Factor structure of the bem sex-role inventory: Implications for the study of masculinity, femininity, and androgyny

Abstract

The Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) was administered to 171 first-year undergraduates at Flinders University in 1975, and to a sample of 358 respondents consisting of third-year undergraduates at Flinders University, their parents, and siblings (14 years of age or older) tested in 1976 and 1977. The intercorrelations between respondents' scores on each of the 60 items of the BSRI, their BSRI masculinity scores, their BSRI femininity scores, their BSRI social desirability scores, and with sex of individual included as a variable, were subjected to factor analysis using the principal-factor procedure followed by varimax rotation. The factor analysis yielded 18 factors accounting for 73˙6% of the total variance in the initial study, and 15 factors accounting for 64˙3% of the total variance in the replication study. In both studies, the BSRI masculinity score loaded on two factors (dominance and independence) and the BSRI femininity score loaded on one (concern for others). The BSRI social desirability score loaded on three factors in both studies (positive affective attitude, inefficiency, and undesirable personal traits). The results were seen as similar to those from North American and British studies. They were interpreted as having implications for the conceptualization of masculinity-femininity and they were consistent with the idea that widely held conceptions about sex-roles became internalized as part of the self-concept.