That might be a difficult, even embarrassing question to ask yourself (or even more so, someone else.) I happen to know just how masculine and feminine I am, according the Bem Sex Role Inventory. Those of you who know me might not be surprised to learn my score:
Masculinity = 61
Male students
Female students
Femininity = 46
Male students
Female students
I’m more masculine than the average male college student, and less feminine than most female students, true, but also less feminine than the mean male college student!
What does this mean? It means that I am psychologically androgynous, and physically female. You can check where your sex role falls on the gender spectrum at this link: BSRI – short form .
I recently presented Gender Differences in Creative Thinking, along with Doug Stevenson (who incidentally had almost the opposite BSRI score as mine.) I wanted to share those slides and my research with all of you, and i’d love to consider how our innate differences make us who we are and aren’t and how it affects out creativity and what we need to be creative. Here’s the power point presentation. I added a bit, so you could follow without a presenter. (Sorry I couldn’t be there for you.) It’s about 30 slides and lays out the innate differences between men and women – neurologically, biologically and developmentally. Take a peek, and comment! or FB me. i’d love to start the open dialogue.
This assessment was created in the 1970’s by Dr. Bem to figure out exactly how many sex roles there are? In the binary system, i am a woman – 100%. My co-presenter male. 100%. But we both tested in the center of the gender spectrum. Psychological Androgyny – which means high in both masculine and feminine attributes – is the greatest predictor of creativity. The people who are at either end of the spectrum – strongly associated with the roles and attributes linked to their gender – are less likely to be inherently creative. They may need more encouragement, tools and permission to access their creativity.
The binary system and sex identifications we all know don’t suffice, and don’t serve us anymore. We have more differences among women, or among men, than we have between men and women. AND, the men and women in the center of the gender spectrum might learn to recognize each other and seek each other out to create powerfully and magically.