ArticlePDF Available

Development of the Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory

Sex Roles

April 2005
52(7):417-435

DOI:10.1007/s11199-005-3709-7

Authors:

James R. Mahalik

Boston College

Elisabeth Morray

Boston College

Larry Ludlow

Boston College

Show all 6 authorsHide

This article describes the construction of the Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory (CFNI), which was designed to assess womens conformity to an array of feminine norms found in the dominant culture in the United States. In addition, we present four studies in which the psychometric properties of the CFNI were examined. In Study 1, factor analysis indicated that the CFNI is comprised of eight distinct factors labeled as Nice in Relationships, Thinness, Modesty, Domestic, Care for Children, Romantic Relationship, Sexual Fidelity, and Invest in Appearance. Results from Study 2 indicated that the CFNI has strong internal consistency estimates and differentiates college women from college men. In addition, Study 2 demonstrated that the CFNI Total score and subscale scores relate to Bem Sex Role Inventory and Feminist Identity Development Scale scores in theoretically consistent patterns. Study 3 indicated that the CFNI Total score and several of the subscales significantly and positively relate to scores on the Eating Disorder Inventory. Finally, Study 4 demonstrated that the CFNI Total score and subscale scores have high test-retest estimates for a 2–3 week period. The discussion focuses on potential uses of the CFNI, limitations to the study, and suggestions for future research.

Content uploaded by Larry Ludlow

Content may be subject to copyright.

Sex Roles, Vol. 52, Nos. 7/8, April 2005 ( C2005)

DOI: 10.1007/s11199-005-3709-7

Development of the Conformity to Feminine

Norms Inventory

James R. Mahalik,1,3Elisabeth B. Morray,1Aim´

ee Coonerty-Femiano,1

Larry H. Ludlow,1Suzanne M. Slattery,1and Andrew Smiler2

This article describes the construction of the Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory

(CFNI), which was designed to assess women’s conformity to an array of feminine norms

found in the dominant culture in the United States. In addition, we present four studies in

which the psychometric properties of the CFNI were examined. In Study 1, factor analysis in-

dicated that the CFNI is comprised of eight distinct factors labeled as Nice in Relationships,

Thinness, Modesty, Domestic, Care for Children, Romantic Relationship, Sexual Fidelity,

and Invest in Appearance. Results from Study 2 indicated that the CFNI has strong internal

consistency estimates and differentiates college women from college men. In addition, Study

2 demonstrated that the CFNI Total score and subscale scores relate to Bem Sex Role In-

ventory and Feminist Identity Development Scale scores in theoretically consistent patterns.

Study 3 indicated that the CFNI Total score and several of the subscales signiﬁcantly and

positively relate to scores on the Eating Disorder Inventory. Finally, Study 4 demonstrated

that the CFNI Total score and subscale scores have high test-retest estimates for a 2–3 week

period. The discussion focuses on potential uses of the CFNI, limitations to the study, and

suggestions for future research.

KEY WORDS: femininity; gender roles; women; feminine norms.

Gender role norms share the characteristics of

social norms, which are described as “rules and stan-

dards that are understood by members of a group,

that guide and/or constrain social behavior without

the force of laws” (Cialdini & Trost, 1999, p. 152).

For example, social agents such as parents, teach-

ers, peers, and the media teach women and men the

rules and standards of femininity and masculinity,

respectively (Bem, 1981a; Lytton & Romney, 1991;

Meth, 1990). Research conﬁrms that this learning oc-

curs very early in life, as evidenced by ﬁndings that

by age 5 children have already developed clearly de-

ﬁned notions of what constitutes appropriate behav-

ior for men and women (see Lytton & Romney, 1991,

1Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

2University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire.

3To whom correspondence should be addressed at Campion Hall

312, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467; e-mail:

Mahalik@bc.edu.

for a review). Gender role norms also provide guid-

ance for women and men about how they are sup-

posed to act, think, and feel, as well as constrain

women and men from certain behaviors that are “off

limits” (Gilbert & Scher, 1999). Like other social

norms, gender role norms are typically maintained by

the reinforcement or punishment of social responses

(Locksley & Colten, 1979).

We also know that gender role norms are impor-

tant in the lives of women and men in that they foster

identity development (e.g., Bem, 1981a; Chodorow,

1978; Kagan, 1964; Kohlberg, 1966), can contribute

to gender role strain (Eisler, 1995; Pleck, 1981, 1995),

and are viewed by many as important to integrate

into the process of counseling and psychotherapy

(Brown, 1986; Gilbert & Scher, 1999; Brooks &

Good, 2001). As such, mental health practitioners in-

creasingly view gender roles as critical to their theo-

retical, empirical, and clinical work.

417 0360-0025/05/0400-0417/0 C

2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.

418 Mahalik, Morray, Coonerty-Femiano, Ludlow, Slattery, and Smiler

We view the current state of femininity mea-

sures as inadequate to address these purposes be-

cause, although a large number of normative mes-

sages have been identiﬁed by scholars as associated

with femininity (e.g., be nice, focus on relationships,

be attractive, be thin, nurture others, be silent, de-

fer to men, and be domestic, just to name a few; see

Crawford & Unger, 2000; Gilbert & Scher, 1999),

most current measures examine femininity only as

a global construct. For example, the most widely

used measure of gender roles, the Bem Sex Role

Inventory (Bem, 1981b), assesses femininity as a sin-

gle score made up of responses to stereotypical and

socially desirable feminine characteristics, which re-

sults in a global indicator of the extent to which the

inventory taker is “feminine.”

Some have criticized this measure because they

view it as assessing instrumental and expressive

personality traits rather than gender roles per se, and

concluded that it does not actually measure feminin-

ity or masculinity (Betz, 1995; Spence & Helmreich,

1980). Our central criticism of the Bem Sex Role

Inventory is that it, and other measures that assess

femininity in a global way (e.g., MMPI-2 Feminine

Gender Role Scale), are unable to differentiate

among the many distinct cultural injunctions that

deﬁne the social construction of femininity in U.S.

society today.

We believe that Tolman and Porche’s (2000)

Adolescent Femininity Ideology Scale is a step in the

right direction as it focuses on the identiﬁcation of

speciﬁc feminine injunctions that adolescent girls ex-

perience. However, we see that measure as limited

in that it only identiﬁes two feminine ideologies (i.e.,

Inauthentic Self in Relationship and Objectiﬁed Re-

lationship with Body) and was developed for use by

girls and adolescents, not adult women.

We make this criticism about global measures

of femininity because we take a normative perspec-

tive that views gender roles as comprised of a large

number of culturally based ideologies that script gen-

der relations, attitudes, and beliefs (see Thompson

& Pleck, 1995). From this perspective, women in the

U.S. are understood as experiencing many different

sociocultural injunctions that deﬁne traditional fem-

inine roles (to nurture children, to be physically at-

tractive, to be submissive, and so on). Any inventory

that purports to assess femininity should also assess

the salience of the different feminine norms for in-

dividual women. Such a measure would be able to

incorporate the fact that one woman may construct

the most salient features of her femininity as car-

ing for children and being domestic, whereas another

woman may construct the most salient features of

her femininity as being thin and physically attractive.

This critical variability gets lost in any global index

of femininity. Femininity inventories must address

this variability in order for researchers both to under-

stand the effects that speciﬁc feminine norms have on

individual women and to explore the contextual in-

ﬂuences that give rise to each woman’s constructions

of femininity.

The purpose of this study was to develop a psy-

chometrically sound measure that allows researchers

and clinicians to assess women’s degree of confor-

mity to an array of feminine norms in the dom-

inant culture in the U.S. (i.e., White, middle and

upper-class, heterosexual). Conformity to feminine

norms is deﬁned as adhering to societal rules and

standards about how to be feminine and is demon-

strated in the individual woman’s behaviors, feelings,

and thoughts. For example, conformity would be re-

ﬂected in actions consistent with the feminine norm,

positive feelings (e.g., pride) related to conformity,

and negative feelings (e.g., shame) related to noncon-

formity, and having beliefs that emphasize the im-

portance of the norm. Conversely, nonconformity to

feminine norms is deﬁned as not adhering to societal

expectations for what constitutes femininity.

Feminine norms from the dominant culture in

the U.S. were chosen because feminine ideologies

from the dominant European American and middle-

class culture in the U.S. are thought to be the most

pervasive and powerful in U.S. society (Brown, 1998;

Mahalik et al., 2003). We believe that the expec-

tations of femininity as constructed by European

American, middle and upper class heterosexuals in

the U.S. should affect members of that group, as well

as every other woman in U.S. society who is held

up to those standards and who experiences accep-

tance or rejection from the majority culture, in part,

based on adherence to the powerful group’s feminin-

ity norms.

In this article, a factor analysis and three other

studies of the reliability and validity of the Confor-

mity to Feminine Norms Inventory (CFNI) are pre-

sented. Speciﬁcally, in Study 1, the factor structure

of the proposed inventory was examined. In Study 2,

the internal consistency estimates of the CFNI were

examined, and data from both women and men were

used to examine the discriminative validity. In ad-

dition, we were interested in testing the convergent

and concurrent validity of the measure. To do so,

we examined the CFNI in relation to femininity,

Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory 419

masculinity, and feminist identity (Study 2), as well

as its relatedness to eating disorder and body image

issues (Study 3). In Study 4, we examined additional

evidence for the CFNI’s reliability by analyzing the

stability of CFNI scores over a 2–3 week time period.

Construction of the Conformity to Femininity

Norms Inventory (CFNI)

The ﬁrst step in constructing the measure was to

identify feminine norms in the dominant culture in

the U.S. This consisted of several steps; we started

by reviewing the literature on traditional feminine

norms in the U.S. (e.g., Carpenter, 2002; Crawford &

Unger, 2000; Deaux & Lewis, 1984; Deutsch &

Saxon, 1998; Eagly & Steffen, 1984; Gilbert &

Scher, 1999; Gillespie, 2003; Gillespie & Eisler, 1992;

Gilligan, 1982; Hurd, 1999; Jordon, 1992; Matschiner

& Murnen, 1999; Morawski, 1985; Rudman & Glick,

2001; Spence & Helmreich, 1978).

Next, 32 women participated in ﬁve focus groups

that consisted of 4–9 members each. The women

averaged 32.53 years of age (SD =10.09) and were

predominantly European American (30 European

American, 1 Hispanic/Latina, and 1 biracial). Most

women reported that they were single (19 single,

4 same sex partnership, 4 married, 3 divorced,

and 2 living together with cross or other sex part-

ner) and heterosexual (22 heterosexual, 6 lesbian,

4 bisexual). They were recruited from a college

campus in the northeast and through contacts of

the researchers. These women met with one of two

female researchers to identify feminine norms. One

of the focus groups was comprised of undergraduate

women, two of the groups were comprised of masters

students in a counseling psychology program, and

two of the groups were comprised of adult women

in the community. They met on average for 90 min

and were asked to “Reﬂect on your experiences as

women and identify messages that you hear being

given to women in the United States about how

women are supposed to act, think, and feel, as well

as what beneﬁts and costs women experience when

they either endorse or reject these messages.”

Following the group interviews, two of the au-

thors listened to the tapes of the focus groups and

recorded the messages that the women in the group

identiﬁed (e.g., women are expected to establish and

maintain relationships, women should stay at home

and run the household, women should try to look

attractive). This list was added to the list identiﬁed

from the literature review about traditional feminine

norms, and the result was more than 100 separate

messages identiﬁed through the literature review and

focus groups. Next, because many of the messages

identiﬁed seemed to share similarities, two of the re-

searchers placed these statements (e.g., “women are

expected to establish and maintain relationships”)

on 3 ×5 cards and sorted them into clusters. Af-

ter grouping the messages into 13 large clusters, the

two researchers read the cards in each cluster, and

then each cluster was labeled. This resulted in the

following feminine norms being identiﬁed: “Self as

Mother,” “Be Relational-Connected,” “Be Silent,”

“Be Dependent,” “Be Married,” “Look Young,”

“Thinness,” “Be Physically Attractive-Ornamental,”

“Rely on Men,” “Be Pleasant,” “Defer to Men,” “Be

Virginal,” and “Be Sexy.” Because several items

were not easily clustered (e.g., “women are expected

to be blonde and blue-eyed”) or were so global as to

ﬁt under several more speciﬁc clusters (e.g., “women

are expected to be heterosexual” underlies the im-

peratives to be married, rely on men, be virginal,

be sexy), we eliminated these types of items from

further consideration.

