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dissertation entitled

MALE ATTITUDES TOWARD EQUALITY BETWEEN THE SEXES AND
DESIRED ALLOCATION OF CHILD-REARING TASKS

presented by

Frederick Lehman Hinebaugh

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Ph.D. degreein Family and Child Ecology

 

 

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OHPO

 

Date May 28, 1982

 

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MALE ATTITUDES TOWARD EQUALITY BETWEEN THE SEXES AND
DESIRED ALLOCATION OF CHILD-REARING TASKS

By

Frederick Lehman Hinebaugh

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Family and Child Ecology

1982

 

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Pa

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thi.

ABSTRACT

MALE ATTITUDES TOWARD EQUALITY BETWEEN THE SEXES AND
DESIRED ALLOCATION OF CHILD-REARING TASKS

By

Frederick Lehman Hinebaugh

The movement toward greater sexual symmetry in the commitment
to child care is one of the beneficial changes to emerge from the
turbulence of the last two decades. One result of this social ethic
has been greater male time-use of child-care tasks. This investiga-
tion attempted to assess the relationship between male gender role
attitudes and variations in desired commitment to the tasks of child
rearing.

Two instruments were presented. MacDonald's Sex Role Survey
(1974), a Likert-like scale of statements, was used to measure four
aspects of male attitudes on equality between the sexes. The second
instrument provided a measurement of desired time-use variations for
the tasks of child rearing. This scale was devised as a modification
of an interview format originally developed by Sharon Price-Bonham and
Patsy Skeen (1979). Hypotheses were tested by Pearson coefficients,
transformed into 2 scores by means of a Fisher transformation of r.

Across the presented child-rearing tasks, the group was com-
mitted to 47 percent of the dyad's child-care investment. However,

this figure reflected a hidden high desirability for traditional male

Frederick Lehman Hinebaugh

commitments in child care and significantly less desirability for the
more direct, highly interactive, traditionally female child-rearing
roles. As individual support for equality between the sexes increased,
there was a correlationally significant decrease in the time committed
to the traditional male roles and a significant increase in the com-
mitment to the least desirable, traditionally female roles. Support
for equality between the sexes was significantly related to a shrink-
ing of extreme, desired time-use variations. This male sample con-
fronted the issue of child-rearing commitments from a position of
general sexual-equality beliefs, with correlational significance for
attitudes concerned specifically with equality in business and the
professions as well as sex-appropriate behavior as traditionally

defined.

For Jane Ellen:

friend, love, teacher, and student.

ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

No endeavor of this nature is possible without the coopera-
tion and support of others. The writer wishes to acknowledge the
contributions of those who helped make this doctoral experience,
including this investigation, possible.

I would like to thank all the members of my graduate commit-
tee: Dr. Lillian Phenice, Dr. Beatrice Paolucci, Dr. Larry Schiam-
berg, Dr. Shirley Knapman, and Dr. Julia Falk. Particular gratitude
is due Dr. Lillian Phenice for her support and guidance as chairper-
son of this doctoral program.

The investigation took on a depth, not otherwise possible,
due to the contributions of the following people: Dr. Paul Fuller
and Dr. M. Harrison of the Department of Social Science, Muskegon
County Community College, and Peggy Jenson, Director of the Western
Michigan Chapter of the National Organization of Women.

Special recognition is required for friends who have remained
supportive throughout this investigation, Dr. Marilyn Nagy, Dr. Gertrude
Nygren, and Jean Page, as has the support, love, and encouragement of
my wife, Jane Ellen McNamara, and parents, Lillian and Lehman Hinebaugh,

and Jean and Joseph McNamara.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF TABLES ........................ vi
Chapter

I. INTRODUCTION ..................... 1

General Area of Concern ............... 1

Need for the Study ................. 4

Purpose and Procedure ................ 5

Hypotheses ..................... 7

Assumptions for the Investigation .......... 8

Definition of Terms ................. 9

Conceptual Framework ................ ll

II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ............... 17

Overview ...................... 17

Gender Role as an Area of Focus ........... l8

Male Gender-Role Perspectives ............ 21

The Social Ecology ................. 25

Transcending Asymmetrical Role Responses ...... 28

A Redistribution of Priorities .......... 28

Equality in Business and Market Roles ....... 30

Equality in Social and Domestic Tasks ....... 32

Support for Equality in Sex-Appropriate Behavior . 35

Power Equality in the Household .......... 36

Egalitarian Child Rearing as a Paternal Response . . 38

III. METHODOLOGY ...................... 43

Objective ...................... 43

Hypotheses ..................... 43

Human-Subject Approval ............... 46

Subjects ...................... 46

Instrumentation ................... 47

Order of Events ................... 49

Control of Variance ................. 50

iv

Page

IV. RESULTS ......................... 52
Paternal Role Characteristics ............. 52
Personal Preparations for Fatherhood ......... 53
Sex Role Survey .................... 53
Paternal Allocation of Child-Rearing Tasks ...... 54
Hypotheses ...................... 56

Hypothesis I .................... 57
Hypothesis II .................... 57
Hypothesis III ................... 58
Hypothesis IV .................... 58
Hypothesis V .................... 58
Child-Rearing Task Relationships to Gender-Identity
Components ..................... 58

V. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, DISCUSSION, AND IMPLICATIONS . . . 65

Summary ................. - ....... 65
Conclusions of This Investigation ........... 68
Limitations of the Study ............... 7l

Social Implications of This Study ........... 72
Implications for Research ............... 74
Reflections ...................... 8l
APPENDICES ........................... 84
A. INVESTIGATION CONSENT FORM ............... 85

B. QUESTIONNAIRE BOOKLET .................. 87

C. RAN DATA ........................ 95
REFERENCE LIST ......................... 98

Table

boom

01

IO.

ll.

C-l.
C-2.

LIST OF TABLES

Paternal Role Characteristics of the Sample .......
Personal Preparations for the Future Role of Fatherhood . .

Sex Role Survey: Sample Means, Variance, and Ranges . . . .

Participation as Father Scale: Means, Variance, and

Ranges ........................

Child-Rearing Task Allocations Ranked by Sample Mean

Statistical Relationship Between Sex Role Survey

Components and Participation as Father Scale Totals . . .

Correlational Relationship: Child-Rearing Tasks and

Sex Role Survey Totals ................

Correlational Relationship: Child-Rearing Tasks and

Equality in Business and the Professions .......

Correlational Relationship: Child-Rearing Tasks and

Equality in Sex Appropriate Behavior .........

Correlational Relationship: Child-Rearing Tasks and

Equality in Social-Domestic Work ...........

Correlational Relationship: Child-Rearing Tasks and

Equality in Power in the Home .............

Sex Role Survey: Subject Scores and Totals .......

Participation as Father Scale: Subject Ratings and

Totals .................... . . . . .

vi

Page
52
53
54

55
56

57

59

60

61

63

64
96

97

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

General Area of Concern

A radical change in household time-use is going to be required
for greater symmetry in child rearing. A growing minority of fathers
already interact extensively with their children and perceive greater
rewards in activities related to their development. According to
Baumrind (1980), this is one of the most beneficial changes to emerge
from the transformational turbulence of the 19605.

The question of the necessary conditions for male change in
child-care commitments is one of great relevance. Actual male
behavior is the result of emerging attitudes, beliefs, and values,
as well as the complex communication and negotiation patterns between
spouses. The extent to which a male is willing to participate in
child care is a reflection of this reference framework. Even into
the 19805, very little has been done to investigate particular gender—
related variations, relative to child rearing, though it might prove
to be of critical value (MacDonald, l974).

The traditional American male has been regarded intuitively
as a distal figure in the mainstream of family life (Dubbert, l979).
Until recently, men in our industrialized culture neither actively
sought nor assumed equal responsibility for the rearing of children.
According to Baumrind (l980), this avoidance of many child-rearing

l

roles and minimal time-use in general has been perpetuated by men
themselves, for "if men don't rear children, it is not because they
can't, but because they don't want to and have the power to perpetu-
ate the asymmetrical organization of parental responsibilities"

(p. 645).

