Administered the Bem Sex Role Inventory, the SCL-90, and a demographic questionnaire to 195 new mothers. Analysis showed new mothers classified as either androgynous or masculine tended to score lower on the dimensions reflecting psychological distress than feminine or undifferentiated women. Androgynous mothers tended to be less hostile. (JAC)

Studied conjugal role segregation in 150 married women from intact families in working-class community. Found that, although involvement in dense kinship networks was associated with conjugal role segregation, respondents' attitudes toward marital roles and phase of family cycle when young children were present were more powerful predictors of…

Used gender theory to examine data on employed wives' orientations to breadwinning obtained from wives in 153 dual-earner couples. Concluded that employed wives vary considerably in their orientation to breadwinning, that these orientations depend primarily on situational factors, and that gender theory provides richest understanding of these…

Explored whether couples' employment/retirement patterns relate to perceptions of marital dependence and whether relationships are contingent on gender role attitudes. Data from 763 couples revealed that the positive association between husband's retirement and his spouse's perceptions of his dependence on relationship predominated among couples…

Examined national sample of 680 married couples. Found that husbands believed in innate sex roles significantly more than wives did. Each partner's beliefs directly influenced the other's, controlling for age, education, and religion. The more one spouse believed that sex roles were innate, the more the other tended to believe in them also.…

Synthesizes and elaborates current thinking on gender perspective. Presents basic concepts, questions, and connections at each level of analysis. Uses care in marriage to illustrate perspective. Notes that, rather than ask whether women or men are more caring, gender perspective asks what conditions are necessary for women and men to care.…

Tests whether an increase in number of sons in the family decreases the sex-typing of traditionally female tasks and whether an increase in the number of daughters increases sex-typing of traditionally female chores. Examines the reverse pattern for male chores. Results support the hypotheses for the female-specific tasks. (BH)

A study of 3,284 married women hypothesizes that nontraditional working women are more likely to experience marital disruption than traditional working women. Number of hours of paid employment per week was negatively related to marital stability for women holding nontraditional gender ideologies but not for women with traditional views. (JPS)

Explored how timing of transition to parenthood is associated with later divisions of domestic labor in representative sample of U.S. parents. Time availability and wife's ideology were consistent predictors of husband's sharing more routine housework in early and delayed households. Resource/exchange models were supported for early-birth couples…

Undergraduate males, undergraduate females, and graduate student nurses (female) were asked to list all the slang expressions they knew for 17 sex-related stimulus words. Males listed a significantly larger total number of slang expressions than either female group. (Author)

The dependence of married women upon men for their achievement of social status is examined. Results indicate that both husbands and wives appear to pay rather little attention to the attainments of wives when evaluating their own social status. However, a status-sharing model is not totally ruled out. (Author)

Proposes that sexuality is universally linked to the social structure in three specific areas: (a) marital jealousy, (b) gender role power, and (c) beliefs about normality. Variations and interrelations of these three linkages are explained by the logical structure of this sociological theory. The relevance of this theory for the applied…

Analyzed data from 100 intensive interviews with Chicano married couples. Several variables were analyzed to determine whether they had any correlation with the type of conjugal role structure a couple had. The factor having the strongest impact was whether or not the wife was employed outside the home. (Author)

Following an overview of historical and current orientations to the study of housework, prevailing assumptions that underlie this research are examined. As most research has emphasized technical, economic, and political dimensions, it is suggested that housework be reconceptualized as family work with its basis in moral obligation. (JPS)

Reviews feminism and family research, noting that feminist explanations of how families operate and contribute to maintaining women's subordination have shifted in 1980s from those that emphasize sex roles and socialization to those that describe processes of categorization and stratification by gender. This latter approach, called gender theory,…