Finally, two focus groups (ns=6 and 7) that con-

sisted of both women and men who were masters and

doctoral students in counseling psychology met with

the senior author. These groups met every week for

90 min over an 8-month period to (a) discuss exam-

ples for the norms identiﬁed, (b) reﬁne the categories

of the norms, and (c) construct items to assess the

continuum of conformity to the norm.

Through discussion of the 13 categories, and

through attempts to write items for each of the

norms, the categories were further reﬁned into 12

feminine norms that were incorporated into the

survey: Relational, Sweet and Nice, Thinness, Put

Others First, Look Young, Sexy, Modesty, Domestic,

Caring for Children, Romantic Relationship, Sexual

Fidelity, and Invest in Appearance. When we con-

structed the items, our goal was to reﬂect the full con-

tinuum of conformity that each feminine norm could

have, ranging from extreme conformity, to moder-

ate conformity, to moderate nonconformity, and ﬁ-

nally to extreme nonconformity. For example, for the

norm of Relational, the item “It would be awful if I

ever lost touch with someone in my life” was writ-

ten as an item that reﬂects extreme conformity to the

Relational norm. “I feel good about myself when oth-

ers know that I care” reﬂects moderate conformity to

the Relational norm. “I don’t feel guilty if I lose con-

tact with a friend” reﬂects moderate nonconformity

420 Mahalik, Morray, Coonerty-Femiano, Ludlow, Slattery, and Smiler

to the Relational norm, and “I would feel burdened

if I had to maintain relationships with others” reﬂects

extreme nonconformity to the Relational norm.

The focus groups wrote items to incorporate af-

fective (i.e., feelings about conforming or not con-

forming to that norm), behavioral (i.e., actions that

reﬂect either conformity or nonconformity to that

norm), and cognitive aspects (i.e., self-talk or beliefs

about the importance of conformity on nonconfor-

mity to that norm) for each of the four degrees of

conformity. Following this format, the focus groups

constructed 12 items for each of the identiﬁed norms

(i.e., one affective, one behavioral, and one cognitive

item for each of the four of conformity statuses). In

this way, 144 initial items were constructed such that

all items assessed either an affective, behavioral, or

cognitive dimension for each of the four conformity

statuses for all 12 femininity norms. For example, the

item “I have a long, methodical daily beauty rou-

tine” was constructed to assess extreme conformity

behaviors that reﬂect the feminine norm of Invest in

Appearance.

The measure was then piloted at four different

times with small groups of college-aged female and

male undergraduate participants (ns ranged from 20

to 30) both to solicit their reactions to the items

and to assess the subscales’ internal consistency es-

timates. Using these pilot data, the focus groups dis-

cussed both the reactions from participants and the

results from the internal consistency analyses. We

also examined this data to determine if extreme and

moderate items performed as we expected. Because

agreeing with extreme conformity and extreme non-

conformity items should occur less frequently on av-

erage, mean scores from the pilot participants were

examined to determine if extreme items were be-

ing endorsed at lower rates than moderate items.

When moderate items and extreme items had sim-

ilar scores, they were both edited to reﬂect either

greater rigidity (i.e., extreme conformity or noncon-

formity) or greater ﬂexibility (i.e., moderate confor-

mity or nonconformity). Based on the input and re-

sponses to the items from the pilot groups, we revised

items to improve the readability of items, the inter-

nal consistency estimates of the 12 subscales, and the

validity of the extreme and moderate items.

Through this process, the Conformity to Femi-

nine Norms Inventory was developed. Respondents

to the CFNI indicate how much they agreed with the

initial 144 items using a 4-point scale where SD =

Strongly Disagree,D=Disagree,A=Agree, and

SA =Strongly Agree. This 4-point scaling was

adopted to be consistent with the structure of the

theoretical continuum of conformity that Mahalik

et al. (2003) posited in which conformity to a speciﬁc

gender role norm could range across the four con-

formity statuses (i.e., extreme conformity, moderate

conformity, moderate nonconformity, and extreme

nonconformity).

STUDY 1

To identify the factor structure of the CFNI, and

inform us as to how the 144-item inventory might be

revised, a series of factor analyses were performed on

the full 144 ×144 item correlation matrix. Analyses

were performed with the SPSS FACTOR procedure

(SPSS, 1999).

Method

Participants and Procedure

Seven hundred and thirty-three women par-

ticipated in the study. They averaged 19.72 years

of age (SD =2.69), and most of them were Euro-

pean American (592 European American, 21 African

American, 59 Asian or Asian American, 34 His-

panic/Latina, 2 Native American, 16 biracial, and 9

described themselves as “Other”). Most women re-

ported that they were single (667 single, 7 married, 1

divorced, 1 in committed same-sex relationship) and

heterosexual (714 heterosexual, 6 lesbian, and 13 bi-

sexual). These women were recruited from college

campuses in the northeast and through both class-

room recruitment and psychology human subjects

pools to complete the CFNI and other instruments

described in Studies 2 and 3.

Results

Prior to conducting the factor analyses, three

tests were performed to ensure that the correlation

matrix had variation suitable for factoring. First,

we veriﬁed that the determinant was nonzero,

that is, that no perfect linear dependencies existed

among the items (Green, 1976). Second, the Kaiser–

Meyer–Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was .86,

described by Kaiser (1974) as “meritorious,” which

supports the strength of the overall factorial determi-

nation. Third, Bartlett’s test of sphericity (Bartlett,

Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory 421

1950) was statistically signiﬁcant (p<.001), which

indicates that the population correlation matrix is

not an identity matrix.

A principal axis extraction technique was em-

ployed because after each factor was extracted this

technique accounts for the greatest variance that re-

mains in the residual correlation matrix. Oblique ro-

tations (Oblimin) were performed because of the

presumed correlated nature of the factors, and item

factor loadings below .3 were not considered. The cri-

teria for deciding on the ﬁnal factor solution included

the magnitude of the eigenvalues, the percent of vari-

ance accounted for by each factor, the overall percent

of variance accounted for, the number of items that

loaded highly on each factor, and the interpretability

of the factors after the items that loaded most highly

on that factor were examined.

An exploratory factor approach was used

to identify the structure of the CFNI. The initial

criterion of a minimum eigenvalue greater than

1.00 produced 34 factors, which clearly was not a

parsimonious factor solution. Because the inventory

was developed to assess 12 distinct femininity norms,

a series of step-down factor analyses were conducted

beginning with 12 factors. Oblique rotations were

performed using the Oblimin criterion in SPSS,

and each of the solutions were examined for inter-

pretability. Following this procedure, a 10-factor

solution appeared to be the strongest in terms of

clear interpretability of the 144 items.

At this point, however, we thought that the 10-

factor solution with 144 items was still not satisfac-

tory, as a number of items did not contribute to these

10 factors. For example, the items that comprised the

Look Young scale did not load exclusively on any

factor and had extremely low communality values

in the range of .0–.2. Thus, to remove error associ-

ated with these items and reduce the length of the

CFNI, the Look Young items were removed, and fac-

tor analyses were re-run. Subsequent to these anal-

yses, Put Others First and Sexy items were also re-

moved, as they were dispersed across several scales

and did not deﬁne a unique structure.

Ultimately, the ﬁnal solution consisted of 118

items that deﬁned eight subscales that accounted for

39.51% of the variance. It is noteworthy that a similar

8-factor solution with the 144 items only accounted

for 34.6% of the variance. Thus, our removal of the

36 items from the factor analysis resulted in less

redundancy and error variance in our solution.

The results of this ﬁnal 8-factor, principal axis,

oblique rotated solution are reported in Table I. The

table contains the factor loadings, communality load-

ings, eigenvalues, and percent of variance statistics.

We next examined each of the 118 items to de-

termine on which of the eight factors each item signif-

icantly and most strongly loaded, which items had the

highest loadings on each factor, and whether those

high loading items on each factor were identiﬁable as

representing a single construct (see Table I). Items

were retained for the subscales only if they loaded

at |.4|or higher on one factor and did not cross-load

any higher than |.3|on any other factor. Use of these

retention criteria resulted in 84 items being retained,

with 7 of the 8 factors comprised of items exclusively

from only one of the original rationally derived sub-

scales. For example, all items that met the retention

criteria for Factor 2 were developed initially to re-

ﬂect the norm of being thin. Therefore, this factor

was labeled Thinness. Using this rationale, Factors 2

through 8 were labeled as Thinness, Modesty, Do-

mestic, Care for Children, Romantic Relationship,

Sexual Fidelity, and Invest in Appearance. Factor

1 was composed of items initially intended to mea-

sure two feminine norms (i.e., investing in relation-

ships and being sweet and nice). Thus, in examining

the items that comprised Factor 1, we concluded that

Factor 1 should be labeled as Nice in Relationships.

Next, we examined the magnitude of the factor

correlations to determine the amount of overlap be-

tween factors. Results indicated that only 2 of the

28 pairs of correlations among the eight factors were

equal to, or larger than |.3|[i.e., a correlation of .38

between Factor 1 (Nice in Relationships) and Fac-

tor 5 (Care for Children), and a correlation of .30

between Factor 2 (Thinness) and Factor 8 (Invest

in Appearance)]. However, apart from these two re-

lationships, the low factor correlations suggest that

the factors identiﬁed from this sample were relatively

distinct from each other.

Discussion

Results from the factor analysis supported our

view that the femininity norms we identiﬁed and

quantiﬁed through the measure development pro-

cess were distinct from each other. Our results sug-

gest that the CFNI is an 84-item inventory with

an 8-factor structure whose factors are best labeled

as Nice in Relationships, Thinness, Modesty, Do-

mestic, Care for Children, Romantic Relationship,

Sexual Fidelity, and Invest in Appearance. The re-

tained items in each dimension reﬂect behaviors,

422 Mahalik, Morray, Coonerty-Femiano, Ludlow, Slattery, and Smiler

Table I. Principal Axis Oblimin Rotated Factor Matrix, Communality, Eigenvalues, and Percentage of Total Variance for