Every dyadic pattern in the social organization of marriage,
and its child-rearing subcomponent, is the result of the systematic
process of interpersonal mutualization, according to Benson (1968).
Within this perspective, the satisfactory arrangement of a couple's
activities after marriage and during child rearing is based on some
degree of consensus over family affairs and individual task time-use.
Mutualization is the process that provides the parameters for routines
by which activities become interdependent and coordinated.

The broad geographic separation of the household from other
microeconomic systems has only recently emerged within the historical
span of the industrialization of social organizations (Oakley, l974).
According to Bem (T974), this household isolation may also be corre-
lated with attitudes supporting a bipolar distribution of gender
roles, a similar discrepancy in rituals and routines, as well as a
time-use curve of roles highly skewed by gender. The American dyad's
contract of roles and routines has been established within a context
optimizing the separation of the dyad in this manner.

Child rearing could be one basis for a male's gender identity.
According to Baumrind (l98l),

For equal control in family affairs, the father could, in

addition to sharing in all aspects of care for the children
when he is at home, share the responsibilities for organizing

child care and household chores as to enable his wife to fulfill
her vocational responsibilities to the same extent that he is
able to fulfill his. (p. 53l)
Adult household roles related to child care provide for direct daily
maintenance, the transmission of survival skills, and the acquisi-
tion of personal role styles. These are the practical, everyday
resources needed to keep the individual and his/her social world
intact.

Regardless of gender, a multitude of roles exist within the
household system and domestic space (Price-Bonham & Skeen, 1979).
The primary roles of an individual within the household are that of
production, development, and maintenance of human individuals as
transactors for need gratification. Child-rearing tasks may be con-
sidered as the process of directing household roles to the need
gratification of the child. According to Price-Bonham and Skeen
(l979), roles within the child-rearing process include reading,
laundry, feeding, washing, cleaning, changing diapers, giving baths,
disciplining, putting children to bed, and interacting with children.

Symmetrical child rearing would be a radical change in the
mutualization base of the American family. Yet certain family roles
were more egalitarian in preindustrial, agrarian contexts. If we
presently believe in no longer condoning second-class status for
women in general and mothers in particular in the world at large,
we can no longer condone, as well, second-class status for fathers
with their children. According to Hoffman and Teyber (T981),

"Fathers, as well as mothers, must be supported in their moral

obligations for their child, and both can be equally effective care-

givers" (p. 530).

Need for the Study

Human existence is role centered. The investment of time in
the numerous need-gratifying roles is limited by the finite nature
of human time. Due to this, individuals must seek to maximize their
investment based on their socialized perceptions of the power and
resources found through selected roles. The subjective nature of the
emerging ideology of equality has made it difficult to describe the
resulting social artifacts. Greater sexual symmetry in child care,
as one artifact, implies greater perceived utility on the part of
the male in the roles of child care.

The incorporation of an ideology of equality appears to be
essential for egalitarian allocations of child-rearing tasks.
According to Zilbertgeld (1978), conventional ideologies and role
distributions have become both impractical and destructive. Greater
involvement by males in every child-rearing role may provide an
indicator for the emerging ideology of role symmetry. Further clari-
fication of the relationship between attitudes relative to gender
role equality and desired allocation patterns in child care is war-
ranted. A broader understanding of male perspectives may be one
prerequisite to understanding symmetrical mutualization contracts
for child rearing.

Symmetrical child rearing is a paternal as well as maternal

phenomenon. While the effects of the father upon the socialization

of children has been well documented (Fitzgerald & McGreal, 1981),
little research is presently available in the area of the male's
attitude foundation for the selection of pattern roles. Time-use

in gender roles for the male is beginning to emerge as an important
and legitimate complementary topic to female gender roles and iden-
tity. As the modern male response emerges, its elements increasingly
represent the expectations and values by which males will evaluate
their behavior (Pleck, 1976). A redefinition of paternal roles is
both inevitable and desirable. Maternal preeminence in this area

is breaking down through expanded paternal consciousness. The issue
of the relationship between male attitudes on equality between the
sexes and level of paternal consciousness has yet to be adequately

resolved.

Purpose and Procedure

 

The investigation was limited to a descriptive approach due
to the preliminary nature of the study and the lack of extensive
historical information on males in this area. The primary purpose
was the identification of factors and relationships that were the
most promising as predictors of male attitudes, desires, and interests
in the areas of child rearing and child-care time-use.

Attitudes concerned with equality between the sexes were
selected as the hypothetical construct to be used as the independent
variable. Scoring was provided through the summation of subcomponents
in a Likert-like scale. The measurement of the second variable was

provided by a Likert-like adaptation, with totals and individual

task means included. Appropriate statistical procedures were insti-
tuted.

Population parameters were narrowed to include only single,
young adult males. Sample selection was from a community-college
population, in the hope that this method would provide greater varia-
bility between subjects than that provided by a university sampling.
Random selection of a sample of 40 subjects was acquired from the
first-year psychology students in this population. Generalizations
were limited to the sample.

The central issue of this investigation was to clarify the
relationship between symmetrical/asymmetrical gender-related attitudes
in the male and variations in the desired allocation patterns for
the time-use of child-rearing tasks. Responses to the following
specific issues were sought:

1. For a sampled group of male respondents, what are the
perceived characteristics of the paternal role?

2. Through what means and activities have a group of sampled
males generally prepared for their future role in child care?

3. Does a relationship exist between gender role-related
attitudes in the male and variations in his desired time-use in
child-care tasks?

4. Is there a relationship between a male's attitudes con-
cerned with gender equality in business and professional activities

and variations in his desired time-use in child-care tasks?

5. Is there a relationship between a male's attitudes
concerned with equality in gender-appropriate behavior as traditionally
defined and variations in his desired time-use in child-care tasks?

6. Is there a relationship between a male's attitudes
concerned with equality in social and domestic work and variations
in his desired time-use in child-care tasks?

7. Is there a relationship between a male's attitudes
concerned with power in the home and variations in his desired time-
use in child-care tasks?

8. Are certain child-rearing tasks more amenable to the
effects of variations in a male's gender-related attitudes than

others?

Hypotheses

 

The following null hypotheses were tested:

Null Hypothesis 1: There is no evidence of a correlational
relationshipretween a male's overall attitudes concerned with
equality between the sexes and his desired time—use for the
tasks of child rearing.

Null Hypothesis II: There is no evidence of a correlational
relationship between a male's attitudes concerned with sexual
equality in business and professional activity and his desired
time-use for the tasks of child rearing.

 

Null Hypothesis III: There is no evidence of a correlational
relationship between a male's attitudes concerned with sexual
equality in traditionally defined sex-appropriate behavior and
his desired time-use for the tasks of child rearing.

 

Null Hypothesis IV: There is no evidence of a correlational
relationship Between a male's attitudes concerned with sexual
equality in social and domestic work and his desired time-use
for the tasks of child rearing.

Null Hypothesis V: There is no evidence of a correlational
relationship’between a male's attitudes concerned with sexual
equality in household power and his desired time—use for the
tasks of child rearing.

A concern for a correlational cancellation effect resulted in
one further consideration for this particular investigation. Pearson
product-moment correlation coefficients were also calculated for
each individual child-rearing task relative to each of the presented

hypotheses.

Assumptions for the Investigation

 

The following assumptions were used:

1. Desired time-use information is critical to an under-
standing of actual performance patterns.

2. Male responses to the allocation of tasks in child care
are essential to an accurate understanding of contractual mutuali-
zations for such tasks.

3. Males vary in their self-perceived utility and desired
time use for the tasks of child care.

4. A Likert-type instrument design is an appropriate method
for collecting information from adult males.

5. The link between gender-related attitudes and desired
time-use in child-care contexts may provide further understanding
of the foundations for behavioral patterns.

6. Single male respondents are less biased by a preexisting
set of negotiations and provide responses free from dyadic influ-

ences .

7. The investments of the male as parent may provide an
accurate point of reference for the description of emerging family

patterns and time-use distributions.

Definition of Terms

 

The following terms are defined in the context in which
they are used in this dissertation:

Desired child-rearing_time-use: The percentage of time an
individual desires to invest in a task relative to one's future
spouse, given the Child's 100 percent level of need. Measured by
the desired Participation as Father Scale, an adaptation of a scale
devised by Price-Bonham and Skeen (l979).

