Gender role identity and perceptions of Ismaili Muslim men and women

Gender roles in the Ismaili Muslim community were examined. Eighty-one Shia Imami Nizari Ismaili Muslims living in Ontario, Canada, provided demographic data and completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem, 1981) and the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS; Spence, Helmreich, & Stapp, 1973). The results indicated that, although the Muslim women had more liberal views about gender roles than the Muslim men did, both the men and the women reported views that were liberal and comparable to those that have been reported by other Canadian samples.
Gender roles are perceived differently by men and women, with men scoring higher on scales that assess masculinity and women scoring higher on scales that assess femininity (Bem, 1981). Moreover, [...]