Sex-Typing of Leisure Activities:
A Test of Two Theories
Presented to ACR 2003, Toronto ON
• George M. Zinkhan, University of Georgia
• Penelope Prenshaw, Millsaps College
• Angeline Grace Close, University of Georgia
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Leisure as Consumption
Consumption and tourist behavior is a
salient aspect of tourism Hoch (2002).
Purpose:
Study the relationship between gender
schema and leisure activities
Test rival predictions about gender schema
Test competing theories: Bem (1981) v.s.
Spence (1984)
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Research Questions
• Does one gender sex-type leisure activities
to a greater extent than the other?
• What are the predictors of sex typing?
• Which of the two competeting theories best
explains sex-typing of leisure activities?
3
Literature Review
• Differences exist in leisure behavior
between men and women.
• Gender ideologies structure perceptions of
leisure.
• Are bases of differences are biological
and/or the result of socialization
experiences ?
4
Hypotheses
• H1: Men are more likely to sex-type leisure
activities than women.
• H2: “Masculine” men and “feminine” women, as
defined by the Bem Sex Role Inventory, are more
likely to sex-type leisure activities than are men
and women with nontraditional gender-role
attitudes.
• H3: Men and women with traditional gender-role
attitudes will label leisure activities as either
“more masculine” or “more feminine”.
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Gender
• Sociological concept referring to a category
scheme
• Mutually exclusive categories (Sherif 1982)
• Cultural definitions of appropriate male or
female behavior (Henderson 1989)
• Masculinity-femininity dimension
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Sex-Typing
Sex typing: societal transformation:
male masculine
female feminine
{Masculine---------Non-Sex Typed---------Feminine}
• defined within specific cultures
• role assignments
• Sex-specific personality attributes
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Competing Theories
Sex-typing of leisure activities is related to
two individual difference measures:
• Gender personality (Bem 1981)
• Gender-role attitudes (Spence 1984)
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Bem’s (1981) Unifactorial Gender
Schema Theory
• Bem links notions of sex-typing to gender
schemata.
• Proposes that sex-typed individuals have a greater
readiness to engage in gender-schematic
processing (i.e., a network of sex-linked
associations that organizes and guides an
individual’s perceptions).
• Non-sex-typed individuals=aschematic individuals
relatively unresponsive to stereotypically
masculine and feminine cues when processing
information.
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Bem’s Theory Operationalized
• (BSRI)
• Self-report measure
• Individuals can be classified into one of three
categories:
• (a) masculine sex-typed
• (b) feminine sex-typed
• (c) non-sex-typed
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Spence’s (1984) Multi-factorial
Theory of Gender Identity
• Opposes Bem’s view
• Emerging sense of gender identity stimulates
adoption of gender-stereotyped behaviors/beliefs
• Once gender identity is firmly established, other
factors (i.e., gender role attitudes) protect/confirm
sense of gender identity
• Variables leading to individual differences=
situational factors, internal dispositions, attitudes
toward maintaining traditional gender role
distinctions, personal preferences, and perceptions
(realistic or unrealistic) of the consequences of
acting in certain ways.
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Spence’s (1984) Multi-factorial
Theory of Gender Identity, cont.