Equality in business and the professions: As measured by the
Equality in Business and the Professions component of MacDonald's
Sex Role Survey (1974).

Equality in household power: As measured by the Equality in

 

Household Power subcomponent of MacDonald's Sex Role Survey (1974).

Equality in sex-appropriate behavior: As measured by the

 

Equality in Sex Appropriate Behavior subcomponent of MacDonald's Sex
Role Survey (1974).

Equality_in social domestic tasks: As measured by the

 

Equality in Social Domestic Tasks subcomponent of MacDonald's Sex
Role Survey (1974).

Gender: The constellation of psychological, social, and
cultural traits which are generally attributed to men and women,

respectively (Kessler & McKenna, 1978).

10

Gender role: The set of expectations regarding behavioral
roles and rituals for an individual based on gender.

Gender-role orientation: The unified psychological phenomena
of an organism's perceptions and responses to gender-attributed
traits as a configurational whole. Measured by the summation of sub-
component scores in MacDonald's Sex Role Survey (1974). An inverse
relationship exists between total Sex Role Survey scores, subcom-
ponents, and support for equality between the sexes.

Mutualization: The coordination of roles and routines within

 

the household and other microeconomic systems of the dyad. The pro-
cess by which parameters for routines become interdependent and
coordinated (Benson, 1968).

Asymmetrical mutualization: Traditionally defined per-

 

petuations of competing power bases in the mutualization contract
of the dyad.

Symmetrical mutualization: The perpetuation of a coopera-

 

tive and shared power base, with an egalitarian distribution within
and among roles and responsibilities in the dyad's mutualization
contract.
3912; The set of prescriptions and proscriptions for action
frames performed to directly or indirectly yield need-gratifying
consequences.

Role utility: The capability to serve as a functional sub-

 

stitute for comparable service and useful production within a framed

action sequence.

ll

Conceptual Framework

Time is the encompassing and limiting resource of the indi-
vidual. To understand accurately the relationship between the alloca-
tion of time and human behavior, it is essential to focus on the
motivators behind action, rather than strictly upon behavior.

With bio-social parameters, every individual is a complex,
social-organizational system that interfaces and transacts with other
individuals for the gratification of needs. While the concepts of
exchange and negotiation are often associated with the objective and
tangible, interpersonal exchanges are often subjective and intangible.
The individual has acquired, through early social learning, many
needs that can only be satisfied by other people.

The interpersonal exchange transaction is an interaction and
transfer of information between individuals. It is interpersonal
communication. Individuals are motivated to acquire information to
successfully interact, transfer information among members, and add
to the information body. The individual's ability to gratify needs
is dependent on intrapersonal power and the nature of each particular
relationship established by the individual and other transactors.
Roles provide a framework for transactions and the investment in
behavior over time. In role-prescribed transactions, accumulated
resources are exchanged or granted for the personal need gratifica-
tion of the individual.

Social exchange perspectives have been criticized for the
implied view of an "economically motivated" man. This is a limited

view of human needs, from an organismic perspective. Human beings

12

are creatures who seek information and reinforcement from others
(Patterson, 1971). They also form transactions based on expected
benefits, costs, and profits (Blau, 1964; Gergen, 1969; Homans, 1961).
Roles are the social reality of personality and are relatively fixed
to contextual situations.

This framework has its foundations in the work of Kantor
(1924, 1933, 1947), Wheeler (1940), Werner (1948), Murphy (1947),
and Rogers (1967). The emphasis of the framework is strongly
directed to:

1. The concepts of behavioral unity, integration, consistency,
and conherence.

2. The view of the organism as an organized system.

3. The belief that the individual is motivated by a self-
actualizing drive.

4. A holistic orientation of the organism with its parts
and environment, with the burden of focus upon the individual.

The framework's ecological nature is based on a strong envi-
ronmental concern. The organism is always in the process of coming
to terms with the environment and its members because the environment
establishes the means for achieving self-actualization as well as the
obstructions, in threats and pressures, which block its realization.

Growth, from the perspective of self-actualizing drives, is
directed at individual needs, behavioral and role completion, order,
integration, and balance. Toward the gratification of higher needs,

according to Cable (1975),

01-wa

13

Every role can be a source of satisfaction of needs or a
block and punishment.

Personal objectives may be framed through self-direction
or external control and manipulation.

Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards asso-
ciated with their achievement.

Under normal conditions, we seek responsibility and control
over our personal objectives.

The intellectual potential of the average human being is
only partially utilized under the conditions of modern
industrial life.

Our primary drive, within this framework, is toward a self-

actualizing goal. Coming to terms with one's environment includes

the negotiations essential to interacting with other organisms in

that context. According to Rogers (1959), interpersonal relationships

and communication require:

1.
2.
3.

A minimal level of willingness on the part of two people

to be in contact.

The ability and minimal level of willingness on the part of
each individual to receive communications and negotiate.

As improvements in the psychological adjustment, function-
ing, and fulfillment occur for both parties, there must be
a tendency toward increased congruency, accuracy, and
understanding in reciprocal communication.

According to LeMasters (1975), in each and every society, one

of the functional imperatives is to evoke some system whereby the

two sexes can communicate, negotiate, and work together for the mutual

gratification of needs. In the context of marriage in general, and

child-rearing in particular, the notion of contractual mutualization

encompasses this communication and negotiation system (Benson, 1968).

It can be readily concluded that the contracting of a satisfactory

arrangement of a dyad's time-use of given roles after marriage needs

to be based on some degree of willingness and ability to communicate

and negotiate in the areas of family and work affairs, as well as on

14

the importance of family life itself (Benson, 1968). It is apparent
that as systems evolve, transformations in personal utility are
likely to occur. The American familial system is in the midst of one
such social transformation into a post-industrial social, psychologi-
cal, and economic system of beliefs.

Our current industrial society continues to organize the
individual's life around commodities--their development, production,
and consumption (Illich, 1978). As a growing minority of individuals
place nonmarketable values at the center of their belief system, a
profound transformation in individual and social images, values, and
needs has emerged (Illich, 1978). This has resulted in increasingly
greater demands placed on interpersonal communications and the
mutualization contracts of the marriage relationship than in the
past (Balswick & Peek, 1971). Greater interpersonal demands are now
being placed on the male, as well as the female, in our social order.

Until recently, long-standing theoretical frameworks employed
in family and child-rearing research have not attached any critical
significance to the many roles of father and to his investment in
child-care-related contracts with his spouse (Tallman, 1965).
Research including the male in the shared roles of marriage has in
the past neglected the male investment in domestic space and proximal
family behavior (Giele, 1975). The anxieties and insecurities of men
concerned with women in the work place have received far greater
attention than male fears and anxieties with regard to the household

and child care (Hoffman & Teyber, 1981).

15

The study of fatherhood is now emerging as a clear and healthy
field. The notion that male goals and needs are only obtainable
through the investment in goods and services is an illusion rein-
forced by a social order producing such commodities. Males do have
established connections with domestic contexts, and yet the self-
actualizing drive of the male has not met with much success within
the domestic context (Dubbert, 1979).

The male's involvement in intimate child-rearing roles has
often been ignored and denied, while asymmetrical time-use of child-
care roles is prolonged. A context optimizing the male's time-use
outside of the household and suppressing the female within domestic
space has long been established in the traditional contract for
families in our society (Oakley, 1974). The traditionally oriented
male tends to maintain and support the asymmetrical allocation of
roles and reinforces the blocks and pressures. This attitude negates
support for equality in roles and routines, as well as in the distri-
bution patterns for time in roles (Quatyman, 1978). If fathers, as
well as mothers, were supported in their obligations for their child,
then both would be equally effective caregivers and perceive the
contextual rewards of their activities (Hoffman & Teyber, 1981).

Child rearing is a natural human response for both males and
females. Males represent the full response range to the issue of
desired time-use in the context of child care. A social lag appears
to exist, however, between legitimacy of all contexts for female
time investments and the expansion of male time-use within domestic

space. Indeed, the time-use patterns of the male as parent may

16

provide an accurate and unique point of reference for investigating
the allocations and actual dyadic divisions over child-rearing tasks.
According to Russell (1978), a male's gender-related attitudes may
be an influential factor in how he will participate in child care.
Research concerned with the paternal role and its determinants is
essential if we are to accurately understand the male role in child
development, family life, and the reciprocal gratification to be

found by the male in time-use for such tasks (Russell, 1978).

