Attitudes; Undergraduate Students IDENTIFIERS Bem Sex Role Inventory; *Femininity; *Masculinity

Noting inadequacies in previous conceptualizations of gender, a study analyzed students ' descriptions of persons they identify as masculine or feminine and of situations in which these persons and the students themselves seem more or less feminine or masculine. Subjects, 83 male and 100 female undergraduate students in communication or psychology courses at a Mid-Atlantic suburban university or a liberal arts college in a small midwestern town, offered up to eight characteristics of the most feminine and the most masculine person they knew, whether that person ever seemed more or less feminine or more or less masculine, and rated themselves using the Bem Sex Role Inventory. Respondents identified gender as characteristics of persons, but also understood it as something that varied according to interaction partners and focus of activities. Responses show differences in how femininity and masculinity ar