Revision:Bem - Gender Schema Theory

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Bem's Gender Schema Theory represents, for Bem, an advance on her BSRI. She suggests that the position of an individual on the scales of masculine and feminine traits represents the extent to which that individual is willing to use gender as a lens on the world - i.e., the extent to which gender is a an important factor in the way that they interact.

As such, whereas the BSRI distinguished between the sex-typed and androgynous, Gender Schema Theory classifies people into two groups - those who are gender schematic, and those who are gender aschematic.

Someone who is gender schematic will be more aware of people who deviate from their socially constructed gender role. They will also treat people according to their sex.

Criticism

Spence and Helmrich (1981) criticise the premise of Gender Schema Theory. BSRI was meant to measure the masculine and feminine traits of an individual. To try to adapt it to measure a completely different variable, that of schematic processing, seems flawed.

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