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

The literatureinmortantto this study is presented under
the following headings: overview, gender role as an area of focus,
male gender-role perspectives, social ecology, transcending asymmet-
rical role responses, and egalitarian child rearing as a paternal

response.

Overview

Historically, men have specialized in paid labor. Males
continue to lag significantly behind their spouses in hours of house-
hold time-use (Walker & Woods, 1976). Yet, as familial structures
become increasingly diversified, variations in male time—use of the
household are likely to arise. Studies of paternal time-use attitudes
generate distribution standards with which others can compare (Robin-
son, 1977).

An unprecedented number of role alternatives exist as we enter
an era of far greater social, economic, and psychological variability.
To prevent familial dysfunction, an increase in male time-use of
domestic space may be required. Marital success and survival often
depends on the ability of both members to adapt to the numerous sys-

tems classifying and using an individual's abilities. A social lag

17

18

exists between the legitimacy of expanded female time-use outside
the context of family and increased male time-use within this context.
The structure of the modern American family, like all systems,
has been in a constant state of transition. The family, as a social
system, has placed increasingly broader demands on the psycho-social
aspects of mutualization contracts in marital relationships than in
the past (Balswick & Peek, 1971). With industrialization of the cul-
ture, female roles have increasingly focused on the family unit, while
males have functioned at the interface of this system with other
labor-intense, paid-exchange systems (Stoll, 1974). American fathers
have intuitively remained isolated from the mainstream of family life

and function (Dubbert, 1979).

Gender Role as an Area of Focus

 

As a categorical set, social role distinctions have always
been made on the basis of gender. A socialization process may be
defined as acquiring the dominant beliefs, values, motives, and
behaviors of one's culture and gradually becoming similar to other
members of a particular subgroup, based on the culture's categorical
distinctions (Kagan, 1971). Therefore, gender roles are the learned
expectations about the behaviors appropriate for people matching the
criteria set of one gender in a given culture (Kessler & McKenna,
1978). The tendency to seek out socializing parameters appears to
be highly stable from early childhood into adulthood (Mussen, 1962).

Gender-defined roles are common to all societies. According

to Margaret Mead, there has never been a human society that really

19

achieved total sexual equality (LeMasters, 1975). Increasing in
clarity from early childhood, the gender-established behavior of one's
parents is an important factor in establishing appropriate identity
through identification (Kagan, 1971). The process of identification
includes (1) the awareness of shared physical and psychological
attributes, (2) the adoption of the model's attributes, (3) support
from significant others regarding attribute similarities, and (4) the
recognition of fundamental similarities. The emergence of identifica-
tion and discrimination of individuals into distinct gender categories
is facilitated by a variety of clearly discriminating cues: dress,
bodily form, strength, distribution of hair, voice depth, and roles.
The discriminatory ease of significant cues is, in order: physical
attributes, overt behaviors, and covert behaviors.

Personal standards are developed by the desire to identify
with same-gender models, avoid their rejection, gain their rewards,
and acquire their acceptance (Kagan, 1971). Parents, educators, and
peers consciously and unconsciously prepare children for the roles
of their gender as adults. While parents maintain the greatest
influence in early childhood, the influence of peers and teachers
rises in preadolescence. That significance is overtaken by the media
in adolescence (Kagan, 1971).

Various perspectives exist to explain the orderly emergence
of gender-related stages of role orientation. According to Loevinger
(1966), awareness and integration of gender-role identity emerges

through a series of developmental tasks:

20

1. Distinguishing self from non-self.

2. Establishing a primitive, denotative notion of gender
identity.

3. Self and societal socialization transactions.

4. A period of conformity to roles and rules.

5. Growing introspection and self-examination with respect to
values and ideals.

6. Differentiation and departure from traditional and less
complex gender-role definitions, and resolution of gender
conflicts.

7. Integration of both masculine and feminine traits and
va ues.

Traditional social values and beliefs are maintained through con-
formity and support of stage four's stereotypical roles and value
sets.

A second perspective of the psycho-social stages of gender-
related development was provided by Rebecca, Hefner, and Oleshansky
(1976):

1. The stage of an undifferentiated conceptualization of gender

2. Igleztage of polarized, oppositional views of gender role.

3 The stage of a flexible, dynamic transcendence of gender

roles.

Social institutions, as well as individuals within this cultural
system, are essentially characterized by the behavioral proscrip-
tions of stage two. Stage three, as an emergent phenomenon, offers
the adoption of a dialectic orientation and the maximization of
behavioral flexibility. Conflict and conflict resolution are the
primary processes of this stage. They are also reflected in the
developmental goals of Loevinger's final two stages of conflict reso-

lution and the integration of masculine and feminine values and

traits.

21

Male Gender-Role Perspectives

Socialization is an ongoing cultural process. Inequalities,
as a biasing process, have resulted in cultural segregation of time-
use contexts by gender. Institutional support and reinforcement are
not overtly granted to males for a variety of household production
activities, including child care. Hyperpolarization of time-use
by gender has emerged as a means of labor division. One result of
this phenomenon has been the emerging notion of males as an oppressed
minority. Males have not been granted the freedom to share equally
in the time-bound activities of child rearing. They have been actively
reinforced to oppress affective and communicative attributes. As
well, males have not been integrated into all institutions as equal
participants, nor have they been supported for a balanced dyadic
dependence on all microeconomic systems for familial and individual
needs.

Fathers may indeed have become relegated to second-class
status not only with their children, but in the household in general
(Hoffman & Teyber, 1981). Cultural lag is perhaps the primary con-
tributor to this dilemma. However, some males have started to question
the established order and how it affects them (Zilbertgeld, 1978).

Being male or female is part of social identity. Males have
traditionally been socialized to fill specific roles while being
greatly discouraged from others. Our parents have tended to channel
behaviors in their children in ways consistent with the traditional,
hyperpolarized division of labor between the sexes (Miller & Swanson,

1958). This division has added validity to the male roles directly

22

involved in paid labor. Support for this division is enhanced by

the notion that the traditional American male is stronger, more power-
ful, and more aggressive, thus more accurately meeting the criteria

of the labor market (Kagan, 1969). Bakan (1966) concluded that males
have a higher concern for the individual ego, self-protection, asser-
tion, and expansion. These qualities are requirements for enhancing
the benefits to be gained in market transactions which have increased
in significance with the transcendence of an agrarian to an indus-
trialized labor system.

Many attribute distinctions continue to be based on a bipolar
perspective of gender roles, behaviors, and identity. These are
artifacts of a preconceived belief rather than factually based.
Biological and psychological supports have revealed that males and
females are clearly more similar than different (Stoll, 1974). Yet
bipolar socialization has let us to the conclusion that our social
myths are fact. The high cultural value placed upon the roles and
behaviors outside the context of the household has led to the impli-
cation that a natural superiority exists for such time-use. Role
rigidity is limiting, even though it provides a high degree of struc-
ture. We must realize that all roles have costs as well as benefits
to the male.

The role of breadwinner has been the dominant role responsi-
bility of the male member of the family. Because of the high value
placed on dominance and leadership for males, reaction to perceived
change in males has been slow. Males have been highly motivated to

maintain the traditionally "superior" position in the known role

23

divisions (Newcomb, 1950). Established social institutions are more
likely to support individual commitment to preexisting values than

to support individual transcendence of gender-role divisions. Males,
as well as females, are beginning to suffer greater uncertainty and
insecurity because new norms for success conflict with more tradi-
tional role sets (Komarovsky, 1976).

Our social myths, when stated as fact, become fact and vali-
date the preexisting order (Oakley, 1974). Costs exist for the
validation of traditional male time-use distributions, including
isolation from social-domestic space, away from intimate family
contact, with a subsequent loss of time use in the household. From
our traditional perspective, fathers continue to receive only minor
empirical attention because the theoretical framework employed in
child-rearing research does not attach any critical significance to
the father's roles (Tallman, 1965). Because the male lacks involve-
ment in household socialization from early childhood, he is susceptible
to social pressures supporting disengagement from and indifference to
the household as an adult.

