The Relationship of Emotio-Sexual Orientation in Females to Androgyny & Social Self-Esteem

The research on sex-role development, psychological androgyny, and personality variables in lesbian women was reviewed. Since previous research suggested that lesbian women tend to have characteristics which might be labelled androgynous, a study was undertaken to assess the presence of androgyny among lesbian and heterosexual women and to cross-validate the findings on the relationship between androgyny and self-esteem. In order to assess sex-role classification, the PRF-Andro Scale was administered to 30 lesbian and 30 heterosexual women. The Texas Social Behavior Inventory was used to measure self-esteem. Results showed that a significantly greater proportion of the lesbians were androgynous, and a significantly smaller proportion were feminine as compared to heterosexual women. No differences were found in the proportion of either group classified as masculine and indeterminate. A complex relationship was found between samples, sex -role classification, and self-esteem. An attempt was made to integrate and interpret the results of this study. Suggestions were made for future research in this area