The Comparison of Women's Self Confidence in Base of Gender Role

• Published in: Procedia, social and behavioral sciences social and behavioral sciences, 2015-06, Vol.191, p.2285-2290
• Main Authors: Jahanbakhsh, Samane, Jomehri, Farhad, Mujembari, Adis Kraskian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Androgyny; Gender roles; Gender stereotypes; Self-confidence
• ISSN: 1877-0428; 1877-0428
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.573

This research is conducted to compare women's self-confidence according to their sex role and investigate whether women of Androgyny sex role have the highest level of self-confidence among the others. It is inevitable that a society needs contribution from both women and men on the pathway to development where men and women nowadays try to re-establish new meanings for traditional gender stereotypes and question their perceptions towards gender based behavior. Sandra Bem introduced the concept of Androgyny in order to overcome cultural stereotypes of men and women. In this research, a random sample of 350 working women from the total number of 494,315 working women in Tehran has been selected to make an assessment of their level of self-confidence using Sandra Bem Sex-Role Inventory and Bernreuter's Multi-Scale Personality questionnaires. All subjects have been selected randomly from different geographical locations in Tehran and different occupational categories with ages between 18 – 65 years old. The research data have been analyzed using statistical data analysis of variance, Pearson correlation, regression, and stepwise multivariate linear regression analysis. ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and multivariate linear regression analysis showed that women's self-confidence could differ as a result of their gender roles. In other words, gender roles may be used as a predictor of women's self-confidence. The analysis of the gathered data showed that 30% of the subjects were of Androgyny, 26.9% of non-distinct, and 22% of subjects were of female sexual role while 21% had male sexual role. Hence, the research revealed that the women of Androgyny Sex-Role do not have the highest level of self-confidence among the others. In fact, the level of self-confidence in Androgyny women was lower than those with female sexual role and non-distinct, and only higher than those who had male sexual role.