One result of the industrialization movement has been the
establishment of social institutions with broad geographic separation
from the household unit (Oakley, 1974). The benefits of accumulated
wealth, while consumed by family members, have become increasingly
separated from household activity. Household roles have instead
become positively correlated with participant dissatisfaction, labor
monotony, isolation, long hours, and low status (Oakley, 1974). One

social consequence of this movement has been the focus on the

24

acquisition of material wealth. Meanwhile, there has been a down-
play of the separation from the intimate daily routines of domestic
life and the increasing dependency of wife and child on the male's
ability to interface successfully with others to meet the needs of
the group. The household has become solely equated with the family
rather than work. In fact, a male's work life and domestic life
should be considered as two aspects of the same role. We are now
awakening to a new and better-suited social ethic (Yankelovich, 1981).
Social-organizational changes are accelerating. The expansion
of female social rights, responsibilities, and employment has resulted
in movements toward a redistribution of authority and a more egali-
tarian balance in market roles and behaviors. While working women
lose power in the area of household— and family-oriented time-use,
it is balanced by market transactional gains. A reciprocal redis-
tribution needs to be supported in men. Gender differentiation need
no longer be a cornerstone for the American family or other social
institutions. Loevinger (1966), as well as Rebecca, Hefner, and
Oleshansky'(1976), support the departure from traditional, bipolar
roles toward an emerging integration of all roles in the individual.
Although masculine role changes have been overshadowed by the feminist
movement, they have been great. The exclusion of the male from the
family and household has been impractical and a destructive block to
maximizing the human potential of the American male. It continues to
support and reinforce the asymmetrical distribution of roles within

the household and other microeconomic systems (Zilbertgeld, 1978).

25

The Social Ecology

 

As a strong influence over the present economic and social
system, industrial capitalism has produced a period of hypermaterial—
ism. It has also alienated and isolated the family and household
from the male, as one potential context of time-use and need grati-
fication (Oakley, 1974). According to Yankelovich (1981), our estab-
lished psychology of material affluence will be forced eventually to
yield and negotiate a social value-set better suited to everyone's
needs and the new economic reality. From 1948 to 1970, we witnessed
the highest rate of sustained economic growth ever recorded. In 1982,
however, over 62 percent of Americans believe that our wealth has
topped out, and this is as good as it is going to get. In one par-
ticular survey in 1975 and 1979, the number of Americans fearing that
inflation was here to stay rose from 38 to 87 percent (Yankelovich,
1981). An air of economic pessimism has now invaded private lives.
We have yet to clearly bring the expectations of the individual,
family, and the wider society together in realistic fashion (Lein,
1979).

Currently, males have remained socially isolated and literally
in exile from the transactional and interpersonal functions of the
family and modern household. They have found status, value, and the
gratification of needs outside the household realm. Females are
expanding their perceptions of the workplace and household as bal-
anced contexts for the gratification of their needs. Many males have
not found the motivation to become free of the perceived dependency

upon them. Our social institutions have been established with this

26

bias and perpetuate the myth. Males must transcend the notion of
bipolar gender differentiation in order to strive for a balanced
time-use distribution over contexts. Neither self-actualization nor
individuality can be successfully discovered for the male until
gender-role distinctions are transcended by males as well as females.
The development of symmetrical role uses for a dyad is an interac-
tional process.

The typical American family with the male employed outside
the household and the female involved in full-time housewifery
presently reflects less than 15 percent of the households in the
United States. Since 1960, two-income families have become more
numerous than their single-income counterpart (U.S. Department of
Commerce, 1980). According to Yankelovich (1981), the vast majority
of families with incomes over $25,000 must depend on two sources of
income. This has necessitated a redistribution of authority and
power in nonhousehold roles. Most males have yet to perceive the
household as an environment that is enhancing to all active members.
However, economic conditions may force a return to an ethic of com-
mitment to family, group, and culture, with closer personal relation-
ships, an increase in expressive values, and duty away from the self
and toward others (Yankelovich, 1981).

Male roles are portrayed in two contexts: one within the
family and one outside that unit. Each is merely an aspect of a
single human role. Socialization now lags behind reality. In a
time for reinvestment in the family, young males have been found to

spend less time in family activities than women. In the preceding

27

era, few males helped or participated in child care or discipline
(Johannis, 1957). Males also appeared to avoid household economic
decisions to a greater degree than women (Johannis & Rollins, 1959).
This may have been the result of little schooling in the role of
husband and even less for the role of father (LeMasters, 1957).
Neither males nor females have been adequately prepared for parent-
hood in our culture. It is true that there are very few useful
guidelines for parenthood success in this society (Rossi, 1968).

Women are expanding their time-use commitments to other
microeconomic systems. In 1979, 51 percent of women worked outside
the home (Yankelovich, 1981). As well, from 1972 to 1979 the female
percentage of the total workforce rose from 38 to 41.7 percent
(U.S. Department of Commerce, 1980). With this social transformation,
interest in the social topic of fatherhood has increased (Pleck &
Lewis, 1979). As the economic context of the last 30 years comes
to a close, males are reestablishing connections with domestic space
and balancing all role responsibilities between dyad members. As the
future emerges, it is becoming clear that the key to quality and
self-actualization for the male may be the family, equality in the
role of father as parent, and husband as Spouse.

Males may, in fact, be more willing to accept child-care
activities as legitimate roles for a male than women realize and
even more willing than many females desire (Dunn, 1960; Hartley &
Klein, 1959). The potential exists for a transcendence of tradi-
tionally socialized roles in the American male. Motivation for

symmetry needs to be supported and reinforced by individual action.

28

Institutions established on asymmetrical foundations will not be

leaders in this area, but merely followers.

Transcending Asymmetrical Role Responses
A Redistribution of Priorities

In order for there to be maximum flexibility and behavioral
selectivity, behavior should have no gender. The traditional roles,
rooted in the American male's identity, are artifacts of his con-
formity to stereotypical rules and values in a society hyperpolarized
by gender. Institutional supports lend validity to conformity.
Social myths become perceived as social facts. Through self-
perpetuation, social institutions have steadily increased the func-
tions and roles open to males seeking involvement in external, paid-
1abor transactions. With the emergence of a communication,
information-oriented era, the industrialized social institutions have
become increasingly cumbersome, noncommunicative, and isolated. The
inequalities of such systems are implicit from their origins. Tradi-
tional male roles within the system have become ineffective and
limiting.

The post-industrial family framework may be part of an inte-
grated cultural system, where the location of labor does not entail
as great a separation of family nor prescribe conflicting roles
(Oakley, l974). Males have downplayed the benefits of this particu-
lar social arrangement.

The traditional bipolar socialization practices have resulted

in male "prostitution" to the corporate industrial image (Steinmann,

29

1978). Males may, in fact, be perceived as sex objects due to their
being manipulated and molded into particular roles because of their
sex (Fabrikant, 1978). The male has been victimized by socialization
practices that force roles of high competition, sole economic support,
specific performance expectations, and emotional repression. These
are the consequences of asymmetrical socialization patterns by parents
and other models. No foundational changes in the distribution of
roles or time-use between men and women can be achieved without full
male participation in child care and the establishment of a more
egalitarian parenthood investment (Fabrikant, 1978). Yet a large
percentage of the population refuses to support this tampering with
motherhood.

The gender identity of the American male is in a state of
transition. Confusion and vacillation exist as roles are becoming
redefined. While males have the potential to exercise a consider-
able degree of flexibility in responding to environmental demands,
institutional supports are lacking for such a transformation (O'Leary
& Donoghue, 1978). Males have maintained a perceived "superiority,"
and there is security in continuing the illusion. Although structure
provides security, rigidity in role allocations cannot be justified.
Males and females cannot be totally free of roles; it is our social
nature. However, to avoid being manipulated completely by roles,
role flexibility needs to be maintained (O'Neill & O'Neill, 1972).
The male transition toward symmetrical contracting and task allocations

is occurring on a number of psycho-social fronts. Males are awakening

30

to the celebration of intimacy, interpersonal relationships, and

family (Gilligan, 1979).

