Abstract
This study was designed to examine the influence of sex and gender role orientation on adoption of the ethic of care and on postconventional reasoning in married men and women, with and without children. Parental status was unrelated to gender role orientation in men but was associated with masculinity in women, such that women with children had lower masculinity scores. Adoption of an ethic of care in men was a function of gender role orientation, such that only androgynous men did not evidence lower caring scores when they had children. Caring scores in women were a function of both parental status and masculinity, such that women with children who were high in masculinity evidenced lower caring scores. Postconventional reasoning as assessed by P scores on three dilemmas from the Defining Issues Test (DIT) were only influenced by sex and age but not by gender role orientation. Postconventional reasoning as assessed by ratings of all postconventional statements (R scores) was influenced by both sex and gender role orientation; in men, masculinity and femininity interacted such that androgynous and undifferentiated men evidenced higher R scores when they had no children, but only androgynous men with children evidenced high R scores. In women, gender role orientation did not impact R scores and neither did parental status. Multiple regressions indicated that for women, the interaction of masculinity and femininity, and caring scores, accounted for a significant amount of the variance in R scores. In men, none of the variables entered the equation. The implications for both Gilligan’s and Bem’s theories are discussed.
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Notes
Israeli students are generally in their 20s when they start their studies because the majority of 18 year olds of both genders are conscripted into the Israeli army; men serve a minimum of 3 years and women serve a minimum of 2 years. In addition, many of those who subsequently go to university do not do so immediately after leaving the army; they take a year off to travel, work, or do university preparation courses. Hence, Israeli undergraduate students are often married when they start their university studies, and the majority are married by the time they finish them. As well, Israeli society is highly family-oriented; it has the highest fertility rates among the developed countries (United Nations, 1997), almost no couples choose to remain childless, and it has the highest rate of IVF (in vitro fertilization) in the world (Eshre Capri Workshop Group, 2001). Hence, those students who are married and childless have generally chosen to temporarily delay having children.
Rest et al. (e.g., Rest et al., 1997; Rest, Narvaez, Thoma, & Bebeau, 1999) have recently started to use a new measure, called N2, which is essentially the same as P scores, with an adjustment that takes into account the standard deviations within the ratings assigned to the stages. It is computed as:
$$ P + 3 * {\left( {{\left[ {{\left( {{\text{Mean}}\,{\text{of}}\,{\text{Stage}}\,2 + 3} \right)} - {\left( {{\text{Mean}}\,{\text{of}}\,{\text{Stage}}\,5 + 6} \right)}} \right]}{\left[ {{\text{S}}{\text{.}}\,{\text{D}}.{\left( {{\text{stage}}2} \right)} + {\text{S}}{\text{.}}\,{\text{D}}{\text{.}}{\left( {{\text{stage}}3} \right)} + {\text{S}}{\text{.}}\,{\text{D}}{\text{.}}{\left( {{\text{stage}}5} \right)} + {\text{S}}{\text{.}}\,{\text{D}}{\text{.}}{\left( {{\text{stage}}6} \right)}} \right]}} \right)} $$They suggested using N2 because it predicts differences between criterion groups somewhat better than P. In our data, the correlation between P and N2 was r = .98, p < .001. But this new measure disadvantages women because, if they rate both post-conventional and conventional items the same way, which they would do if they use both justice concerns and care concerns, then the numerator in the adjustment to P is close to 0; this would not be a problem for men because they would rate the post-conventional items as higher. Consequently, the appropriate way of comparing postconventional reasoning in men and women is to compare actual ratings of postconventional items, which is what the R score represents.
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Karniol, R., Ekbali, G.BA. & Vashdi, D.R. The Impact of Parental Status and Gender Role Orientation on Caring and Postconventional Reasoning in Young Marrieds. Sex Roles 56, 341–350 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9173-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9173-1