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Sex Role Survey (SRS)

The Sex Role Survey (SRS) is a 52-item measure of attitudes toward equality between the sexes, and covers four dimensions: Equality in Business and the Professions, Sex-Appropriate Behavior—Masculinity/Femininity, Social-Domestic Work, and Power in the Home.

Categories

Geographies Tested: United States of America

Populations Included: Female, Male

Age Range: Adolescents, Adults

Items:

Equality in business and the professions
1. The entry of women into the business world in direct competition with men should be discouraged.
2. Women should not be permitted to hold political offices that involve great responsibility
3. On the average women should be regarded as less capable of contributing to economic production than are men
4. A woman should not expect to go to the same places or to have quite the same freedom of action as a man
5. It is a disgrace to have one‘s wife working outside the home in competition with men
6. No matter how they are treated, the majority of women seem to be bossy and nagging
7. Women should be concerned with their duties of child- rearing and house-tending, rather than with foolish desires for professional and business careers
8. Expensive vocational and professional training should be given only to men
9. A woman should keep herself an attractive love object and not worry about her rights
10. Women generally are more unreliable than men in their personal relations
11. Women should recognize that it is foolish to attempt to equal men in the business and the professions
12. Despite the ideal of equality of the sexes, there are certain jobs, like the president of the United States, which are just too important to be held by women
13. Women do not belong in politics
14. Training for cultural and political leadership should be largely restricted to men
15. Women should take increasing responsibility for leadership in solving the intellectual and social problems of the day
16. Men are naturally more capable than women in financial matters
17. If women must have a college education, they should be limited to a general cultural course and stay out of the professional schools entirely
18. It must be admitted that the average woman has a rather narrow sense of justice
19. Women should give up their false ideal of intellectual equality with men
20. It is ridiculous for a woman to run a locomotive and for a man to darn socks
21. Sons in a family should in general be given training for careers in preference to their daughters

Sex-appropriate behaviormasculinity-femininity
22. A woman who refuses to bear children has failed in her duty to her husband
23. There is no particular reason why a girl standing in a crowded vehicle or building should expect a man to offer her his seat
24. There are many words and phrases which are unfit for a woman's lips
25. It is naturally proper for parents to keep a daughter on the average under closer control than a son
26. Women should always take the passive role in courtship
27. A husband has the right to expect his wife to bear him children
28. Women in their dress should place feminine modesty before utility
29. There is hardly anything more revolting than seeing a women dress, act and cuss like a man
30. A woman should be proud to take her husband’s name at marriage
31. It is infinitely more disgusting to hear profanity from the lips of a woman than from a man
32. Women have an obligation to uphold modesty in dress
33. A woman on the average needs male protection & guidance
34. It is not a good idea for the mother of small children to work outside of the house

Social-domestic work
35. Women have the right to compete with men in every sphere of economic activity
36. The relative amounts of time and energy devoted to house- hold duties on the one hand and to a career on the other should be determined by personal desires and interests rather than by sex
37. There should be a strict merit system of public appointment and promotion without regard to sex
38. Women should be given equal opportunities with men for vocational and professional training
39. Married women should struggle against enslavement by domestic obligations
40. A mother’s authority as regards to the children should be equivalent to that of the father's
41. Women should not be expected to subordinate their careers to home duties to any greater extent than men
42. A married women has an equal right with her husband to work outside the home
43. Under modern economic conditions, involving women out- side the home, men should share in household tasks such as washing dishes
44. The ideal marriage is one in which the husband and wife share equally in housework and outside work
45. A father should spend just as much time taking care of the children as does the mother

Power in the home
46. As head of the household the father should have final authority over his children
47. The husband should be regarded as the legal representative of the family group in all matters of law
48. The man should “wear the pants” in the family
49. A husband has the right to expect his wife be obliging and dutiful at all times
50. In general the father should have greater authority than the mother in the bringing up of children
51. The husband should be favored by law in the disposal of family property or income
52. A mother’s authority as regards the children should be equivalent to that of the father’ s

*Certain items are reverse scored

Response Options:
I agree a little - 1
I agree on the whole - 2
I agree very much - 3
I disagree a little - -1
I disagree on the whole - -2
I disagree very much - -3

Scoring Procedures

Ratings for each respondent are converted to a 7 point scale by adding a constant of +4 to each response. No response and responses between +1 and -1 are assigned a score of 4. Higher scores indicate higher support for equality.

Original Citation

MacDonald, J. A. P. (1976). Identification and measurement of multidimensional attitudes toward equality between the sexes. Journal of Homosexuality, 1(2), 165-182. https://doi.org/10.1300/J082v01n02_02


Psychometric Score

Ease of Use Score

Scoring breakdown

Formative Research

Qualitative Research

Existing Literature/Theoretical Framework

Field Expert Input

Cognitive Interviews / Pilot Testing

Reliability

Internal

Test-retest

Interrater

Validity

Content

Face

Criterion (gold-standard)

Construct

KEY

Ease of Use

Readability

Scoring Clarity

Length

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