Factor Analysis of Masculine and Feminine Sex-Typed Items from the Bem Sex-Role Inventory

Abstract

Based on the responses of 252 (126 male, 126 female) college undergraduates, a factor analysis of the 40 sex-typed items from the Bern Sex-role Inventory and sex of respondent yielded four factors. One of the factors essentially represented the biological sex of the respondent. A second factor, representing an expressive, affective orientation, contained loadings of 14 of the 20 feminine sex-typed items. The other two factors (dominant, aggressive and independent, self-sufficient) were defined primarily by masculine sex-typed items. Biological sex of the respondent did not load on any of the three latter factors. The obtained factor structure was very similar to that reported by Gaudreau (1975) for non-college respondents. Taken together, these two analyses (a) support the use of the Masculinity and Femininity scales as independent constructs and (b) suggest several items that could be deleted from both scales to increase both homogeneity and interpretability.