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The author reacts to three reviews by Carolyn Enns, Stephen Wester, and P. Paul and Mary Heppner on The Counseling Psychologist Major Contribution 'Summarizing 25 Years of Research on Men's Gender Role Conflict Using the Gender Role Conflict Scale: New Research Paradigms and Clinical Implications.' The reviews provide support for assessing the complexity and diversity of men's gender role conflict. The author comments on the reviewers' most critical points in four areas: (a) endorsing contextual, multicultural, and cross-cultural dimensions of gender role conflict; (b) the gap between gender role conflict and career psychology; (c) integrating feminist theory and the macrosocietal perspectives of gender role conflict and sexism; and (d) qualitative and developmental research, societal needs, and social activism. The author recommends further theory development, research, and activism in combating and preventing sexism and gender role conflict.

The well-developed body of theory and research on men's gender role conflict provides an excellent foundation for developing increasingly complex models of men's genderrelated concerns. Theorists and researchers are encouraged to incorporate themes related to social structural aspects of gender as well as to examine the ways in which men's multiple identities and the intersections among these varied identities are experienced by men and boys. The complexity of men's gender-related challenges are illustrated through the exploration of the various individual, interpersonal, structural, and cultural components of gender issues faced by contemporary men in Japan.

African American/White interracial couples are a rapidly growing segment of the population. However, little is known about factors related to marital quality for these couples. The authors examine the relationships between sex role ideology, perception of relationship unfairness, and marital quality among a sample of 76 married African American/White interracial couples from the mid-Atlantic region. The results indicate that interracial couples are similar to same-race couples in some ways. In particular, women, regardless of race, report their marriages to be more unfair to them than do men. Unique experiences in interracial marriages based on one's race or race/gender combination are also identified. African Americans experience more ambivalence about their relationship than their White partners. Furthermore, sex role ideology has a moderating effect on perceived unfairness and marital quality for African American men. Similarities and differences among interracial and same-race marriages are discussed, with recommendations for future research. Keywords: interracial couples; marital quality; sex roles; perceived fairness

The authors hypothesized that masculine gender role stress would mediate the relationship between insecure attachment and controlling behaviors in a sample of men who batter To examine this hypothesis, 143 men who were court mandated to attend a batterers' intervention program in a northeastern state completed measures including the Controlling Behavior Index, the Gender Role Stress Scale, the Relationship Questionnaire, and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. After controlling statistically for social desirability, results indicated that both fearful attachment and gender role stress significantly predicted controlling behaviors, with gender role stress partially mediating the relationship between fearful attachment and controlling behaviors. The discussion focuses on the importance of understanding partner abuse through a gendered context. Keywords: masculinity; gender role stress; attachment; male batterers

This paper argues that changes to the original definition of the disidentification process are in order, including reconceptualizing the restrictive gender role behaviors from boyhood onward as an early form [...]

In two studies (ns = 277 and 221), the authors examined the relationships among sex drive, sociosexuality, lifetime number of sex partners, and gender identity. They found that sex drive is highly and positively correlated with sociosexual orientation, and that both sex drive and sociosexual orientation are positively correlated with lifetime number of sex partners. However, partial correlations revealed that sociosexual orientation is an independent predictor of lifetime number of sex partners, whereas sex drive is not. The authors were also able to replicate and extend Mikach and Bailey's (1999) finding that gender identity is related to women's lifetime number of sex partners. More masculine women had more sex partners and had a less restricted sociosexual orientation than did less masculine women; less masculine men had a higher sex drive than did more masculine men. The findings are discussed with regard to theory and research on sex drive and sociosexuality. Keywords: sex drive; sociosexuality; gender identity