Equality in Business
and Market Roles

 

One subcomponent of contract symmetry in the allocation of
roles and tasks is in the context of business and professions. In
recent history, this domain has been established as a traditional male
environment. Traditional male attributes have been equated with suc-
cess in these labor systems. The emergence of an expanded post-
industrial labor system has established a foundation for the recogni-
tion of women within the corporate image. This has likewise established
the potential for male attitude changes toward further equality and
symmetry in market role allocations between the sexes (Steinman,
1978).

The female population directly involved in the workforce is
steadily increasing. Statistically, the most rapid increase is in the
married portion of the female population. Census data from the
Department of Commerce revealed that in 1960, 36.4 percent of the
female workforce was married. By 1979, the married workforce was
59.7 percent (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1980). This increase may
be attributed to increased male support for equality, expanding sym-
metry in labor roles, as well as a steady decline in household tasks
and the expected number of children. TWO-thirds of today's working
women have child-rearing responsibilities (Dusen & Sheldon, 1976).

Barriers do exist for symmetry within occupations for this

system. Equality does not exist as yet. Males do tend to restrict

31

females from entering status positions in the traditional hierarchy.
Skilled trades and managerial positions continue to reveal unusually
high asymmetry based on gender. One ranking of the asymmetrical role
distributions for 1979 showed that males held 94 percent of the
craftsmen positions, 91.9 percent of the transport operatives posi-
tions, and 88.7 percent of the laborers positions (U.S. Department of
Commerce, 1980). The positions with the highest percentage of female
involvement included: 97.6 percent of the private household workers,
80.3 percent of the clerical workers, 59.2 percent of the service
workers, and 45 percent of the sales workers (U.S. Department of
Commerce, 1980). Successful involvement of females in general market
roles is still perceived more favorably by women than men. Even in
the mid-19605, male attitudes toward female executives revealed that
51 percent of the males felt women were temperamentally unfit for
management, 33 percent of the males perceived a "negative" effect on
employee morale, and 81 percent felt uncomfortable with a female
supervisor (O'Leary, 1975). In a more recent Gallup Poll (March,
1976), a transition in the gender-role identity of males was revealed.
Whereas in 1953 only 21 percent of the surveyed males felt that the
sex of one's boss made no significant difference, by 1975 this per-
centage had increased to 32 percent (Shostak, 1977). As well, in
1938 only 19 percent of the male spouses approved of a working spouse;
by 1975 this had increased to 65 percent (Shostak, 1977). Economic
reality has shifted radically.

According to Komarovsky (1976), American males may be cate-

gorized by their attitudes on occupational equality with a future

32

wife. The traditionalist maintains the asymmetrical allocation of
roles supported by our society. The pseudo-feminist supports the
notion of occupational equality in the abstract but maintains tradi-
tional allocation patterns in practice. The modified perspective is
a position of support for occupational equality when no children are
present and gradual reestablishment of the female in the workforce
after child care. The feminist provides a symmetrical position in
which the male would modify his own roles to facilitate his wife's
career. In a random survey of male Ivy League seniors, the following
distribution was noted: 24 percent traditionalist, 16 percent pseudo-
feminist, 48 percent modified, and 7 percent feminist (Komarovsky,
1976). Clearly half of the males surveyed were directed toward some
degree of transcendence from the most traditional gender-role values.
Equality in labor and business roles is one subcomponent of a male's
gender-related values. Movement toward symmetry in this area has
been slow. It has often been perceived as promoting a decline in
male status and an increase in competition for occupational roles.
Trends have revealed a steady movement away from the more traditional
perspectives of role by gender.

Equality in Social
andlDomestic Tasks

 

Men's anxieties and fears regarding women in the world of
paid labor have been better articulated than fears and concerns
regarding the houSehold, and child-rearing tasks in particular
(Hoffman & Teyber, 1981). Even the research that describes the

shared roles of marriage has been preoccupied with work roles (Giele,

33

1975). Males do appear to receive little education for household
roles and by far less for child rearing (LeMasters, 1957). Boys

are socialized to invest less time in family activities than girls
(Johannis, 1957). While establishing their self-identity, males
quickly separate from their mother and the household as a standard
socialization practice (Gilligan, 1979). Because the male lacks
involvement and roots in the household from early childhood, he is
susceptible as an adult to further social pressure that supports dis-
engagement and indifference to the household. Males have been
socialized to perceive maximum utility in workplace transactions, not
in the household (Oakley, 1974). Domestic services have been seen

as the primary transactional responsibility of the female.

Rapoport and Rapoport (1971) supported the notion that
although sanctions on married women's employment are diminishing,
traditional views of domestic roles have shown less corresponding
tendency to change. Married males invested an average of nine hours
per week in family-care activities in 1965, whereas married females
averaged an investment of 28.8 hours per week. By 1975, female
investment in family care had declined to 24.9 hours per week, while
there was only a 35-minute increase in time-use by the male (U.S.
Department of Commerce, 1976). Males are still directed toward more
traditional distributions in this area.

A change from a passive to an active household role is a
prerequisite to equality in household-task allocations. The impor-
tance of the female at the center of the household is inflated out of

proportion (O'Neill & O'Neill, 1972). Support exists for increased

34

male involvement in the family and the household (Benson, 1968).
As a wife's power is increased by employment, a husband's investment
in the household for time-use is open for a reciprocal increase (Lynn,
1974). By increasing their share in direct child-rearing responsi-
bilities, males have begun to participate to a greater degree in
household life (Earl & Siegel, 1980). Adult male roles need not be
as restrictive as once perceived. There is an expanding opportunity
for male psychological enhancement to understand the areas of father-
hood, wife, child, and self. It is true that part of the accepta-
bility of behavior for a male is the fact that the male engages in
it (O'Leary & Donoghue, 1978). As well, increased male involvement
in areas traditionally reserved for women enhances the general per-
ception of their value.

Males appear to lag behind females in their preference of
symmetrical child-rearing role distributions. In a recent survey
by Eversoll (1979), 32.7 percent of the females expressed a preference
for symmetry in child rearing and other household roles, whereas only
23.1 percent of the males revealed a similar preference. Equality
in social and domestic tasks lags far behind the movement for support
of equality in labor and business roles. To increase the male's
production in domestic space, it may be necessary to enhance the per-
ception of the household as challenging, achievement directed, growth
oriented, status recognized, a base for responsibility, and an envi-
ronment for enhancing human potential (Oakley, l974). Equality and
symmetry in male time-use across all microeconomic systems is a pre-

requisite to continued symmetrical contracts for the dyad.

35
Support for Equality in
Sex-Appropriate Behavior

Although the information might be tyf critical value, little
has been done to discover the differences between supporters and non-
supporters of equality between the sexes (MacDonald, 1974). In fact,
a male's concept of sex-appropriate behavior may be an influential
factor in the extent to which a male participates in child-rearing
activity (Russell, 1978). A multidimensional system of attitudes
appears to be in effect. MacDonald (1974) concluded that male sup-
porters of equality in sex-appropriate behavior were also (1) more
supportive of premarital sex, (2) less cognitively rigid, (3) more
tolerant of ambiguity, (4) less authoritarian, (5) more symmetrical
in household-task distributions, and (6) less directed toward social
recognition. These psychologically androgynous individuals appeared
to be more behaviorally flexible, less constrained by stereotypes,
and more nurturant as males.

It has been revealed that only 30 percent of men and women
incorporate both masculine and feminine traits and thus are psycho-
logically androgynous (Bem, 1975). In a study by Lopata (1965),

64 percent of the women considered the breadwinner role to be by far
the most important male function. A growing minority of males are
willing to accept household and child-care activities as legitimate
male roles, even though females remain more supportive of such equality
than males. Eversoll (1979) concluded that 23 percent of her surveyed
males expressed a preference for parenting equality. Males may now

be changing faster than females in their attitudes about behavioral

36

equality and expanded male participation in domestic and inter-
personal roles.

