Development and Validation of a Sex-Role Ideology Scale

Abstract

Two studies are reported in which a scale measuring sex-role ideology was constructed, validated and cross-validated. Sex-role ideology was conceived as a system of sex-role beliefs forming a dimension with a traditional and a feminist pole. From an initial pool of 82 statements, 30 were selected that best discriminated between criterion groups of traditional and feminist women and that represented the heterogeneous content of sex roles. Half of the items are phrased in a feminist and half in a traditional direction. The scale was then cross-validated with new criterion groups. The internal consistency of the scale was shown through item-total correlations and split-half reliability (median r = .79). The test-retest reliability was .87.