Variables leading to individual differences:
• situational factors
• internal dispositions
• attitudes toward maintaining traditional gender
role distinctions
• personal preferences
• perceptions (realistic or unrealistic) of the
consequences of acting in certain ways
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Method
• 271 R’s (2 samples)
• Mailed to 200 Adult Girl Scout Council
Members
• Administered to business students
• Rs are provided with a list of 75 leisure
activities
• List derived from past taxonomies of
participation
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Leisure Activities Tested
Some of the 75 activities include:
Media Related Activities
Sports
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Sex-typing Measures
• 7 point scale
• asked to indicate whether they felt the activity
was:
extremely masculine neutral extremely feminine
/------------/------------/-----------/-----------/------------/
somewhat in between
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Gender Role Attitude Measures
• Attitudes Toward Women Scale (Spence and
Helmreich 1978)
• 15 item instrument of statements describing the
rights, roles, and privileges women ought to have
or be permitted to have
• Agreement with each statement on a 4-point scale
from “agree strongly” to “disagree strongly”
• Low scores= more traditional, conservative
attitude toward gender roles
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Measures
Masculinity-Femininity:
Personal attribute questionnaire
(Spence and Helmreich and Stapp 1975)
a) M-scale: 8 items describing characteristics
descriptive of masculine personality traits
b) F-scale: 8 items describing qualities more
characteristic of feminine personality traits
• Respondents indicated on a 5-point scale the
extent to which each phrase describes him or her
• summed M score and a F score for each
• Sex-typed individuals score high on one sexual
dimension & low on the other
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Regression
• determine the degree of sex-typing
• OLS
• Sex Typing = f (Biological Sex, GenderRole Attitudes, Gender Identity)
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Findings
Neutral (i.e., not sex-typed by > half of the sample):
• many leisure activities are not sex-typed.
• 33 were identified as neutral (greater than 50% of
the sample).
• Neutrality found of media-related: watching TV,
listening to the music, going to movies, renting
movies and reading magazines
• outdoor activities: jogging, bicycling, playing
tennis and swimming.
• individual activities: reading a book for pleasure,
taking a nap, and doing crossword puzzles
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Findings
Masculine (i.e., sex-typed by >half of the sample):
• Requiring physical activity (e.g., playing football,
playing basketball, working out at a gym)
• Outdoor activities (e.g., hunting, fishing,
canoeing)
• Passive activities (reading newspapers, taking a
nap)
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Findings
Feminine (i.e., sex-typed by > half of the
sample):
• Sewing, aerobics, shopping, cooking,
talking on the phone
• Cultural activities (e.g., attendance at the
ballet, opera and theater plays, visiting art
museums, playing the piano, and painting or
drawing)
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Findings
Masculine (i.e., sex-typed by > half of the
sample):
• Sports (participating and viewing) (e.g.,
football, basketball, billiards, golf, skiing)
• Outdoor (e.g., hunting, fishing, camping,
hiking, archery, rafting, canoeing, sailing)
• Woodworking, collecting
• Games (e.g., chess, checkers, cards)
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Findings
• Higher proportion of males sex-typed leisure
activities for both sexes
• Chi-square tests: the sex difference was
statistically significant (p< .05) for most
masculine-typed activities (23 of 28)
• Greater consensus between the sexes for the
feminine-typed activities
• More females identified more as neutral
(Significant (p < .05) for 48 of the activities sextyped as “either”)
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Findings
• We do not find support for Bem’s (1981)
theory
• We do find partial support for Spence’s
(1984) theory
• Males sex-type leisure activities to a greater
extent than females
• Sex and gender-role attitudes are
significant (p < .05) predictors of sex-typing
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Conclusions
• Relationship exists between gender schema and
sex-typing of leisure (consumption) activities
• Brings competing psychological (e.g., Bem) and
sociological (e.g., Spence) theories into a
consumer behavior perspective
• We find that leisure activities, as a subset of
consumption experiences, may be sex-typed-especially by males.
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Changing Roles
• As gender roles change in society, these
patterns may change.
• “Appropriate” roles less defined
• Women: hunt, bet on football games
• Men: knit, fine arts performances
• Fostering an androgynous society
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Further Research
Test gender theory via:
• Tourists’ consumption habits (and other
patterns) of natives
• “Hotspots” or experimental experiences
• Is the Internet a leisure activity that may be
sex-typed? Implications?
• Expand activities (e.g., online gaming,
Kazaa, fantasy sports, chat, IM, e-dating)
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Thank you!
• Please refer to tables 1-3
Dr. Zinkhan and I welcome your
feedback/questions!
• aclose@terry.uga.edu
• gzinkhan@terry.uga.edu
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