the Eight Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory Factors

123 45678h2

relate7 .53 .30

relate10 .53 .34

relate2 .51 .35

sweet11 .48 .31

relate5 .49 .30

relate3 .48 .22

sweet3 .47 .27

sweet8 .47 .27

relate8 .45 .29

relate12 .44 .24

sweet5 .44 .31

sweet10 .43 .30

sweet1 .43 .29

relate6 .42 .28

relate4 .42 .29

relate11 .41 .19

sweet9 .41 .25

sweet12 .41 .19

relate1 .39 .18

sweet6 .37 .22

sweet4 .35 .23

sweet7 .32 .13

sweet2 .17

modest6 .09

relate9 .09

thin2 .83 .69

thin4 .77 .57

thin3 .77 .59

thin1 .72 .60

thin7 .66 .41

thin11 .65 .43

thin8 .64 .43

thin5 .63 .46

thin10 .63 .46

thin9 .53 .29

thin6 .52 .43

thin12 .30 .18

modest7 .70 .52

modest1 .68 .47

modest11 .60 .39

modest8 .59 .36

modest2 .56 .33

modest5 .53 .33

modest4 .51 .28

modest10 .47 .28

modest12 .44 .29

others1 .34 .25

modest9 .33 .15

modest3 .18

dom5 −.78 .62

dom10 −.71 .55

dom6 −.69 .50

dom7 −.67 .45

dom11 −.58 .36

dom4 −.57 .40

dom12 −.56 .41

dom2 −.42 .21

Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory 423

Table I. Continued

12345678h2

dom3 −.39 .26

dom1 −.37 .19

dom9 −.32 .14

dom8 .06

child4 .86 .73

child9 .81 .61

child3 .78 .60

child12 .78 .63

child10 .74 .54

child7 .73 .53

child11 .66 .49

child1 .66 .48

child2 .66 .42

child5 .65 .45

child8 .64 .42

child6 .60 .41

roman3 −.62 .44

roman6 −.60 .42

roman5 −.52 .36

roman9 −.48 .25

roman7 −.45 .24

roman11 −.45 .26

roman1 −.43 .26

roman2 −.43 .24

roman4 −.42 .29

roman10 −.37 .22

roman12 .10

roman8 .12

ﬁdel10 −.84 .68

ﬁdel5 −.82 .65

ﬁdel4 −.73 .52

ﬁdel2 −.63 .41

ﬁdel11 −.63 .40

ﬁdel12 −.62 .37

ﬁdel1 −.59 .38

ﬁdel6 −.51 .33

ﬁdel8 −.44 .24

ﬁdel7 −.44 .25

ﬁdel9 −.39 .25

appear9 .15

ﬁdel3 .11

appear5 .76 .59

appear11 .75 .57

appear10 .63 .46

appear8 .60 .38

appear2 .58 .37

appear7 .55 .34

appear6 .40 .37

appear12 .36 .23

appear1 .34 .39

appear4 .33 .30

appear3 .34

Eigenvalue 10.64 8.82 5.43 4.93 3.90 3.30 3.11 2.81

% variance 9.76 8.10 4.99 4.52 3.58 3.02 2.85 2.58

Note.N=733. h2=communality of each item. relate =Relational; sweet =Sweet and Nice; thin =Thinness;

modest =Modest; dom =Be Domestic; child =Caring for Children; roman =Romantic Relationship; ﬁdel =

Sexual Fidelity; appear =Invest in Appearance. Bolded item values indicate that these items were retained to

comprise the subscale for that factor in all subsequent analyses.

424 Mahalik, Morray, Coonerty-Femiano, Ludlow, Slattery, and Smiler

Table II. Deﬁnitions and Sample Items for Each of the Eight Subscales of the Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory

Subscale Deﬁnition of feminine norm Sample items

Nice in relationships Develop friendly and supportive

relationships with others

It is important to let people know they are special

I would be ashamed if someone thought I was mean

I don’t go out of my way to keep in touch with friends

(reversed)

Thinness Pursue a thin body ideal I am always trying to lose weight

I would be happier if I was thin

I’d look better if I put on a few pounds (reversed)

Modesty Refrain from calling attention to one’s

talents or abilities

I always downplay my achievements

I feel uncomfortable being singled out for praise

There is nothing wrong with bragging (reversed)

Domestic Maintain the home I do all of the cleaning, cooking, and decorating where

I live

I enjoy spending time making my living space look nice

It is important to keep your living space clean

Care for children Take care and be with children I would baby-sit for fun

Most people enjoy children more than I do (reversed)

Taking care of children is extremely fulﬁlling

Romantic relationship Invest self in romantic relationship Whether I’m in one or not, romantic relationships are

often on my mind

I pity people who are single

I can be happy without being in a romantic relationship

(reversed)

Sexual ﬁdelity Keep sexual intimacy contained within

one committed relationship

I would only have sex if I was in a committed

relationship like marriage

I would feel guilty if I had a one-night stand

There is no greater insult than to be called a “slut”

Invest in appearance Commit resources to maintaining and

improving physical appearance

I never wear make-up (reversed)

I’d feel superﬁcial if I wore make-up (reversed)

It is important to look physically attractive in public

feelings, and thoughts consistent with the norms that

women (1) develop friendly and supportive relation-

ships with others (Nice in Relationships), (2) pursue

a thin body ideal (Thinness), (3) refrain from call-

ing attention to one’s talents or abilities (Modesty),

(4) maintain the home (Domestic), (5) take care and

be with children (Care for Children), (6) invest self

in romantic relationship (Romantic Relationship),

(7) keep sexual intimacy contained within one com-

mitted relationship (Sexual Fidelity), and (8) commit

resources to maintaining and improving physical ap-

pearance (Invest in Appearance). See Table II for

sample items for each subscale.

That eight factors were identiﬁed also lends sup-

port for the idea that there are multiple feminine

norms to which women respond and that these norms

are distinguishable from each other. Related to this

point, we underscore two issues concerning the fem-

inine norms identiﬁed in the study. First, we recog-

nize that the ﬁnal factor structure and the subscales

retained through the process were likely affected by

the characteristics of the sample. For example, it may

be that the Look Young items would have loaded

as a distinct factor if the sample were not comprised

mostly of college undergraduates. Like all measure

development efforts that employ factor analysis, we

recognize that our factor structure solution may be

sample-dependent, and we look to future research

to cross-validate the structure we identiﬁed in this

study.

Second, the results of the study should in no way

suggest that there are only eight feminine norms—

no more and no less—in the dominant culture in the

United States. There are obviously other feminine

norms in the dominant culture in the U.S. that our

measure development process did not capture. We

also recognize that there are other feminine norms

from other cultural groups in the U.S., as well as

other feminine norms from other cultural groups

around the world, that we did not identify. How-

ever, we believe that having a measurement tool that

allows examination of a larger number of feminine

Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory 425

norms than the current femininity indices has bene-

ﬁts to research in psychology, and other disciplines,

over previous measures. Such a tool allows us to

examine the great variability between women, and

within individual women in different contexts or lon-

gitudinally, in how women enact femininity. Such a

measure may also allow a better examination of the

resultant beneﬁts and costs of both conformity and

nonconformity to feminine norms for the individual

and others.

STUDY 2

The purposes of this study were to examine re-

liability and validity indicators for the CFNI Total

score and the eight Femininity Norms. Speciﬁcally,

our purposes were (1) to examine the internal con-

sistency estimates for the CFNI Total score and eight

Femininity Norms subscales, (2) to examine the in-

tercorrelations among the eight Femininity Norms

subscales and item-total correlations of the Femi-

ninity Norms with the Total score, (3) to determine

whether women score higher on the CFNI scores

than men do, and (4) to determine if CFNI scores

relate in predicted ways to constructs such as global

femininity, global masculinity, and feminist identity

development.

The rationale for the third purpose was based

on the assumption that women would be more likely

to conform to feminine norms than men would. The

rationale for the last purpose was based on the as-

sumption that scales on an inventory of conformity

to traditional feminine norms would relate positively

to an index of global femininity and negatively to an

index of global masculinity. As socially desirable gen-

der role characteristics as measured by the BSRI are

thought to be related to, but distinct from, gender

role ideologies (Thompson & Pleck, 1995), we antic-

ipated that the relationships between global feminin-

ity and the CFNI would be signiﬁcant but would not

have strong correlations.

In addition, because the CFNI is intended to

measure conformity to traditional norms of femi-

ninity in the U.S., we thought it should also relate

to women’s development of a feminist identity. In

describing women’s feminist identity development,

Downing and Roush (1985) proposed a ﬁve-stage

model in which the ﬁrst stage, passive acceptance,

reﬂects acceptance of traditional European Ameri-

can, North American, gender roles, beliefs that men

are superior to women, and that these roles are ad-

vantageous. The second stage, revelation, is in re-

sponse to a crisis or crises that lead women to ques-

tion traditional gender roles and to have concomitant

feelings of anger toward men. Sometimes women in

this stage also feel guilty because of how they may

have contributed to their own and other women’s op-

pression in the past. The third stage, embeddedness-

emanation, reﬂects feelings of connection to other

women, cautious interactions with men, and develop-

ment of a more relativistic frame of life. The fourth

stage, synthesis, is when women develop a positive

feminist identity and are able to transcend traditional

gender roles. The ﬁnal stage, active commitment, re-

ﬂects beliefs that men are equal to women but not

the same, and reﬂects a strong commitment to pos-

itive social change that addresses societal inequities

(see Bargad & Hyde, 1991; Downing & Roush, 1985;

Fischer et al., 2000; Moradi, Subich, & Phillips, 2002).

As such, we posit that CFNI scores, which were de-

signed to measure conformity to traditional gender

role norms in the dominant culture of U.S. society,

should be positively related to the passive acceptance

stage scores that reﬂect acceptance of traditional Eu-

ropean American, North American, gender roles, but

negatively to the other four feminist identity stages

as these reﬂect ever increasing levels of feminist

identity.

METHOD

Participants

The 733 women described in Study 1 and 98 men

participated in this study. Two hundred and eleven of

the 733 women also completed additional measures

for this study (i.e., the Bem Sex Role Inventory and

the Feminist Identity Development Scale), as well

as a demographics form and the CFNI described in

Study 1.

These 211 women averaged 18.83 years of age

(SD =.73) and most were European American (168

European American, 6 African American, 21 Asian

or Asian American, 9 Hispanic/Latina, 1 Native

American, and 6 biracial). Most women reported that

they were single (209 single, 1 married, and 1 person

did not answer) and heterosexual (208 heterosexual,

2 lesbian, and 1 bisexual).

Men in the study averaged 18.81 years of age

(SD =1.02), and most were European American (81

European American, 3 African American, 6 Asian or

Asian American, 6 Hispanic/Latino, and 2 biracial).

426 Mahalik, Morray, Coonerty-Femiano, Ludlow, Slattery, and Smiler

All of the men reported that they were single, and al-

most all identiﬁed as heterosexual (96 heterosexual,

1 homosexual, and 1 bisexual).

Measures

The Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem, 1974,

1981b) assesses femininity and masculinity with

60-items on which participants are asked to rate

themselves using a 7-point scale on 20 feminine-

typed adjectives, 20 masculine-typed adjectives, and

20 neutral adjectives. Scores of the gender-typed

items are averaged to obtain a femininity raw score

and a masculinity raw score; higher scores indicate

more feminine or masculine traits, respectively.

Evidence for the validity of the scale includes its

signiﬁcant relationship to gender-related behavior

(Payne, 1985). Further evidence of the validity of

the BSRI has been reported in the Bem Sex-Role

Inventory Professional Manual (Bem, 1981b) and in

Spence (1984). In terms of reliability, Bem (1981b)

reported internal consistency estimates that range

between .75 and .87 for the Femininity and Masculin-

ity scales, and 4-week test-retest correlations for the

two scales that range between .76 and .94 for both

genders. In the current study, alpha was .81 for the

Femininity score and .86 for the Masculinity score.

The Feminist Identity Composite (FIC; Fischer

et al., 2000) was developed to assess feminist iden-

tity development as a composite of 33 items from

two previous measures of feminist identity [i.e., 20

items from the Feminist Identity Scale (Rickard,

1989) and 13 items from the Feminist Identity De-

velopment Scale (Bargad & Hyde, 1991)]. Fischer

et al. (2000) reported a 5-factor structure that re-

sembled Downing and Roush’s (1985) model and

was reported to predict ego identity status, percep-

tions of sexist events, and involvement in women’s

organizations. Fischer et al. (2000) reported inter-

nal consistency estimates that range from .68 to .84

for their ﬁrst sample and .71 to .86 for their second

sample. Moradi and Subich (2002) reported internal

consistency estimates that range between .73 to .84

in their study. In the present study, alphas were .74

for Passive Acceptance, .81 for Revelation, .89 for

Embeddedness-Emanation, .78 for Synthesis, and .83

for Active Commitment.

Procedure

The 211 women and 98 men were recruited from

a large undergraduate Introduction to Biology class

at a private northeastern university. Data were col-

lected via a web-based survey with page encryp-

tion and other security procedures. The measures

described above, along with informed consent and

debrieﬁng pages, were converted to a series of web

pages, and participants were provided with an inter-

net address (URL) to complete the survey at a time

and place of their convenience. Participants received

extra credit from their instructor for completing the

survey.

