Images of Men and Women: A Comparison of Feminists and Nonfeminists

Abstract

It was hypothesized that feminists would evaluate male- and female-defined traits differently than would nonfeminists and that feminists would rate fewer traits as descriptive of only one sex. Undergraduates rated a set of adjectives for appropriateness to men and women, and for social desirability. Dempewolff's (1973) Feminism II Scale was given to dichotomize the sample into feminists and nonfeminists. The feminists did rate fewer traits as characteristic of only men or of only women and more traits as characteristic of both than did nonfeminists. Both feminists and nonfeminists (both men and women) evaluated most traits as either neutral or slightly positive.