Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology

The Foundations of Social Research 33
controlled transportation company in Finland. Each of the managers had rated
a subordinate on 30 dimensions—things like the ability to get along with others,
independence in getting the job done, willingness to implement innovations,
and so on. The sex-typed female managers (the women who scored high
on femaleness, according to the BSRI) rated their male subordinates more
favorably than they rated their female subordinates. Similarly, the sex-typed
male managers rated their female subordinates more favorably than they rated
their male subordinates.
The bottom line, according to Sundvik and Lindeman: ‘‘Among persons
whose self-concepts are formed on the basis of gender, both the queen bee
and the king ape syndromes are alive and well’’ (1993:8). Sex-typed managers
discriminate against subordinates of the same sex.
Of course, traits thought to be masculine in one culture might be thought of
as feminine in another. Aggressiveness is a trait widely viewed across many
cultures to be desirable for men and boys and undesirable for women and girls.
In Zimbabwe, however, 488 schoolteachers, half of whom were men, gave this
trait their lowest desirability rating of the 20 masculine items in the BSRI
(Wilson et al. 1990).
In Japan, Katsurada and Sugihara (1999) found that all 20 masculine traits
in the BSRI were culturally appropriate, but that three of the classically 20
feminine traits in the scale (‘‘sensitive to the needs of others,’’ ‘‘understanding,’’
and ‘‘loyal’’) were inappropriate. (Loyalty, for example, is seen as a
highly desirable trait for everyone in Japan, so it can’t be used in a test to
distinguish between men and women.) Based on tests with 300 college students,
Katsurada and Sugihara recommend substituting ‘‘conscientious,’’
‘‘tactful,’’ and ‘‘happy’’ in the list of feminine adjectives when the BSRI is
used in Japan. (For a version of the BSRI tested for use in Mexico, see Lara-
Cantú and Navarro-Arias 1987. For a version of the BSRI for use in China,
see Qin and Yianjie 2003.) After 25 years of research with the BSRI, we’ve
learned a lot about the differences between men and women.
One thing we’ve learned is that those differences are much more complex
than a biological dichotomy would make them appear to be. We’ve also
learned that gender role differences are even more complex than Bem imagined.
Choi and Fuqua (2003) looked at 23 validation studies of the BSRI and
found that Bem’s inventory doesn’t fully capture the complexity of masculinity
and femininity. But that just means that we’re learning more with each
generation of researchers—exactly what we expect from a cumulative science.
(For more on measuring gender across cultures using the PAQ and the BSRI,
see Sugihara and Warner 1999, Auster and Ohm 2000, Sugihara and Katsurada
2000, Zhang et al. 2001, and Norvilitis and Reid 2002.)