Results

Internal Consistency

Examination of the internal consistency esti-

mates on the CFNI for women in the study indicated

that coefﬁcient αwas .88 for the CFNI Total score.

For the Femininity Norm subscales, alphas ranged

from .77 for Romantic Relationship to .92 for Caring

for Children (see Table III).

Table III. Internal Consistencies and Intercorrelations for Women’s Scores on the Total Score and Eight Femininity

Norms Subscales of Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. α

1. Nice in relationships .84

2. Thinness .05 .90

3. Modesty .08∗.03 .82

4. Domestic .09∗.14∗∗∗ −.09∗.84

5. Care for children .41∗∗∗ −.04 .05 .15∗∗∗ .92

6. Romantic relationship .13∗∗ .24∗∗∗ −.12∗∗ .17∗∗∗ .13∗∗ .77

7. Sexual ﬁdelity .18∗∗∗ −.06 .14∗∗∗ .19∗∗∗ .18∗∗∗ .09∗.85

8. Invest in appearance .05 .31∗∗∗ −.17∗∗∗ .17∗∗∗ −.01 .20∗∗∗ −.08∗.82

9. Total conformity .33∗∗∗ .15∗∗∗ .01 .25∗∗∗ .28∗∗∗ .27∗∗∗ .18∗∗∗ .15∗∗∗ .88

Note.N=733. Subscale/total conformity correlations are corrected.

∗p<.05. ∗∗ p<.01. ∗∗∗p<.001.

Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory 427

Table IV. Means, Standard Deviations and tValues Comparing Women and Men on CFNI Scores

Women Men

CFNI score MSDMSD t

Nice in relationships 39.48 5.97 36.32 6.24 4.89∗∗∗

Thinness 20.87 6.18 15.33 5.32 8.48∗∗∗

Modesty 13.02 3.67 12.51 3.68 1.28

Domestic 14.10 3.10 13.86 3.97 2.67∗∗

Care for children 26.51 6.24 23.77 5.11 4.17∗∗∗

Romantic relationship 15.64 3.73 15.60 3.63 .11

Sexual ﬁdelity 20.22 5.55 16.91 5.98 5.50∗∗∗

Invest in appearance 12.01 3.75 6.30 2.72 14.57∗∗∗

CFNI Total score 162.73 18.26 140.57 15.77 11.45∗∗∗

Note.Nfor the total sample =831 (n=733 for women, n=98 for men); df =829 for all t-tests.

∗p<.05 1-tail. ∗∗ p<.01 1-tail. ∗∗∗p<.001 1-tail.

CFNI Intercorrelations

Pearson correlations conducted on the relation-

ships of the eight Femininity Norm subscales to each

other and to the Total score on the CFNI are pre-

sented in Table III. Results indicate that the sub-

scale scores correlate from moderate to low levels

with the corrected CFNI Total score (i.e., CFNI Total

score after subtracting that subscale from the Total)

and that the subscales correlate with each other in

the expected directions. The strength of relationship

among the subscales with each other ranges from

very low and nonsigniﬁcant to a correlation of .41 be-

tween Nice in Relationships and Care for Children.

Comparisons of Women and Men on CFNI Scores

To determine whether women and men dif-

fered on conformity to femininity norms, their

CFNI Total scores and the eight Femininity Norm

scores were compared using one-tailed t-tests (see

Table IV for means and standard deviations of

women and men participants on the Total score and

eight Femininity Norms subscale scores). Results

indicate that women scored signiﬁcantly higher than

men on the CFNI Total score, as well as on 6 of the 8

Feminine Norms scores (i.e., Nice in Relationships,

Sexual Fidelity, Be Domestic, Invest in Appearance,

Caring For Children, Thinness). Women did not

score signiﬁcantly higher than men on Modesty and

Romantic Relationship.

Relation of CFNI Scores to the Bem Sex Role

Inventory and the Feminist Identity

Development Scale

To examine the CFNI Total and the eight Fem-

ininity Norm subscales in relation to the Bem Sex

Role Inventory, Pearson correlations were computed

(see Table V). Results of the analyses indicate that

Table V. Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations Between CFNI Total and Subscale Scores and Bem Sex Role Inventory and

Feminist Identity Composite Subscale Scores

BSRIfem BSRImas FICPas FICRev FICem FICSyn FICAct Mean (SD)

Nice in relationships .41∗∗∗ −.14 .05 .00 .11 .13 .12 39.63 (5.20)

Thinness −.03 .06 .10 −.04 −.06 −.07 −.04 21.52 (6.39)

Modesty .01 −.19∗∗ −.02 −.02 −.18∗−.25∗∗∗ −.09 13.26 (3.88)

Domestic .05 −.04 .25∗∗∗ −.04 −.05 −.06 −.06 15.19 (3.69)

Care For children .37∗∗∗ −.11 .15∗−.13 .04 .08 .08 26.50 (5.22)

Be in a romantic relationship .20∗∗ −.13 .19∗∗ .04 .05 −.11 −.10 15.54 (3.29)

Sexual ﬁdelity .30∗∗∗ −.24∗∗ .14∗.05 −.05 −.03 .01 22.32 (5.61)

Invest in appearance .07 .05 .10 −.05 .04 .13 −.14∗12.28 (3.64)

CFNI total score .40∗∗∗ −.20∗∗ .26∗∗∗ −.06 −.03 −.03 −.03 166.25 (16.81)

Mean (SD) 5.19 (.56) 4.99 (.66) 18.97 (4.32) 19.99 (4.95) 12.62 (3.29) 21.09 (2.27) 31.57 (4.75)

Note.N=208. BSRIfem =Bem Sex Role Inventory Feminist Identity; BSRImas =Bem Sex Role Inventory Masculine identity;

FICPas =Feminist Identity Scale Passive Acceptance; FICRev =Feminist Identity Scale Revelation; FICEm =Feminist Identity Scale

Embeddedness-Emanation; FICSyn =Feminist Identity Scale synthesis subscale; FICAct =Feminist Identity Scale active commitment.

∗p<.05 (2-tail). ∗∗ p<.01 (2-tail). ∗∗∗p<.001 (2-tail).

428 Mahalik, Morray, Coonerty-Femiano, Ludlow, Slattery, and Smiler

the CFNI Total scores relate signiﬁcantly and posi-

tively to the BSRI Femininity score, signiﬁcantly and

negatively to the BSRI Masculinity score, and signif-

icantly and positively to the FIC Passive Acceptance

subscale.

Examination of the Femininity Norms subscales

in relation to the BSRI and FIC indicated that Nice

In Relationship scores relate to BSRI Femininity, but

were unrelated to the BSRI Masculinity or the FIC

subscales; Modesty was negatively related to BSRI

Masculinity and the Embeddedness-Emanation

and Synthesis subscales of the FIC; Domestic was

positively related to Passive Acceptance on the FIC;

Care for Children scores were positively related to

BSRI Femininity and Passive Acceptance on the

FIC; Romantic Relationship was positively related

to BSRI Femininity and Passive Acceptance on the

FIC; Sexual Fidelity was positively related to BSRI

Femininity and Passive Acceptance on the FIC, but

negatively related to BSRI Masculinity; and Invest

in Appearance was negatively related to Active

Commitment on the FIC.

Discussion

The results suggest that the CFNI Total and the

eight Femininity Norm subscales are internally con-

sistent, have low to moderate relationships among

the subscales, and many of the CFNI subscales

differentiate men from women and are related to

femininity, masculinity, and feminist identity in the

predicted ways. Speciﬁcally, there were differences

supporting our hypothesis between men and women

on the CFNI total score and six of the eight Femi-

ninity Norms. We did not ﬁnd, however, signiﬁcant

differences between men and women on Modesty

and Romantic Relationship. As separate sociocul-

tural schemas exist for femininity and masculinity

(Bem, 1981a), the fact that these two subscales did

not differentiate men from women in this study might

suggest that refraining from calling attention to one’s

talents or abilities and investing oneself in a romantic

relationship may not be distinctly feminine norms

in the U.S. However, other results from this study

support our contention that Modesty and Romantic

Relationship are traditional feminine norms from the

dominant culture in the U.S. Speciﬁcally, Modesty

was related signiﬁcantly and negatively to masculin-

ity, as well as negatively related to the higher levels of

feminist identity (i.e., embeddedness-emanation and

synthesis), and Romantic Relationship was positively

associated with femininity and passive acceptance

of traditional, North American, gender roles. Thus,

these two scores have signiﬁcant relationships to the

BSRI and FIC constructs in ways that support their

validity as indicators of traditional femininity.

Results of our examination of the relationship

of the CFNI to the Bem Sex Role Inventory also

indicate that the CFNI Total score was related pos-

itively to femininity and negatively to masculinity.

However, we note that the relationship between

the CFNI Total score and the Femininity score was

moderate, as predicted. This supports our prediction

that socially desirable feminine characteristics are

related to, but distinct from, feminine ideologies.

Also, we note that the BSRI Femininity score only

signiﬁcantly related to Nice in Relationships, Care

for Children, Romantic Relationship, and Sexual

Fidelity. We interpret this ﬁnding as supporting our

contention that the BSRI does not incorporate many

salient femininity norms found in U.S. society. These

relationships also support Spence and Helreich’s

(1980) conclusion that the BSRI assesses expres-

sive traits as the BSRI was related to the CFNI

scores that reﬂect caretaking and involvement in

relationships.

The results also support our hypothesis that

CFNI scores, which were designed to measure

conformity to traditional gender role norms in the

dominant culture of U.S. society, should be positively

related to acceptance of traditional European Amer-

ican, North American, gender roles (i.e., passive

acceptance), but negatively to the stages that reﬂect

increasing levels of feminist identity. Although none

of the CFNI scores related to the revelation stage,

it appears that the CFNI Total score—and the Do-

mestic, Care for Children, Romantic Relationship,

and Sexual Fidelity scores—are all associated with

believing that traditional European American, North

American gender roles are advantageous. Specif-

ically, the CFNI subscales that assess conformity

to traditional norms associated with homemaking,

childcare, and being married (i.e., faithful in a

romantic relationship) were the variables related to

passive acceptance of traditional gender roles.

Consideration of the CFNI’s relationship to

the other stages of feminist identity revealed that

the CFNI was unrelated to many of the other

stages of feminist identity. However, two of the

subscales did correlate with the stages that reﬂect

greater feminist identity. Speciﬁcally, Modesty was

related negatively to feeling connected to other

women (Embededness-Emanation) and developing

Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory 429

a positive feminist identity (Synthesis). Also, In-

vest in Appearance related negatively to women’s

self-report of a strong commitment to positive so-

cial change that addresses societal inequities (Ac-

tive Commitment). As such, women who were more

likely to speak up about their accomplishments (i.e.,

low on Modesty) and less likely to focus on their

physical appearance (i.e., low on Invest in Appear-

ance) were more likely to report higher levels of

feminist identity.

STUDY 3

The purpose of this study was to examine the re-

lationship between CFNI scores and scores on the

Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI-2; Garner, 1991).

Among all of the identiﬁed norms of femininity,

those involving appearance may be some of the most

salient in the lives of women in the U.S. (Crawford &

Unger, 2000). Western culture’s stereotype of femi-

ninity seems to involve the belief that women should

be focused upon both taking care of their own ap-

pearance and being thin (Worell & Todd, 1996).

Women who fail to meet these cultural prescriptions

for attractiveness may experience sanctions for be-

ing “insufﬁciently feminine” (Fiske & Stevens, 1993),

and internalization of this “thin ideal” has been asso-

ciated with eating and weight concerns (Low et al.,

2003).

