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This paper presents the development of the Japanese Gender Role Index (JGRI) and Japanese men's and women's self-ratings on the scale. Two hundred ninety-six Japanese words that describe masculine and feminine characteristics were gathered. Examination of endorsements by 200 Japanese participants indicated 66 items as socially desirable characteristics for either men or women in the society. The validation process, including social desirability ratings, factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis, identified 2 subscales with 10 items for each. Internal consistency and the means and standard deviations of social desirability ratings for the subscales were also examined. Self-ratings on the JGRI by 423 Japanese participants showed that there was no significant difference between men and women on feminine and masculine characteristics. It was also found that both men and women possessed an equivalent amount of masculine and feminine characteristics.
KEY WORDS: gender roles: Japanese; masculinity; femininity.
Gender stereotypes are products of cultures. The idea of cultural difference in gender roles has been supported by numerous studies (Basow, 1984; Chia, Moore, Lam, Chuang, & Cheng, 1994; Lara-Cantu & Navarro-Arias, 1987; Moore, 1999; Novakovic & Kidd, 1988, Ward & Sethi, 1986; Williams, Satterwhite, & Best, 1999). For example, a study of the Personal Attitudes Questionnaire (PAQ; Spence & Helmreich 1978) with Fiji high school and college students (Basow, 1984) showed a small percentage of gender-typed individuals and a minimal difference in gender-typing patterns between the sexes. Similar findings were reported in a study done in Yugoslavia in which a high percentage of the undifferentiated types were found among university students (Novakovic & Kidd, 1988).
Gender stereotypes change over the years along with societal changes. Studies of occupational choices by boys and girls have demonstrated that boys selected a greater variety of occupations than did girls in the beginning of the 1970s. Popular occupations for girls in the 1970s were teaching and nursing, whereas boys selected a wide variety of occupations (Looft, 1971; Siegel, 1973). A shift slowly occurred in the late 1970s and 1980s. By then, there was no difference between boys and girls on number of occupations selected (Kriedberg, Butcher, & White, 1978; MacKay & Miller, 1982; O'Keefe & Hyde, 1983). In the 1990s, researchers reported a reversal of the original situation, with girls selecting more...