Egalitarian sex role attitudes: Scale development and comparison of American and Japanese women

The English Form of the Scale of Egalitarian Sex Role Attitudes was administered to 238 American women after the original Japanese Form was developed and administered to 420 Japanese women. The results reveal that the English Form has a potential for use as a measurement of American women's sex role attitudes. The results of cross-cultural comparisons suggest that American women have more egalitarian attitudes than their Japanese counterparts. However, they have basically similar attitudes toward more general egalitarian values. Among the four roles of "woman," "wife," "mother," and "person," the majority of the American women choose "person" as the most important role, whereas the Japanese women do not claim any clear dominant role. But the results show that the Japanese women's attitudes toward women's roles have become more egalitarian and individualistic during the past two decades.