Family-functioning, sex-role ideology, psychological androgyny and self-actualisation in dual-career and traditional families
Master Thesis
1984
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University of Cape Town
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Abstract
The steadily increasing numbers in employed married women and the rise of feminist sex-role ideology are factors indicating change in the role and status of women in Western society. There is movement away from the traditional gender-based role allocation towards increased role-sharing. This trend is embodied in the dual-career family, which necessitates adaptive changes in individual men and women and in government and institutional policies. To better understand the current nature of the dual-career family, this study compared fourteen dual-career husbands and wives with fourteen traditional husbands and wives on four selected variables, namely: (1) family-functioning, primarily to assess whether dual-career and traditional families function equally well; (2) sex-role ideology, which provides a context in which role changes are occurring; (3) psychological androgyny, a concept which finds expression in an age seeking alternatives to masculine and feminine stereotypes; and (4) self-actualisation, as theoretically the dual-career family offers opportunities for increased personal fulfilment. The scales used were: Smilkstein's Family APGAR (1978), Smith et. al.'s FEM-scale (1975), Bern's Sex-Role Inventory (1974) and Shostrom's Personal Orientation Inventory (1963). Previous research, particularly regarding the role of dual-career husbands, has not consistently confirmed predictions based on theory. Consequently, this study is observational, not predictive. The results indicated no significant differences on family-functioning; dual-career and traditional husbands and wives all rated their families as well-functioning. Self-actualisation scores, though not statistically significant, suggested trends inconsistent with theory and previous research, in indicating that traditional husbands, dual-career husbands and dual-career wives are similarly inner-directed and that traditional husbands are more inner-directed than traditional wives. This may have been due to difficulties with the POI. Statistically significant differences were found in sex-role ideology scores, with dual-career wives scoring more pro-feminist (p < 0,05) than traditional wives and dual-career husbands. Although the scores for psychological androgyny could not be statistically assessed, the results suggested a trend for more dual-career wives to be androgynous than traditional wives and dual-career husbands. The median test indicated a significant statistical relationship between sex-role ideology and androgyny and "cross-sex-typedness" (p = 0,0007). No other statistically significant relationships were found between the variables, except for a significant positive correlation (p < 0,05) between the two sub-scales of the POI. Discrepancies between dual-career husbands and wives on sex-role ideology and androgyny did not appear to affect family-functioning adversely. Possible explanations for this include their hiring of domestic servants, thus reducing the need for husbands to make adaptive role changes; and several indications that the wives continue to identify with the traditional female role. These features imply that these dual-career families are not fully egalitarian; husbands and wives still tend to allocate responsibility and commitment to roles in accordance with the traditional model.
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BIbliography: pages 142-155.
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Reference:
Singer, V. 1984. Family-functioning, sex-role ideology, psychological androgyny and self-actualisation in dual-career and traditional families. University of Cape Town.