A signiﬁcant body of literature supports the hy-

pothesis that women experience much higher lev-

els of body dissatisfaction than do men. Concerns

about physical attractiveness have been found to be

more prevalent in girls and women than in boys and

men (Mintz & Betz, 1986; Worell & Todd, 1996).

Demarest and Langer (1996) found that overweight

women reported the highest levels of body dissatis-

faction in a comparison of body perception among

underweight, average-weight, and overweight men

and women. Women of average weight in the study

reported approximately the same level of body dis-

satisfaction as did overweight men. Furthermore,

these gender differences in levels of body dissatis-

faction begin to appear with the onset of adoles-

cence, and they continue well past middle adulthood

(Tiggeman & Pennington, 1996).

The cultural norms for physical attractiveness

and the “thin ideal” may be particularly salient for

European American women (Crawford & Unger,

2000). In a study by Powell and Kahn (1995),

European American women chose a signiﬁcantly

thinner ideal body size and expressed more concern

with weight and dieting than did African American

women. Results of that study suggest that European

American women experience greater social pressure

to be thin than do African American women, which

may lead to the higher rates of eating disorders

among European American women than among

African American women.

It was therefore expected that rigid internaliza-

tion of feminine norms for appearance (Be Thin and

Invest in Appearance), as evidenced by high levels

of conformity to these norms, would be associated

with higher levels of eating disordered behavior, neg-

ative body image, and preoccupation with weight as

assessed by the EDI. However, the relationships be-

tween other dimensions of femininity besides those

that are directly related to appearance may also be

associated with eating disordered behaviors. Prior re-

searchers who have attempted to link femininity and

eating disordered behaviors have been considerably

limited by instruments that tap only limited aspects

of gender, typically self-reported personality traits.

According to Worell and Todd (1996), “in the face

of the broad reach of gender stereotypes and roles,

simple measures of trait femininity are not likely to

bear the weight of explaining the complex behavior

patterns involved in developmental concerns such as

depression or disordered eating” (p. 139). Use of the

CFNI to assess multiple components of conformity to

a broad range of feminine norms may provide a more

complex perspective examining the relationship be-

tween femininity and eating disordered behavior.

Method

Participants and Procedure

Three hundred and eighty women participated

in this study. These women were participants in

Study 1, but they also completed the Eating Disorder

Inventory – 2, along with a demographics form and

CFNI described in Study 1 (alphas in this study for

the eight Femininity Norms subscales ranged from

.77 to .93, with α=.89 for the Total score of the

CFNI). These women averaged 19.28 years (SD =

1.27), and most were European American (307 Eu-

ropean American, 12 African American, 28 Asian

or Asian American, 16 Hispanic/Latina, 1 Native

American, 8 biracial, and 8 described themselves as

“Other”) and heterosexual (369 heterosexual, 1 les-

bian, 8 bisexual, and 2 who identiﬁed as “Other”).

430 Mahalik, Morray, Coonerty-Femiano, Ludlow, Slattery, and Smiler

Most participants were single (330 single, 45 single

and cohabitating, 3 married, and 2 did not report).

This group consisted of 163 freshman, 150 sopho-

mores, 40 juniors, and 27 seniors.

Measures

The Eating Disorder Inventory – 2 (EDI-2;

Garner, 1991) is a 64-item self-report measure of

symptoms commonly associated with anorexia and

bulimia nervosa. Respondents are asked to indicate

whether each item applies to them on a 6-point scale

that includes always,usually,often,sometimes,rarely,

and never. Responses are then recoded from the 6-

point scale into a 4-point scale that ranges from 0

to 3, in which 0 is assigned to the three responses

that represent the least symptomatic answers, and 3

is assigned to the most symptomatic answer (Garner,

1991).

The EDI-2 was developed to assess psycho-

logical characteristics associated with eating disor-

ders based on the assumption that disordered eating

is multidimensional in nature (Garner, Olmsted, &

Polivy, 1983). The original factor analysis revealed

eight scales: (a) Drive for Thinness, (b) Bulimia,

fectionism, (f) Interpersonal Distrust, (g) Interocep-

tive Awareness, and (h) Maturity Fears.

The EDI has been used in over 400 studies

(Garner, 1991), which support the 8-factor structure

(Garner et al., 1983). EDI scores have been reported

to discriminate between eating disordered and non-

clinical samples (Garner, 1991) and to classify cor-

rectly 85% of participants into bulimic and restrictor

subtypes. In addition, the EDI and its subscales have

been reported to relate signiﬁcantly to the Eating At-

titudes Test and body size estimations (see Garner,

1991). Internal consistency data reported for the

EDI indicate Cronbach alphas that ranged from .82

to .90 (Eberly & Eberly, 1985). Test-retest reliability

correlation coefﬁcients for each of the scales, except

Maturity Fears, are reportedly .80 or higher over

a 3-week period and range from .47 to .76 across a

1-year period (Crowther, Lilly, Crawford, &

Shepherd, 1992). In the present study, alphas were

.77 for Drive for Thinness, .63 for Bulimia, .82 for

Body Dissatisfaction, .79 for Ineffectiveness, .35 for

Perfectionism, .68 for Interpersonal Distrust, .72 for

Interoceptive Awareness, .71 for Maturity Fears,

and .91 for the EDI Total score. Because the internal

consistency for the Perfectionism scale was so low, it

was dropped from further analyses in this study.

Results

Pearson correlations were computed to examine

the CFNI Total and eight Femininity Norm subscales

in relation to the Eating Disorder Inventory – 2 (see

Table VI). Results from the analyses indicated that

the CFNI Total scores related signiﬁcantly and pos-

itively the EDI Total score, as well as to the EDI-2

subscale scores of Drive For Thinness, Bulimia, Body

Dissatisfaction, and Interoceptive Awareness.

Examination of the CFNI subscales in relation

to the EDI-2 indicated that Nice in Relationships

scores were negatively related to Ineffectiveness and

Interpersonal Distrust. Thinness scores were signiﬁ-

cantly and positively related to all of the EDI scores

and the Total score. Modesty scores were positively

related to the EDI Total score and the subscales of

Table VI. Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations Between CFNI Total and Subscale Scores and Eating Disorders Inventory – 2

Drivethin Bulim Bodydiss Ineffect Intdis Inaware Matufear EDI Total Mean (SD)

Nice in relationships −.02 .02 −.01 −.17∗∗ −.17∗∗ .02 −.05 −.07 39.41 (6.38)

Thinness .66∗∗∗ .41∗∗∗ .63∗∗∗ .23∗∗∗ .11∗.26∗∗∗ .13∗.56∗∗∗ 20.74 (6.17)

Modesty .05 .06 .07 .17∗∗ .24∗∗ .12∗.06 .15∗∗ 12.79 (3.56)

Domestic .07 −.01 −.03 −.07 −.07 −.06 −.09 −.04 14.73 (4.07)

Care for children −.06 −.08 −.03 −.20∗∗∗ −.18∗∗ −.10 −.09 −.15∗∗ 25.87 (6.45)

Be in a romantic .13∗.16∗∗ .11∗.16∗∗ −.08 .19∗∗∗ .09 .18∗∗∗ 15.35 (3.81)

relationship

Sexual ﬁdelity −.05 −.10 .02 −.09 −.06 −.02 −.05 −.06 21.62 (5.95)

Invest in appearance .25∗∗∗ .14∗∗ .18∗∗∗ .09 .07 .11∗.02 .20∗∗∗ 11.87 (3.81)

CFNI total score .27∗∗∗ .15∗∗ .26∗∗∗ −.01 −.07 .12∗−.01 .18∗∗∗ 162.39 (19.15)

Mean (SD) 6.11 (4.91) 3.19 (3.71) 9.87 (6.00) 3.89 (4.88) 2.58 (3.02) 5.88 (5.61) 5.48 (4.50) 44.17 (22.27)

Note.N=380. Drivethin =Drive for Thinness; Bulim =Bulimia; Bodydiss =Body Dissatisfaction; Ineffect =Ineffectiveness; Intdis =

Interpersonal Distrust; Inaware =Interoceptive Awareness; Matufear =Maturity Fears.

∗p<.05 (2-tail). ∗∗ p<.01 (2-tail). ∗∗∗p<.001.

Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory 431

Ineffectiveness, Interpersonal Distrust, and Intero-

ceptive Awareness. Care For Children scores were

negatively related to the EDI Total score and the

subscales Ineffectiveness and Interpersonal Distrust.

Romantic Relationship scores were positively related

to the EDI Total score as well as the subscales

of Drive For Thinness, Bulimia, Body Dissatisfac-

tion, Ineffectiveness, and Interoceptive Awareness.

Invest in Appearance scores were positively related

to the EDI Total score and the subscales of Drive

For Thinness, Bulimia, Body Dissatisfaction, Perfec-

tionism, and Interoceptive Awareness. The Domes-

tic and Sexual Fidelity scores of the CFNI were unre-

lated to any EDI scores.

Discussion

The results of this study present a complex pic-

ture of femininity’s relationship to women’s eating

and body image issues. As predicted, there was a sig-

niﬁcant, positive relationship between the CFNI To-

tal score and the EDI total score, which suggests that

conformity to the dominant culture’s norms of femi-

ninity may be related to the development of eating

disordered symptomatology. The positive correla-

tions between the CFNI Total score and the EDI sub-

scale scores, including Drive for Thinness, Bulimia,

Body Dissatisfaction, and Interoceptive Awareness

also support this conclusion. Similar patterns were

found between speciﬁc CFNI subscales related to ap-

pearance and EDI scores. For example, Thinness was

positively associated with all six EDI subscales as

well as the EDI Total score, and Invest in Appear-

ance was positively correlated with 5 of the 6 EDI

subscales (Drive for Thinness, Bulimia, Body Dissat-

isfaction, Perfectionism, and Interoceptive Aware-

ness), along with the EDI Total score. As such,

the results of this study support the hypothesis that

conformity to feminine norms generally, as well as

appearance-related norms speciﬁcally, are positively

associated with eating disorder symptomatology as

assessed by the EDI.

However, our results also suggest that con-

formity to some norms of femininity that are not

appearance-related may also be associated with

behaviors related to eating disorders. For instance,

Modesty was positively associated with EDI total

scores, as well as the Ineffectiveness, Interpersonal

Distrust, and Interoceptive Awareness subscales. It

seems plausible that the forces that lead a woman

to feel she must downplay her accomplishments and

assets might contribute to her feeling inadequate in a

number of domains, including her abilities to manage

her life, her relationships, and even her own internal

emotional states as reﬂected in these three EDI sub-

scales. A second CFNI subscale, Romantic Relation-

ship, was positively correlated with the EDI Total

score and the following subscale scores: Drive for

Thinness, Bulimia, Body Dissatisfaction. Ineffective-

ness, and Interoceptive Awareness. We can speculate

that women may experience their physical attrac-

tiveness (particularly their body shape and size) as

playing a crucial role in their ability to establish and

maintain a relationship with a male partner. From a

sociobiological approach, women’s attention to their

physical attractiveness ensures that they will be se-

lected as desirable mates. A focus upon appearance

may allow women to feel a sense of control in a sit-

uation that might otherwise elicit feelings of power-

lessness and confusion. It is not surprising, therefore,

that women who place great value upon the attain-

ment of romantic relationships may also experience

considerable self-scrutiny in terms of their physical

appearance, and thus engage in the associated

dieting behaviors.

It is interesting that some femininity factors,

speciﬁcally Nice in Relationships and Care for Chil-

dren, actually seem to be associated with healthier

eating attitudes. The Nice in Relationships subscale

was negatively associated with two EDI subscales:

Ineffectiveness and Interpersonal Distrust. It seems

plausible that women who put a great deal of time,

care, and attention into their relationships derive a

sense of competence from their abilities to maintain

these connections, as well as a sense of stable attach-

ment and trust in these partners as a result of their

interpersonal efforts. A similar effect may contribute

to the negative associations between the Caring for

Children norm and the following EDI scores: the

Total score, Ineffectiveness, and Interpersonal Dis-

trust. Women who devote their time and energy to

nurturing and caring for children, or plan to do so,

may derive a sense of competence and connection

from these interactions, which may detract from the

pressure to focus their identity and success on their

appearance.