Since Prozac emerged on the market at the end of 1987, there has been a dramatic increase in antidepressant use and in its discussion by popular media. Yet there has been little analysis of the gendered character of this phenomenon despite feminist traditions scrutinizing the medical control of women's bodies. The authors begin to fill this gap through a detailed content analysis of the 83 major articles on Prozac and its 'chemical cousins' appearing in large-circulation periodicals in Prozac's first 12 years. They find that popular talk about Prozac and its competing brands is largely degendered, presented as manifestly gender neutral, yet replete with latent gendered messages. These are about women with neurochemical imbalances but also about the need to discipline elite female bodies, to enhance their productivity and flexibility. This new form of female 'fitness' mirrors demands of the New Economy and indicates how psychiatric discourse contributes to the historically specific shaping of gendered bodies. Keywords: Prozac; psychopharmaceuticals; gender: psychiatry; new economy

In discussing the construction of gender in family settings and in children's lives, one must consider the relations of these separate but closely connected arenas. Easy assumptions of unity are wrong and inappropriate but studying children in isolation from family life--or vice versa--produces a flawed picture as well. This discussion suggests that literal joinings and separations in time and space should be integral to analyses in both fields because they are integral to the phenomena researchers want to illuminate. Keywords: family; childhood; space; work/family issues

Using structural equation modeling, the authors tested theoretical predictions concerning the effects of perceived discrimination against one's gender on psychological well-being in women and men. Results were highly supportive of the Rejection-Identification Model, with perceptions of discrimination harming psychological well-being among women but not among men. The results also support the Rejection-Identification Model's prediction that women partially cope with the negative well-being consequences of perceived discrimination by increasing identification with women as a group. In contrast, perceived discrimination was unrelated to group identification among men. The authors found no support for the hypothesis that perceptions of discrimination have self-protective properties among the disadvantaged. Results are consistent with the contention that the differential effects of perceived discrimination among women and men are due to differences in the groups' relative positions within the social structure.

The implications of the shifting standards model for understanding behavior toward stereotyped groups were examined in two studies on gender and athleticism. Participants played the role of co-ed softball team managers, who made team selections, position assignments, and judgments about a series of male and female players. The data supported three hypotheses: (a) Stereotypes of male superiority as athletes lead to the use of shifting standards to judge athletic performance; (b) zero-sum behaviors (allocation of limited resources) show evidence of pro-male bias, whereas non-zero-sum behaviors (verbal and nonverbal reactions) show evidence of pro-female bias; and (c) objective judgments are somewhat better predictors of zero-sum behaviors, whereas subjective judgments are better predictors of non-zero-sum behaviors.

Male and female residents of four slums in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and four slums in Islamabad, Pakistan, were interviewed about household and environmental stressors and about their mental distress and physical health. Within each city, the slums differed in terms of household-level variables (e.g., number of people and number of rooms per house) and contextual variables (e.g., number of families sharing a water source). Although there were gender differences in both cities, there were more gender differences and the gender differences were stronger in Islamabad than in Dhaka, consistent with the Islamic influence in the two countries.

This study expands the empirical and theoretical understanding of attitudes toward rape victims. Six hundred and eight adolescents and young adults were given three brief questionnaires assessing attitudes toward rape victims, attitudes toward women, and sex-role orientation, in addition to three sexual coercion vignettes. The results demonstrated that a significant proportion of students held unfavorable attitudes toward rape victims, perceived the victims as being responsible for the rape, and perceived the victims as contributing to their assault. Negative stereotypes about rape were also related to conservative and traditional beliefs about women's social roles. Gender and educational level differences regarding rape victims were also found. The direct implications of these results for enhancing the efficacy of rape prevention and education programs is discussed in terms of both content and target group.

This article examines personality traits associated with gender in a sample of gays, lesbians, and heterosexuals from three cultures to investigate the relationship between sexual orientation, personality, and culture. Results indicate that homosexuals and heterosexuals had significant differences in gender-related traits which were greater in participants from traditional cultures.

This article provides an overview of methodologically diverse cross-cultural studies on socialization and gender concept development. Findings indicate that cultural expectations and social experiences play a significant role in the development of sex role concepts and gender stereotypes across cultures.

