norms, can impact BSRI scores (Davis, 2017).