In summary, this study supports the assumption

that body dissatisfaction and engagement in weight-

control behaviors are indeed positively associated

with conformity to appearance-related feminine

norms. This study also highlights the complexity

of the relationship between femininity and eating

disorder symptomatology. That is, as expected,

432 Mahalik, Morray, Coonerty-Femiano, Ludlow, Slattery, and Smiler

appearance-related norms of femininity were pos-

itively associated with eating and body issues.

However, other elements of traditional femininity,

including Being in a Romantic Relationship and

Modesty, also seem to play a role in the development

of these issues, and other feminine norms, including

Nice in Relationships and Care for Children, were

associated with fewer of these symptoms.

STUDY 4

This study was designed to examine the tempo-

ral stability of the CFNI Total and its eight Fem-

ininity Norm subscales, as further indicators of its

reliability.

Method

Participants and Procedure

Thirty-nine women participated in this part of

the study. All of these women also participated in

Study 1, but in addition to the data they provided

for the factor analysis, these participants also com-

pleted the CFNI again 2–3 weeks after the ﬁrst ad-

ministration. The 39 women averaged 27.10 years of

age (SD =6.60), and most were European American

(34 European American, 2 Asian or Asian American,

and 3 Hispanic/Latina). Most women reported that

they were single (34 single, 2 married, 1 divorced, 1 in

committed same-sex partner, and 1 committed male

partner).

Results

To examine the temporal stability for a 2–3 week

time period, CFNI scores at Time 1 were correlated

with CFNI scores at Time 2. Test-retest coefﬁcients

(i.e., Pearson correlations) were .94 for the Total

CFNI score, and .83 for Nice in Relationships, .93

for Sexual Fidelity, .83 for Be Domestic, .91 for In-

vest in Appearance, .95 for Caring for Children, .85

for Modest, .86 for Thinness, and .86 for Romantic

Relationship.

GENERAL DISCUSSION

The results from the four studies provide sup-

port for the reliability and validity of the CFNI for

the mostly European American, heterosexual, and

young adult population sampled. Speciﬁcally, results

from the studies suggest that the CFNI has eight dis-

tinct factors, that these factors relate in theoretically

consistent ways to the other constructs we examined,

which supports its validity, and that the inventory has

high internal consistency estimates and test-retest

reliabilities over a 2–3 week period.

As such, we view our results as supporting the

work of scholars who have identiﬁed a large num-

ber of normative messages associated with femininity

(e.g., see Crawford & Unger, 2000; Gilbert & Scher,

1999). Speciﬁcally, the CFNI, as a multidimensional

measure of femininity, seems able to differentiate

among several of the distinct cultural injunctions con-

cerning femininity in the dominant culture in U.S.

society today.

Potential Uses for the CFNI

The CFNI was developed as a tool for use by

researchers and clinicians to examine femininity is-

sues with individuals by assessing conformity to an

array of femininity norms. In terms of research, the

CFNI could be used to examine the complex, mul-

tidimensional ways that women experience and re-

spond to femininity issues in their lives. Researchers

might also examine whether variables such as SES,

cultural membership, and the gender role norms of

important peer groups—as examples of social inﬂu-

ence factors—and variables such as self-esteem or at-

tachment to parents—as examples of individual dif-

ference factors—predict femininity in women. It can

also be used to test Mahalik et al.’s (2003) supposi-

tion that there are beneﬁts and costs to the individ-

ual and others for conforming to, and not conforming

to, a variety of gender role norms. Testing this could

be done in a variety of ways including by examining

data on psychological health, identity development,

health-related behaviors, quality of relationships, or

a host of other variables to determine beneﬁts and

costs for the individual and others to conformity or

nonconformity to an array of femininity norms.

As mental health professionals have advocated

increasingly for integrating a gendered perspective

into assessment and treatment with clients (e.g.,

Brooks & Good, 2001; Brown, 1986; Gilbert & Scher,

1999; Good, Gilbert, & Scher, 1990; Mahalik, 1999a,

1999b), once normed, the CFNI may provide such a

tool for the assessment of a large number of feminine

norms with female clients, which would allow a richer

understanding of the salient aspects of femininity for

Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory 433

a given individual. Although research must be done

to determine if interventions that incorporate inter-

pretation of the CFNI with clients are helpful and for

what issues, consistent with feminist theory (Brown,

1986), we speculate that it may be useful to explore

with female clients how their conformity or noncon-

formity to any of the femininity norms both bene-

ﬁts them in daily living as well as contributes stress

to their relationships, work, and health. Clinical in-

terventions might focus on helping female clients to

change aspects of the gendered self in which the costs

associated with conformity or nonconformity out-

weigh the beneﬁts the client experiences.

Limitations

The fact that the samples were mostly Euro-

pean American, heterosexual, college students in

the United States is a limitation to both the gen-

eralizability of the ﬁndings and to our knowledge

about the psychometric properties of the CFNI with

other groups of women. As femininity is a cultur-

ally deﬁned construct (Kimmel, 2000; Mead, 1935)

that varies as a function of life-stage (Sheehy, 1976),

race, and ethnicity (Vasquez, 2003; Wyche, 2001),

and changes through history (Kimmel, 2000), it is im-

portant from a psychometric perspective to examine

other groups of women to determine if the CFNI has

the same 8-factor structure and acceptable psycho-

metric properties with other groups of women.

It is also vitally important from a theoretical

and clinical perspective to examine groups of women

from diverse backgrounds in future research. Specif-

ically, as Mahalik et al. (2003) stated that gender role

norms from the most powerful culture in a society

affect the experiences of persons in that group, as

well as persons in all other groups, we believe that

“minority women” (e.g., racial minorities, sexual ori-

entation minorities) and women from less powerful

groups (e.g., lower SES groups) are affected by the

dominant culture’s notions of femininity.

Further, Lazur and Majors (1995) wrote that,

“For a man of color, deﬁning his own gender role in-

volves integration of the dominant society’s restric-

tions. Measuring himself against the standard that

dictates the male gender role for the dominant cul-

ture yet denies equal access to the opportunities that

sustain that standard evokes in the man of color frus-

trations, unexpressed emotions, and a drive for sur-

vival” (p. 340). We believe that minority women also

experience the same dynamics and that use of the

CFNI with minority women would allow the oppor-

tunity to explore these issues in research and clini-

cal practice. Questions could be asked, such as “how

does racial identity contribute to minority women’s

identiﬁcation with or non-identiﬁcation with femi-

nine norms from the dominant culture?” The same

dynamics should also be relevant for issues such as

acculturation, sexual identity development, or an ar-

ray of other sociocultural variables. Because we be-

lieve that there are both beneﬁts and costs to con-

formity and nonconformity to feminine norms in the

dominant culture, a measure that assesses speciﬁcally

the dominant culture’s construction of femininity has

utility for scientists and practitioners who address

minority women’s concerns.

In conclusion, we believe that the results of these

studies offer initial evidence supporting the reliabil-

ity and validity of the 8-factor CFNI. Given that men-

tal health professionals are increasingly integrating

a gendered perspective into their work, the CFNI

may provide a useful tool in working with female

clients, as well as a useful tool to examine important

questions about the beneﬁts and costs for individu-

als, families, and communities as a function of con-

formity and nonconformity to feminine norms.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank all of the women who

participated in the ﬁrst focus groups, the graduate

students who participated in the second focus groups,

Sam Wan for technical help with the survey, and Mari

Casares for her contribution to the group interviews.

REFERENCES

Bargad, A., & Hyde, J. S. (1991). A study of feminist identity de-

velopment in women. Psychology of Women Quarterly,15,

181–201.

Bartlett, M. S. (1950). Tests of signiﬁcance in factor analysis.

British Journal of Psychology,3, 77–85.

Bem, S. L. (1974). The measurement of psychological androgyny.

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology,42, 155–162.

Bem, S. L. (1981a). Gender schema theory: A cognitive account of

sex typing. Psychological Review,88, 354–364.

Bem, S. L. (1981b). Bem Sex Role Inventory professional manual.

Stanford, CA: Consulting Psychologists.

Betz, N. E. (1995). Gender-related individual differences vari-

ables: New concepts, methods, and ﬁndings. In D. J. Lubinski,

& R. V. Dawis (Eds.), Assessing individual differences in hu-

man behavior: New concepts, methods, and ﬁndings (pp. 119–

143). Palo Alto, CA: Davies-African American.

Brooks, G. R., & Good, G. E. (Eds.). (2001). The new handbook

of psychotherapy and counseling with men: A comprehensive

434 Mahalik, Morray, Coonerty-Femiano, Ludlow, Slattery, and Smiler

guide to settings, problems, and treatment approaches (Vol. 1

& 2). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Brown, L. S. (1986). Gender role analysis: A neglected component

of psychological assessment. Psychotherapy,23, 243–248.

Brown, L. S. (1998). Raising their voices: The politics of girls’ anger.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Carpenter, L. M. (2002). Gender and the meaning and experience

of virginity loss in the contemporary United States. Gender

and Society,16, 345–365.

Chodorow, N. (1978). The reproduction of mothering. Berkeley,

CA: University of California Press.

Cialdini, R. B., & Trost, M. R. (1999). Social inﬂuence: Social

norms, conformity, and compliance. In D. Gilbert, S. Fiske, &

G. Lindzy (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (Vol. 2,

pp. 151–192). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Crawford, M., & Unger, R. (2000). Women and gender: A feminist

psychology. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Crowther, J. H., Lilly, R. S., Crawford, P. A., & Shepherd, K. L.

(1992). The stability of the Eating Disorder Inventory. Inter-

national Journal of Eating Disorders,12, 97–101.

Deaux, K., & Lewis, L. L. (1984). The structure of gender stereo-

types: Interrelatioships among components and gender labels.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,46, 991–1004.

Demarest, J., & Langer, E. (1996). Perception of body shape

by underweight, average, and overweight men and women.

Perceptual and Motor Skills,83, 569–570.

Deutsch, F. M., & Saxon, S. E. (1998). Traditional ideologies, non-

traditional lives. Sex Roles,38, 331–362.

Downing, N., & Roush, K. (1985). From passive acceptance to ac-

tive commitment: A model of feminist identity development

for women. Counseling Psychologist,13, 695–709.

Eagly, A. H., & Steffen, V. J. (1984). Gender stereotypes stem

from the distribution of women and men into social roles.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,46, 735–754.

Eberly, C. C., & Eberly, B. W. (1985). A review of the Eating Dis-

order Inventory. Journal of Counseling and Development,64,

285.

Eisler, R. M. (1995). The relationship between masculine gender

role stress and men’s health risk: The validation of the con-

struct. In R. F. Levant & W. S. Pollack (Eds.), A new psychol-

ogy of men (pp. 207–225). New York: Basic Books.

Fischer, A. R., Tokar, D. M., Mergl, M. M., Good, G. E., Hill, M.

S., & Blum, S. A. (2000). Assessing women’s feminist iden-

tity development: Studies of convergent, discriminant, and

structural validity. Psychology of Women Quarterly,24, 15–

29.

Fiske, S. T., & Stevens, L. E. (1993). What’s so special about

sex? Gender stereotyping and discrimination. In S. Oskamp

& M. Costanzo (Eds.), Gender issues in contemporary society:

Claremont Symposium on Applied Social Psychology (Vol. 6,

pp. 173–196). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Garner, D. M. (1991). Eating Disorder Inventory – 2 manual.

Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

Garner, D. M., Olmsted, M. P., & Polivy, J. (1983). Development

and validation of a multidimensional Eating Disorder Inven-

tory for anorexia and bulimia. International Journal of Eating

Disorders,2, 15–34.

