This Article Full Text (OnlineFirst PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Smiler, A. P. Articles by Kubotera, N. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Instrumental or Expressive? Heterosexual Men's Expectations of Women in Two Contexts

Wake Forest University

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: smiler{at}oswego.edu.

	Abstract

Contextualized studies of gender have been published, but these studies typically compare men and women in a single context. In this study, we examined men’s expectations for women across two interpersonal contexts, dating and the workplace, with particular attention to the gender-related traits of expressiveness and instrumentality. Data were provided by eighty-seven unmarried, heterosexual young adult males. Significant differences were found for trait preference as a function of context, with young men reporting stronger preference for expressive traits in the romantic context and stronger preference for instrumental traits in the work context. Contextual differences became nonsignificant when egalitarian beliefs were added to the model. Discussion focuses on the importance of context for understanding gender.

First published on August 25, 2009
Men and Masculinities 2009, doi:10.1177/1097184X09337112


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?