Androgyny as type and androgyny as behavior: Implications for gender schema in males and females

Repressive Moralism: World Making and Petty Fascism in Transgender Politics

The past decade has seen a shift in the way that minorities exert their influence in society. Where in previous decades the emphasis was on winning the hearts and minds of the population at large, a recent strategy has been to ignore general public discourse and only to target specific influential bodies. In this paper we use the example of transgender issues to analyse the socio-psychological dimensions of this approach. We show how some groups promoting these issues eschew a wider social discourse and debate in the mass media, and how their strategy rests on a self-construction as victims of the hetero-normative society, with a concomitant appeal to moral rather than factual argumentation. This is combined with a programme of aggressive challenge to opponents through social media, and sometimes direct action, which effectively closes discussion on the topic. We conclude that these methods have much in common with the oppressive politics of fascist rule.

Sex Differences in the Adaptive Value of Androgyny

Androgynous blending of masculine and feminine behaviors was found to be positively related to androgynous sex-typing in 47 college women but not in 45 college men. However, of the two forms of androgyny, only blending was inversely related to stress in women; neither held functional significance for men.

Career Assessment Strategies for Women in Management

With the influx of women into management positions, researchers and practitioners have examined the career-related issues facing women managers (Powell, 1988). Their focus has been on documenting the unique issues facing women managers, and the individual and organizational strategies that can be used to assist them (Russell, 1993). The present article extends this research by reviewing a number of career assessment devices that may be useful for counseling women managers. Over 45 strategies are described that address both internal issues confronting women managers (e.g., burnout, disillusionment, self-efficacy, limited political skills, role conflict) and external barriers (e.g., backlash, work-family conflicts, little access to mentoring relationships, social isolation, sex-role stereotypes). A discussion of the research on career assessment tools for women managers is provided with prescriptions for future research and practice.

Parent Identification and Gender Schema Development

The strength of gender schematic development in college students was examined for different patterns of primary parent identification. Gender schema has been defined as a cognitive structure that influences the extent to which a person perceives the world in gender-related terms and how he or she processes gender-relevant information. Salience of the gender schema was greater for both female and male students who identified with their father than for students who identified with their mother. Explanation of these results was based upon the assumption that middle-class women in the United States are less concerned about stereotypic sex role differences and tend not to reinforce these values in their children when they are in a position to do so.