Gilbert, L. A., & Scher, M. (1999). Gender and sex in counseling

and psychotherapy. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Gillespie, B. L., & Eisler, R. M. (1992). Development of the Fem-

inine Gender Role Stress Scale: A cognitive-behavioral mea-

sure of stress, appraisal, and coping for women. Behavior

Modiﬁcation,16, 426–438.

Gillespie, R. (2003). Childfree and feminine: Understanding the

gender identity of voluntarily childless women. Gender and

Society,17, 122–136.

Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and

women’s development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University

Press.

Good, G. E., Gilbert, L. A., & Scher, M. (1990). Gender aware

therapy: A synthesis of feminist therapy and knowledge about

gender. Journal of Counseling and Development,68, 376–380.

Green, P. E. (1976). Mathematical tools for applied multivariate

analysis. New York: Academic.

Hurd, L. C. (1999). “We’re not old!”: Older women’s negotiation

of aging and oldness. Journal of Aging Studies,13, 419–439.

Jordon, J. V. (1992). The relational self: A new perspec-

tive for understanding women’s development. Contemporary

Psychotherapy Review,7, 56–71.

Kagan, J. (1964). American longitudinal research on psychological

development. Child Development,35, 1–32.

Kaiser, H. F. (1974). An index of factorial simplicity. Psychome-

trika,39, 31–36.

Kimmel, M. S. (2000). The gendered society. Oxford: Oxford

University Press.

Kohlberg, L. (1966). Moral education in the schools: A develop-

mental view. School Review,74, 1–30.

Lazur, R. F., & Majors, R. (1995). Men of color: Ethnocultural

variations of male gender role strain. In R. F. Levant & W.

S. Pollack (Eds.), The new psychology of men (pp. 337–358).

New York: Basic Books.

Locksley, A., & Colten, M. E. (1979). Psychological androgyny: A

case of mistaken identity. Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology,37, 1017–1031.

Low, K. G., Charanasomboon, S., Brown, C., Hiltunen, G., Long,

K., Reinhalter, K., et al. (2003). Internalization of the thin

ideal, weight, and body image concerns. Social Behavior and

Personality,31, 81–90.

Lytton, H., & Romney, D. M. (1991). Parents’ differential social-

ization of boys and girls: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bul-

letin,109, 267–296.

Mahalik, J. R. (1999a). Interpersonal psychotherapy with men

who experience gender role conﬂict. Professional Psychology:

Research and Practice,30, 5–13.

Mahalik, J. R. (1999b). Incorporating a gender role strain perspec-

tive in assessing and treating men’s cognitive distortions. Pro-

fessional Psychology: Research and Practice,30, 333–340.

Mahalik, J. R., Locke, B., Ludlow, L., Diemer, M., Scott, R. P. J.,

Gottfried, M., et al. (2003). Development of the Conformity

to Masculine Norms Inventory. Psychology of Men and Mas-

culinity,4, 3–25.

Matschiner, M., & Murnen, S. K. (1999). Hyperfeminity and inﬂu-

ence. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 23, 631–642.

Mead, M. (1935). Sex and temperament in three primitive societies.

New York: Morrow.

Meth, R. (1990). The road to masculinity. In R. Meth & R. Pasick

(Eds.), Men in therapy: The challenge of change (pp. 3–34).

New York: Guilford.

Mintz, L. B., & Betz, N. E. (1986). Sex differences in the nature,

realism, and correlates of body image. Sex Roles,15, 185–195.

Moradi, B., & Subich, L. M. (2002). Feminist identity development

measures: Comparing the psychometrics of three instruments.

Counseling Psychologist,30, 66–86.

Moradi, B., Subich, L. M., & Phillips, J. C. (2002). Revisiting

feminist identity development theory, research, and practice.

Counseling Psychologist,30, 6–43.

Morawski, J. G. (1985). The measurement of masculinity and fem-

ininity: Engendering categorical realities. Journal of Person-

ality,53, 196–223.

Payne, F. D. (1985). Review of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory. In

J. V. Mitchell, Jr. (Ed.), The ninth mental measurements year-

book (pp. 178–179). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska

Press.

Pleck, J. H. (1981). The myth of masculinity. Cambridge, MA: MIT

Press.

Pleck, J. H. (1995). The gender role strain paradigm: An update.

In R. F. Levant & W. S. Pollack (Eds.), A new psychology of

men (pp. 11–32). New York: Basic Books.

Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory 435

Powell, A. D., & Kahn, A. S. (1995). Racial differences in women’s

desires to be thin International Journal of Eating Disorders,

17, 191–195.

Rickard, K. M. (1989). The relationship of self-monitored dating

behavior to level of feminist identity on the Feminist Identity

Scale. Sex Roles,20, 213–226.

Rudman, L. A., & Glick, P. (2001). Prescriptive gender stereotypes

and backlash toward agentic women. Journal of Social Issues,

57, 743–762.

Sheehy, G. (1976). Passages: Predictable crises of adult life.New

York: Bantam.

Spence, J. T. (1984). Masculinity, femininity, and gender-related

traits: A conceptual analysis and critique of current research.

In B. A. Maher & W. B. Maher (Eds.), Progress in ex-

periemental research in personality (Vol. 13, pp. 1–97). New

York: Academic.

Spence, J. T., & Helmreich, R. L. (1978). Masculinity and fem-

ininity: Their psychological dimensions, correlates and an-

tecedents. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Spence, J. T., & Helmreich, R. L. (1980). Masculine instrumen-

tality and feminine expressiveness: Their relationships with

sex role attitudes and behaviors. Psychology of Women Quar-

terly,5, 147–163.

SPSS (1999). SPSS reference guide. Chicago: SPSS, Inc.

Thompson, E. H., & Pleck, J. H. (1995). Masculine ideologies: A

review of research instrumentation on men and masculinities.

In R. F. Levant & W. S. Pollack (Eds.), The new psychology

of men (pp. 129–163). New York: Basic Books.

Tiggeman, M., & Pennington, B. (1996). The development of gen-

der differences in body-size dissatisfaction. Australian Psy-

chologist,25, 306–313.

Tolman, D. L., & Porche, M. V. (2000). The Adolescent Femi-

nine Ideology Scale: Development and validation of a new

measure for girls. Psychology of Women Quarterly,24, 365–

376.

Vasquez, M. J. T. (2003). The Counseling Psychologist: 2002

Presidential Address: Extending the ladder of opportunity—

breaking through the colored glass ceiling. Counseling Psy-

chologist,31, 115–128.

Worell, J., & Todd, J. (1996). Development of the gendered

self. In L. Smolak & M. P. Levine (Eds.), The developmen-

tal psychopathology of eating disorders: Implications for re-

search, prevention, and treatment (pp. 135–156). Hillsdale, NJ:

Erlbaum.

Wyche, K. F. (2001). Sociocultural issues in counseling for women

of color. In R. K. Unger (Ed.), Handbook of the psy-

chology of women and gender (pp. 330–340). New York:

Wiley.

Feminism, Femininity, and Negative Embodiment: A Contemporary Meta-Analytic Test

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2024
SEX ROLES

Previous work has examined the relations between feminism, feminine gender roles, and body image concerns with inconclusive findings. The purpose of this study was to conduct an updated meta-analysis of the relation between feminist identity and negative embodiment, and to conduct new analyses to test how endorsement of femininity relates to negative embodiment. Through the technique of meta-analysis, we analyzed 80 studies (87 samples, N = 24,308) and 217 effect sizes to examine these associations. The predictor variables were measures of feminist identity and endorsement of femininity. The negative embodiment criterion variables were measures of body dissatisfaction, self-objectification, internalization of cultural body ideals, and disordered eating attitudes. Feminist identity was found to be negatively associated with negative embodiment, but only modestly, with small but significant effect sizes across most variables. Endorsement of femininity was found to be positively associated with negative embodiment, with mostly significant effect sizes ranging from small to large. These findings underscore the importance of considering the roles of feminist identity and traditional gender ideology in the etiology and prevention of women’s experiences of negative embodiment.

Conformity to Female Gender Norms and Its Influence on Psychological Risk in Spanish Climacteric Women: A Descriptive Study

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2025

(1) Background: The climacteric phase is a crucial period in a woman’s life, due to the changes that affect both her physical and psychological well-being. This study aims to explore the psychological risks associated with the climacteric period in Spanish women, evaluating the influence of conformity to female gender norms. (2) Methods: A descriptive correlational study was conducted with 429 women, using surveys to assess psychological risk (GHQ-12) and conformity to gender norms (CFNI-45). The sample was recruited from central Spain, covering women aged 45–64 years. (3) Results: 20% of the women showed signs or suspicion of psychological pathology, with a higher prevalence in younger women. Participants displayed greater conformity to gender norms related to domestic chores, but less conformity to norms of sexual fidelity and thinness. Health perception was identified as significantly influencing psychological risk and conformity to the norm of thinness, acting as a moderator in this relationship. (4) Conclusions: The study indicates that age and conformity to female gender norms influence psychological risk during the climacteric phase. Younger women and those with greater conformity to the norm of thinness exhibited higher psychological vulnerability. This highlights the need for interventions that address these factors in order to promote emotional well-being and a positive perception of health during this stage of life.

The dynamic interplay between neuroticism, extraversion, and problematic gaming in adolescents: A 4-wave longitudinal study

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2025

Background and aims Adolescent problematic gaming is a global public health issue, and is associated with numerous negative outcomes. The Big Two personality traits, neuroticism and extraversion, have been identified as significant predictors of problematic gaming in adolescents. However, most previous studies have been cross-sectional, limiting the ability to explore their mutual influences or causality inference. This study addresses this gap by employing a longitudinal design and utilizing the Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model (RI-CLPM) to examine the bidirectional relations between the Big Two personality traits and problematic gaming at the within-person level. Methods This study included 3,307 students (Mean age = 11.30, SD = 0.48, 43.6% being girls). Participants were assessed annually, completing a total of four assessments over the course of the study. Results The RI-CLPM analyses revealed that neuroticism and problematic gaming significantly predict each other. Extraversion acts as a protective factor against adolescent problematic gaming, whereas problematic gaming leads to a decrease in extraversion levels. Additionally, the longitudinal relations between neuroticism and problematic gaming exhibit significant sex differences. Discussion and conclusions This study provides insights into the interplay between the Big Two personality traits and problematic gaming in adolescents. These findings emphasize the need for prevention and intervention strategies that address personality traits as risk factors while recognizing how problematic gaming can influence personality, promoting a more holistic approach. The observed sex differences highlight the importance of integrating sex-specific considerations in interventions.

Relationship Between Gender Essentialism and System-Justifying Beliefs: A Meta-Analysis

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2025

Gender inequality remains a significant social issue, disproportionately impacting cisgender and heterosexual women as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual plus individuals. This meta-analysis aims to investigate the relationship between gender essentialism—a belief that views gender as biologically determined and immutable—and system-justifying beliefs (SJB) that sustain and legitimize existing social order. A four-level meta-analysis of 51 studies was conducted, comprising 118 samples and 327 effect sizes, with a total of 29,252 participants (sample sizes ranging from 21 to 2,803, 40% cisgender men, mean age of 29.52 years). Results revealed a moderately strong, significant, and positive association between gender essentialism and SJB, Zr = 0.391, SE = 0.029, t(326) = 13.499, p < .0001, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.334, 0.448]. This relationship was not significantly moderated by the participant’s group status (majority vs. minority) but was influenced by the type of SJB considered and the target of gender essentialism. Specifically, gender essentialist beliefs were more strongly related to justifications of gender asymmetry (e.g., sexism, heterosexism) than to general hierarchical attitudes (e.g., social dominance orientation). Additionally, this association was stronger for essentialism of marginalized individuals (e.g., transgender individuals and people with diverse gender identities) compared to relatively privileged groups (e.g., cisgender and heterosexual people). These findings suggest that gender essentialism may help both majority and minority groups to rationalize existing inequalities. This highlights the need for future research to focus on the social construction of gender to mitigate its impact on marginalized groups and reduce the reinforcement of social inequalities.

