Measuring Gender Specific Perceptions of Gender-Neutral Behavior

Measuring Gender Specific Perceptions of Gender-Neutral Behavior

Past research on breaking gender norms, descriptive and prescriptive gender norms, and gender specific sports have all neglected gender-neutral behavior. The objective of the study is to investigate perception of gender-neutral scenarios as gender specific. Forty participants (24 women and 16 men) were recruited in academic lobbies of Nova Southeastern University. In a survey, participants rated the masculinity, femininity, manliness, and gender equity of gender-neutral, sports-related scenarios performed by either a male or female actor. Both men and women rated gender-neutral acts as more masculine if a man was the actor and more feminine if a woman was the actor. An interaction between participant gender and actor gender was found for ratings of masculinity, such that men rated acts performed by male actors as less masculine than acts performed by female actors and women rated acts performed by female actors as less masculine than acts performed by male actors. This implies that people view gender- neutral activities as gender specific based on the gender of the person performing the activity and view their own gender as less masculine in gender-neutral scenarios. These findings may contribute to our understanding of how descriptive and prescriptive gender norms are formed and reinforced.