Females are stereotypically perceived as warmer and less powerful than males, and baby-faced adults are perceived as warmer and less powerful than those with more mature faces. As women, on the average, have more babyish faces than men, it was hypothesized that typical sex differences in facial maturity may contribute to sex role stereotypes. Subjects rated adult schematic faces of both sexes on sex-stereotypic traits and roles. In a typical facial maturity condition (mature-faced males and baby-faced females), typical sex role stereotypes were obtained. However, when the natural association of gender and facial maturity was eliminated (males and females equally mature-faced) or reversed (baby-faced males and mature-faced females), sex role stereotypes were weakened or reversed.

This experiment examined the affective consequences of sex-stereotyped education software on students in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades of a private school. All students worked with the same two experimental programs either in the school computer center or at single computer stations. The results showed the situational stress was an affective consequence of working with cross-gender educational software if the students were asked to perform in the public context of the computer center. This was not true if the student worked in more privacy. It is concluded that such stress in females while using the more predominant male-streotyped aggressive video game formats in the public, ego-involving environment of the computer center or classroom may be a possible factor in their avoidance of computers as docuemented in most literature.

Two studies examined the effects of mortality salience on the willingness to interact with sex-typed and cross-sex-typed stereotypic targets while assessing the moderating role of sex-role identity. In both studies, Israeli adolescent participants completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, were exposed to a mortality salience or control induction, and rated their willingness to interact with two same-sex targets that were defined by either feminine or masculine stereotypic traits. Study 1 included 169 boys; Study 2 consisted of 200 girls. Results from both studies indicated that mortality salience led sex-typed individuals (masculine boys, feminine girls) to report less willingness to interact with same-sex peers who are cross-sex-typed. In contrast, mortality salience led cross-sex-typed individuals (feminine boys, masculine girls) to report more willingness to interact with same-sex peers who are cross-sex-typed. Findings were discussed in light of the function of personal identity validation as a possible terror management mechanism.

This study addressed how male gender-role variables were related to help seeking in male batterers prior to treatment and differences between self-referred and court-ordered batterers. Four questionnaires on help-seeking attitudes and male gender-role variables were given to 109 men that attended an information session before attending treatment. Results indicated that help-seeking attitudes were negatively correlated with feeling connected to all men through similarities. Self-referred men, compared with court-ordered men, were more likely to have higher help-seeking attitudes. In contrast, court-ordered men felt more connection to all men through similarities as compared with self-referred. The implications of help seeking and male gender-role attitudes for counseling batterers are discussed.

Two studies of college students investigated the conditions under which women perform better than men on an empathic accuracy task (inferring the thoughts and feelings of a target person). The first study demonstrated that women's advantage held only when women were given a task assessing their feelings of sympathy toward the target prior to performing the empathic accuracy task. The second study demonstrated that payments in exchange for accuracy improved the performance of both men and women and wiped out any difference between men's and women's performances. Together, the results suggest that gender differences in empathic accuracy performance are the result of motivational differences and are not due to simple differences of ability between men and women.

This article examines gender differences in the strains associated with parenting. We hypothesize that due to the different role experiences of being a parent, mothers are more likely than fathers to experience greater role strain. Women who parent are more likely than their male counterparts to be exposed to straing-inducing experiences because they spend more time in child care and other household chores, because they are more likely to be doing so as a 'single-parent,' because they are more likely to be juggling family responsibilities and work commitments, and because being a parent has greater role salience for women. We also hypothesize that by taking into account the different role experiences of mothers and fathers we can partially account for the expected gender differences in parental strain. These hypotheses are explored using survey data from a probability sample of Detroit parents obtained in 1982-83 (n = 1,040) which assessed their parental role experiences and psychological well-being. The results confirm the hypothesized difference between mothers and fathers in reported strain, among both blacks and whites, with mothers expressing significantly greater role demands and parental strain than fathers. We find, however, that little of this difference is attributable to the differential role experiences we analyzed. We conclude that gender differences in parental strain may be linked more strongly to 'gender role' than 'parental role,' in that women are socialized more than men into taking responsibilities for relationships and are therefore more likely to experience the greater stresses associated with intimacy and emotional involvement with others. The greater strains of parenting felt by mothers as opposed to fathers may, thus, be due as much to the differential orientations they bring to the parental role as it is due to the objectively-assessed differences in role experience.