KADIN ÇALIŞANLARIN CİNSİYET ROL STRESİ ve İŞE ADANMIŞLIKLARI ARASINDAKİ İLİŞKİDE YAŞAM KALİTESİNİN DÜZENLEYİCİ ROLÜ MODERATION ROLE OF FEMALE EMPLOYEES' QUALITY OF LIFE PERCEPTIONS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GENDER ROLE STRESS AND WORK ENGAGEMENT

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2024

Serdar Yener

Z Bu çalışmada kadın çalışanların cinsiyet rol stresi ve işe adanmışlıkları arasındaki ilişkide yaşam kalitesinin düzenleyici rolü sorgulanmıştır. Kadınların yaşamın farklı alanlarındaki rollerinin çatışmasından ortaya çıkan rol stresiyle ilgili bireysel Batılı toplumlarda birçok çalışma yapılmış olmasına rağmen kolektivist Türk toplumunda yeterli bir çalışmaya rastlanmamıştır. Türk toplumunda kadınların iş yaşamında daha fazla rol almasının rol stresine yol açabileceği ve bunun işe adanmışlıklarını olumsuz etkileyebileceği düşünülmektedir. Bu süreçte kadınların yaşam kalite algılarının yaşayabilecekleri stresi azaltarak işe adanmışlıklarını arttırabileceği düşünülmektedir. Batı Karadeniz illerindeki kadın çalışanların oluşturduğu 306 kişilik örneklemden elde edilen verilerin SPSS 21'de analiz edilmesiyle elde edilen sonuçlara göre rol stresinin işe adanmışlık üzerinde olumsuz etkisi gözlenirken yaşam kalite algısının etkisiyle bu ilişki olumlu hale dönmüştür. ABSTRACT Moderation role of female employee's quality of life perceptions on the relationship between gender role stress and engagement is questioned in this research. Although there are a lot of studyings about gender role stress which is the result of role conflict between different areas of life in individualistic western cultures, there is not enough research in collectivist Turkish culture. It is thought that the prevalence of women in business life might lead gender rol stress and this process might decrease the level of work engagement. But quality of life perceptions may decrease the effect of gender role stress in this relationship. According to the results of analysis of SPSS 21 done with datas gathered from 306 female employees in Western Blacksea cities, negative effect of gender role stress on work engagement is observed and after moderation variable this effect turned into positive side.

Do Individuals Interpret Sexting as an Indicator of Sexual Intent and Sexual Consent?

Article

Dec 2024
COMPUT HUM BEHAV

‘It really freed me up … to work’: Australian mothers’ experiences of living with fathers who work part-time

Article

Oct 2024

The literature about mothers and engaged fatherhood is expanding; however, current research focuses on breadwinner mothers living with stay-at-home fathers. Knowledge about the experiences of mothers who live with part-time working fathers is scarce. The current study focuses on Australian breadwinner mothers' experiences within such a family arrangement. Interviews with 15 mothers were analysed with Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Two themes emerged: (1) a recurrent contrast by mothers of their experiences at work and at home (the arrangement was described as contributing to their career, but as disrupting traditional mothering) and (2) a repeated comparison by mothers between themselves and their partners in relation to work and parenting (career was suggested as more important for participants, and fathers were suggested as being better suited for child-rearing). Both themes commonly and positively presented the family arrangement as well balanced. In their talk, participants balanced the family arrangement's flaws with its benefits. Furthermore, participants' positioning suggested an identification to an in-group which aligned to traditional motherhood while deviating from traditional feminine norms. As societal norms shift towards greater gender equality, this study helps increase awareness of the variety of contemporary mothering practices, by reporting experiences of mothers who adopt non-traditional mothering practices.

Constructions of “female autism” in professional practices: A Foucauldian discourse analysis

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2024
FEM PSYCHOL

The rapid rise of literature concerned with "female autism" warrants critical analysis due to its implications for women and girls and understandings of neurodiversity. We sought to explore these implications, as well as broader institutional and ideological ramifications, through examining how female autism is constructed in professional practices. A Foucauldian discourse analysis was undertaken of descriptions of female autism in reports and resources provided by UK-based clinicians. Female autism was framed in these texts as an advance in medical-scientific knowledge and gender equality, its identification in women and girls argued to be crucial to their personal flourishing. However, attending to the power dynamics at play, a more complicated story developed, whereby the construction of female autism extends the reach of the "expert gaze" through expanding the category of autism while reproducing patriarchal norms and reinforcing hegemonic, binary understandings of gender. Interpretive in nature, our analysis intends a troubling of female autism, with the aim of encouraging critical feminist theoretical engagement as well as reflective clinical practice.

Toward an Antiracist Assessment Ecology: Dialogical Conferencing

Chapter

May 2022

Through our language standards and judgements, white language dominance is encouraged because they stem historically from a white racial formation in the Western world. The purpose of this chapter is to contribute to the discussion of how these habits of white language (HOWL) are found in traditional writing assessment practices and feedback. This chapter focuses on deconstructing and reconstructing Brown's approach to instructor-student conferencing (ISC) as feedback to student writing and reframes the ISC conference through an antiracist and dialogic pedagogy where student conferences become a space that decenter HOWL and emphasize students' rights to their own language and languaging. This chapter presents a dialogic framework and critical reflection questions for writing instructors that aims to promote more equitable writing assessment and feedback via the dialogical writing conference.

Kadın Çalışanların Kadınsı Cinsiyet Normları ve İşin Anlamlılığı Arasındaki Etkileşimde Cinsiyet Rol Stresinin Aracı Rolü The Mediating Role of Gender Role Stress on the Relationship between Gender Norms and Meaningfulness of Job

Chapter

Full-text available

Sep 2024

Serdar Yener

MAKALE BİLGİSİ ÖZ Makale Tarihçesi: Başvuru Amaç: Araştırmanın amacı kadın çalışanların kadınsı cinsiyet normları ve işin anlamlılığı arasındaki ilişkide cinsiyet rol stresinin aracı rolünü ortaya koymaktır. Tasarım/Yöntem: Niceliksel araştırma yöntemleriyle kolayda örneklem yoluyla Batı Karadeniz il ve ilçelerinde 412 kadın çalışan üzerine yapılmıştır. Toplanan anketler öncelikle geçerlik ve güvenirlik analizine tabi tutulduktan sonra tanımlayıcı istatistik, korelasyon ve regresyon testleri uygulanmıştır. Sonuçlar: Analiz sonuçlarına göre cinsiyet rol stresinin kadınsı cinsiyet normları ve işin anlamlılığı arasında aracı rolü gözlenmiştir. Özgün Değer: Kadınların ev ve iş yerinde üstlenmiş olduğu farklı rollerin işin anlamlılığını nasıl etkilediğini ortaya koymak ve alanyazına bu açıdan katkı sağlamak özgün değeridir. Araştırma iki sosyal kuram üzerine bina edilmiştir; sosyal norm ve sosyal rol kuramları. Ayrıca araştırmada toplumumuzda kadının iş hayatındaki işin anlamlılığı algısını artırabilecek sosyal cinsiyet normlarının etkisinin ortaya konması amaçlanmıştır. ABSTRACT Article History: Received Objectives: The purpose of the research is to reveal the mediation role of gender role stress on the relationship between gender norms and meaningfulness of job. Methods: Datas were collected through convenience sampling method from 412 female employees in West Blacksea cities and districts. After conducting validity and reliability tests, descriptive, corelation and regression analysis were done. Results: According to the results of analysis mediating role gender role stress on the relation between gender norms and meaninfulness of job is observed. Originality: C ontributing to the literature by presenting how the different roles of women assumed at work and home effect their work engagement and meaningfulness is originality of research. The research is grounded on two social theories; social norms and social role theories. It is also intended that with this research, we will be able to find out the effects of social gender norms on enhancing women's perceptions of meaningfulness. İş'te Davranış Dergisi J o u r n a l o f B e h a v i o r a t W o r k 3 (1) 2 0 1 8

Development of the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2003

This article describes the construction of the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory (CMNI), and 5 studies that examined its psychometric properties. Factor analysis indicated 11 distinct factors: Winning, Emotional Control, Risk-Taking, Violence, Dominance, Playboy, Self-Reliance, Primacy of Work, Power Over Women, Disdain for Homosexuals, and Pursuit of Status. Results from Studies 2–5 indicated that the CMNI had strong internal consistency estimates and good differential validity comparing men with women and groups of men on health-related questions; all of the CMNI subscales were significantly and positively related to other masculinity-related measures, with several subscales being related significantly and positively to psychological distress, social dominance, aggression, and the desire to be more muscular, and significantly and negatively to attitudes toward psychological help seeking and social desirability; and CMNI scores had high test–retest estimates for a 2–3 week period.

Interpersonal psychotherapy with men who experience gender role conflict

Article

Full-text available

Feb 1999

James R. Mahalik

Although research on men's gender role conflict reveals that it adversely affects men's psychological health and interpersonal relationships, psychotherapists typically underuse knowledge of masculine gender roles in psychological assessment and treatment. Interpersonal psychotherapy is proposed as a useful framework for working with men whose rigid enactment of traditional male gender roles leads to intrapersonal and interpersonal conflict (i.e., gender role conflict). Thus, this article integrates knowledge of male gender role conflict and interpersonal psychotherapy to examine issues that men who experience gender role conflict bring to their important interpersonal relationships and the therapeutic relationship.

Eating Disorder Inventory

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1984

Masculinity and Femininity: Their Psychological Dimensions, Correlates, and Antecedents

Book

Dec 1978

The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender

Book

Dec 1978

Nancy Chodorow

Mathematical Tools for Applied Multivariate Analysis

Article

Aug 1998
TECHNOMETRICS

Development and validation of a multidimensional eating disorder inventory for anorexia nervosa and bulimia

Article

Jan 1982

The development and validation of a new measure, the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) is described. The EDI is a 64 item, self-report, multiscale measure designed for the assessment of psychological and behavioral traits common in anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia. The EDI consists of eight subscales measuring: Drive for Thinness, Bilimia, Body Dissatisfaction, Ineffectiveness, Perfectionism, Interpersonal Distrust, Interoceptive Awareness and Maturity Fears. Reliability (internal consistency) is established for all subscales and several indices of validity are presented. First, AN patients (N=113) are differentiated from femal comparison (FC) subjects (N=577) using a cross-validation procedure. Secondly, patient self-report subscale scores agree with clinician ratings of subscale traits. Thirdly, clinically recovered AN patients score similarly to FCs on all subscales. Finally, convergent and discriminant validity are established for subscales. The EDI was also administered to groups of normal weight bulimic women, obese, and normal weight but formerly obese women, as well as a male comparison group. Group differences are reported and the potential utility of the EDI is discussed.

Social norms, conformity, and compliance

Article

Incorporating a gender role strain perspective in assessing and treating men's cognitive distortions

Article

Aug 1999

James R. Mahalik

Psychologists will be better prepared to intervene effectively with male clients if they can assess how their male clients' experiences as men in society have contributed to their presenting problems. In this article, the author reviews how masculine gender role strain contributes to men's cognitive distortions and leads to, for example, aggressiveness, an overemphasis on achievement, and relational and emotional disconnection. Eight areas of salient gender role messages for men are examined to facilitate clinicians' assessments of men's gender related cognitive distortions. In the final section of the article, issues salient to treating men who endorse these gender related cognitive distortions are discussed. By focusing on the influence of men's gender role socialization on presenting problems, it is hoped that clinicians may be empathic to the social context that contributes to men's cognitive distortions and clinicians can reduce the effects of gender role strain in male clients.

Gender stereotypes stem from the distribution of women and men into social roles. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 735-754

Article