Traditional male roles tend to negate support for equality
(Quatyman, 1978). Support requires a socialization pattern, including
identification with models regardless of sex, involvement in all role
dimensions, role competition regardless of sex, and a sex-free expan-
sion of reference group. Involvement in all child-rearing roles has
not been associated with traditionally defined masculinity. Equality
for the male implies (1) the freedom to share in the child-rearing
process more extensively, (2) unbiased role support for economic
interdependence, (3) male integration into all institutions as equal
participants, and (4) less oppression of affection and communication
in males. Male supporters of equality in behavior are a small, yet

growing, minority in the American social order.

Power Equality in the Household

 

In the preceding era, household power has been exclusively
allocated to women. The relegation of women to all domestic tasks
as natural, universal, and necessary is a myth (Oakley, 1974).
Socialized power distributions have been established within this
given context. This has optimized separate bases of power and
authority.

The opportunity structure for individuals is beginning to
change toward a realignment and lessening of male and female differ-
ences (Benson, 1968). The movement toward symmetry Hiwork roles

is establishing a new level of consciousness in labor equality. Yet

37

this has not corrected the disequilibrium in household time-use

nor integrated males into sharing familial tasks. A symmetrical power
distribution in the household will require an expansion in the male
role involvement as spouse and parent, as well as an accommodation to
expanding female roles. The allocation of household power as an

equal and shared contract may require a bias-free gender identity
within the male and female dyadic member.

One central difficulty in describing equality in the house-
hold is that the positions of husband and father have yet to be
clearly reestablished. Baumrind's (1980) feminist perspective has
resulted in the conclusion that "if men don't rear children, it is
not because they can't, but because they don't want to and have the
power to perpetuate the asymmetrical organization of parental respon-
sibilities" (p. 645). Power accommodation in marriage and child
rearing is a mutualization process (Benson, 1968). Mothers have
maintained a covert power base in the domain of the household and
child rearing (Hoffman & Teyber, 1981). From the perspective of
radical fathers, the opposition is blocking and refusing any tamper-
ing with motherhood (Fabrikant, 1978). There has been an unwritten,
asymmetrical contract of: I will do your feelings for you, your fear,
anxiety, emotions, and in return I expect from you total protection
from independence, financial worry, and aloneness (Rice, 1978).
Control of the power base in child rearing needs to be relinquished
by mothers so that fathers are included equally. Likewise, males
need to support and encourage women's moving fully and equally into

the work force (Hoffman & Teyber, 1981).

38

Fathers are beginning to participate in family life to a
greater degree by sharing child-rearing responsibilities rather than
maintaining traditional male roles (Earl & Seigel, 1980). Although
occupational roles may make demands on the time a male invests in the
household, the key to added quality and real equality in the household
is that male investment (Benson, 1968). According to Baumrind (1981),

For equal power in the household and family affairs, the father
would, in addition to sharing care of the children when he is
at home, share the responsibilities for organizing child care
and household chores so as to enable his wife to fulfill her
vocational responsibilities to the same extent that he is able
to fulfill his. (p. 531)

Heath (1978) concluded that such an investment toward equality
in parenthood may provide further maturation in the male through
(1) increased self-awareness, (2) enhancing allocentric qualities in
values and relationships, and (3) furthering acceptance and integra-
tion of emotional needs. Many social scientists believe that gender-
role inadequacies, from which we now suffer, are the result of the
unmet need to reciprocally relinquish competing power bases by both
men and women (Hoffman & Teyber, 1981). This new pattern of equality

will not be lost on the children, as they will perceive it as the

natural order of things (Benson, 1968).

Egalitarian Child Rearing as a Paternal Response

 

Marital and parental roles have increasingly expanded in
expressive, emotional domains, as instrumental responsibilities have
been established within other social institutions and organizations.
The industrialization of social institutions in our society has pro-

vided a context by which males have been isolated from transactional

39

and interpersonal functions of the modern household. Mutualization
contracts have been established in this context, optimizing the sep-
aration of the dyad. Human time is a scarce resource. Therefore,
roles are invested in, based on their potential as need gratifiers.

The time a male is willing to invest in a role may be one
measure of the need-gratifying potential for that role. Therefore,
paternal allocations of time for child-rearing tasks could be per-
ceived as a socialized response representing an underlying gender-role
gestalt (Mulford & Salisbury, 1964). Males do vary in their commit-
ment to the contexts of the household and other microeconomic systems
as potentially need gratifying. Even though a symmetrical investment
in child rearing would be a radical change for the mutualization
contract of the traditional American dyad, society has reached a
point where it could be detrimental for families if males did not
become involved in child rearing. Great changes are about to occur
in how child care is organized (Yankelovich, 1981). According to
Hoffman and Teyber (1981), "Fathers, as well as mothers, must be
supported in their moral obligations for their child, and both can be
equally effective caregivers" (p. 198).

Household production as it relates to the accommodations of
marriage and child rearing is one aspect of the dyad's process of
mutualization (Benson, 1968). Our particular family system has
placed increasingly broader interpersonal and actualizing demands on
the interpersonal contracts of relationships than in the past

(Balswick & Peek, 1971). Child rearing is one source of satisfaction

40

and a foundation for a male's self-identity. It is a major aspect
of dyadic mutualization.

The accommodation to parenthood is a response to the daily
problems of household decisions and domestic work. Becoming a parent
is a critical transition in one's life (LeMasters, 1957). The expand-
ing legitimacy of increased male involvement in child rearing has
resulted in contemporary fathers becoming much more intimately involved
in the day-to-day lives of their children (Benson, 1968). Symmetrical
involvement in child rearing requires expansion of the male's role as
parent, legitimizing a broader spectrum of male child—rearing behavior,
and enlarging the opportunities to enhance the attributes, skills, and
role behaviors necessary for domestic awareness in general for the
male. The topic of fatherhood is emerging into social awareness
(Pleck & Lewis, 1979).

The adult male role is not as restrictive as once perceived
(O'Leary & Donoghue, 1978). Males are psychologically able to engage
in the full range of parental behaviors up to gestation and lactation
(Fein, 1978). Child-rearing involvement as an active, intimate role
may not be compatible with the reward system of the traditional mas-
culine gestalt. Fathers classified as androynous have, however, been
found to be significantly involved in everyday care activities and
play, and find children more rewarding than their traditionally bound
counterparts (Russell, 1978).

Males are emerging as androgynous beings. As individuals,
they are becoming more behaviorally flexible and are more likely to

display nurturance (Bem & Lenney, 1976; Bem, Martyna, & Watson, 1976).

41

Androgynous men are just as likely to express independence as tradi-
tionally defined, masculine males (Russell, 1978). According to
Russell (1978), one central factor to influence the extent of father
participation in child rearing may be his notion of sex-appropriate
behavior. Symmetrically oriented, androgynous fathers complete more
child-care tasks as well as being more involved in their children's
development. Father participation has been correlated with overall
paternal child-rearing values (Kohn, 1969; Parke, 1977). There is
also support that the mother's behaviors and attitudes influence the
father's participation and beliefs (Russell, 1978). The emergence
and maintenance of the male's gender-role gestalt is as multidimen-
sional in its foundations as in its results.

The gender-role gestalt of the American male is in a state of
transition. Confusion and vacillation exist as roles are becoming
redefined. Neither male self-actualization nor individuality can be
successfully achieved until gender-role distinctions are transcended.
Both masculinity and femininity are becoming enhanced and expanding
the behavioral parameters available within the individual. Child
rearing may be perceived as one area of commitment for rewards and
gratification for the male, with increased satisfaction for house-
hold production. Participation and positive experiences in fatherhood
are part of a spiraling effect. Fathers enhance maturation, they aid
in the resolution of conflicts, help define masculine roles, and
improve self-esteem and confidence (Kramer, 1978). While symmetrical
contracting in child rearing appears to be a radical change, according

to Russell (1978), greater father involvement in child rearing should

42

result in positive changes in father-child, father-mother, and mother-
child relationships" (p. 1181).

Males have always been implicitly connected to domestic space
in their roles (Pleck & Lewis, 1979). Fatherhood, as a research
topic, is alive and well in the observational and experimental lit-
erature. One area that has not received such avid attention is the
psycho-social prerequisites for establishing broader male connections
with domestic space in general, and child rearing in particular.
As well, the conditions to reinforce change in male accommodation
patterns for child rearing lack clarity. According to Eversoll (1979),
sons now expect the father role to be more nurturing and recreational,
and less providing and traditional, than their parents. Yet our par-
ents were significant models. The time for the examination of emerg-
ing male patterns is now (Pleck, 1979). The core to the newly emerging
cultural situation may be the family and male reinvestment in its
primary roles (Yankelovich, 1981). Attention to male perceptions and
attitudes regarding their commitment to the context of domestic space
and household roles may be a clear prerequisite to bringing together
the expectations of family and the expectations of the wider society

(Lein, l979).

