Women and self-efficacy : a comparison of lesbian, heterosexual, androgynous, and feminine typed women

This study examined lesbian women in comparison to heterosexual women across the constructs of gender-role identity and general self-efficacy. The measurements employed in this research design included the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) (Bem, 1978) and the Sherer Self-Efficacy Scale (Sherer, Maddux, Mercandante, Prentice, Dunn, Jacobs, and Rogers, 1982); sexual orientation was assessed through self-identification. As predicted, general self-efficacy levels varied statistically between feminine and androgynous gender typed women, as assessed by the BSRI, with the highest scores being observed among females classified as androgynous. Support was not found for the hypothesis that heterosexual and lesbian women would differ at a statistically significant level in their general self-efficacy scores and no interaction was found to be present between these variables as assessed by Factorial ANOVA. Finally, in contrast to my research question, the BSRI did appear to classify participants in gender role categories that statistically corresponded to their self-identified gender roles at a degree greater than chance. Despite these findings, the low significance level points to a further need to re-examine the current usefulness of the Bem Sex Role Inventory in measuring and classifying the construct of gender identity.