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

This chapter consists of seven areas: objective, hypotheses,
human—subject approval, subjects, instrumentation, order of events,

and control of variance.

Objective

Few have concerned themselves, at this time, with the male
response to future time-use distributions in the area of child care.
Actual paternal time-use is a socialized response and thus represents
an internal framework of attitudes, values, and beliefs regarding
gender role. Gender—role identity is the summation of this multi-
dimensional attitudinal system over time. The primary purpose of
this investigation is to identify and describe the potential rela-
tionship of two central variables. The central traits under study are
the subject's gender-role identity, as operationalized through atti-
tudes concerned with equality between the sexes, and desirable time-use

commitments to the paternal aspects of child care.

Hypotheses
The following hypothesis is operationalized as a statement

of the relationship between the two general variables:

43

44

Hypothesis I
H0: Null hypothesis

There is no evidence of a correlational relationship, at an
alpha of .05, between a subject's summation score on MacDonald's
(1974) Sex Role Survey and his mean score on the Participation
as Father Scale.

H o

0. P 0 Alpha = .05

W) '
H]: Alternative hypothesis

There is evidence of a correlational relationship, at an alpha
of .05, between a subject's summation score on MacDonald's (1974)
Sex Role Survey and his mean score across the Participation as
Father Scale.

H]: PXY(I) f 0 Alpha = .05

However, believing the notion of equality between the sexes to be a
multidimensional attitude, four subsidiary hypotheses are operational-
ized as subcomponents of Hypothesis I:

Hypothesis II

 

H0: Null hypothesis

There is no evidence of a correlational relationship, at an alpha
of .05, between a subject's score on the Sexual Equality in Busi-
ness and the Professions subcomponent of MacDonald's (1974) Sex
Role Survey and his mean score across the Participation as Father
Scale.

H:P =0 A1ha=.05
0 XJ/(II) p

H]: Alternative hypothesis

There is evidence of a correlational relationship, at an alpha

of .05, between a subject's score on the Sexual Equality in Busi-
ness and the Professions subcomponent of MacDonald's (1974) Sex
Role Survey and his mean score across the Participation as Father
Scale.

H : P 0 Al ha = .05
1 xy(11) f P

45

Hypothesis III

 

H0: Null hypothesis

There is no evidence of a correlational relationship, at an alpha
of .05, between a subject's score on the Sexual Equality in Sex
Appropriate Behavior subcomponent of MacDonald's (1974) Sex Role
gurvey and his mean score across the Participation as Father

ca e.

H : P = 0 Alpha = .05
0 x'Y(III)

H]: Alternative hypothesis

There is evidence of a correlational relationship, at an alpha
of .05, between a subject's score on the Sexual Equality in Sex
Appropriate Behavior subcomponent of MacDonald's (1974) Sex Role
Survey and his mean score across the Participation as Father
Scale.

H : P f O A1pha = .05
‘ xy(111)

Hypothesis IV

 

H0: Null hypothesis

There is no evidence of a correlational relationship, at an alpha
of .05, between a subject's score on the Equality in Social-
Domestic Work subcomponent of MacDonald's (1974) Sex Role Survey
and his mean score across the Participation as Father Scale.

H : P = 0 Alpha = .05

H]: Alternative hypothesis

There is evidence of a correlational relationship, at an alpha of
.05, between a subject's score on the Equality in Social-Domestic
Work subcomponent of MacDonald's (1974) Sex Role Survey and his
mean score across the Participation as Father Scale.

H : P r 0 Alpha = .05
' xy(IV)

46

Hypothesis V

 

H0: Null hypothesis

There is no evidence of a correlational relationship, at an alpha
of .05, between a subject's score on the Equality in Household
Power subcomponent of MacDonald's (1974) Sex Role Survey and his
mean score across the Participation as Father Scale.

HO: ny(V) = A1pha = .05

H]: Alternative hypothesis
There is evidence of a correlational relationship, at an alpha
of .05, between a subject's score on the Equality in Household
Power subcomponent of MacDonald's (1974) Sex Role Survey and
his mean score across the Participation as Father Scale.
H : P = .
1 xy(V) # 0 Alpha 05
Human-Subject Approval
Approval by the Michigan State University Committee on Research

Involving Human Subjects (UCRIHS) was requested and was granted for

this investigation.

Subjects

The subjects for this investigation represent a limited random
sample from the available pool of psychology students enrolled at
Muskegon Community College during the 1981-82 academic year. Forty
males were randomly selected from the pool of 60 male subjects. This
sample had a mean age of 19.85 years, with a range from 18 to 26 years
of age. Ninety percent of the sample were white; 10 percent were
nonwhite. Forty-nine percent of the sample were from dual-career

families; 46 percent were from households in which the male was the

47

sole person employed or present parental member; and 5 percent were
from families in which the mother met this criterion.

According to Erikson (1963), the age range of the subjects
represents a period of identification, consolidation, role explora-
tion, and the stabilization of a sense of self. This resulted in
the criterion for sample selection of young adult, male subjects.

It was believed that the transition from identity crisis into an
emerging sense of intimacy would provide a period of increased sensi-
tivity in the development and awareness of interpersonal values con-
cerning marriage, parenthood, occupation, and adulthood (Erikson,

1963).

Instrumentation

 

MacDonald's Sex Role Survey was used to measure aspects of
the subject's gender-role identity (1974). This instrument measured
attitudes concerning equality between the sexes on a summated rating
scale. Copies of the Sex Role Survey were obtained from the E.T.S.
Test Collection, Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey.

The Sex Role Survey was developed from an original pool of
169 attitudinal statements in a Likert-like format. Subjects were
asked to indicate agreement or disagreement with each item by circling
a number from +3 (I agree very much) to -3 (I disagree very much).
Ratings were converted into a positive, seven-point scale by adding a
constant of +4 to each algebraic number. The responses of +1 and -1

were assigned a score of four.

48

Two criteria were used for eliminating items from further
consideration by MacDonald:

1. No item was retained that revealed a significant (p < .05)
correlation with scores on the Marlow-Crowne Social Desirability
Scale.

2. No item was retained unless it correlated with a signifi-
cance level better than .01 with the total score for the 169 items.

The results were factor analyzed, and central factors were
extracted for each gender. Sixty-three items were selected for
inclusion in the final survey by factor loading. The 63-item Sex
Role Survey was then administered by MacDonald to 639 subjects (317
males and 322 females) for further validation. The final items,
classified by factor codes, are presented in Appendix B. The factors
accounting for the most variance in the original sample were:

1. Equality in Business and the Professions 16 percent

2. Sex Appropriate Behavior 8 percent
3. Social Domestic Work 8 percent
4. Power in the Home 7 percent

The original sample also revealed the following internal consistency

levels:
1. Equality in Business and the Professions .825
2. Sex Appropriate Behavior .849
3. Social Domestic Work .854
4. Power in the Home .879
5. Total Score .961

49

Correlational significance was revealed for MacDonald's male,

Sex Role Survey totals and scores on the Semantic Differential

(p < .01), Gough-Stanford Rigidity Scale (p < .001), and the Authori-
tarian Index (p < .0001). The Sex Role Survey, in its final form,
was presented to the subjects in a self-administered format with a
completion time of one-half hour.

A desired "Participation as Father Scale" was devised to
operationalize the area of child-rearing task allocations. The scale
was a closed-choice, 14-item instrument, modified from a previously
developed interview format originated by Price-Bonham and Skeen (1979)
in a parent-education investigation of black and white fathers. The
items for the Participation as Father Scale are presented in Appen-
dix B. A desirable time-use, relative to one's future spouse, was
requested for each of the 14 child-rearing items. The time-use
perceptions, between 0 and 100 percent (of the time needed by the child
child), were believed to be one indicator of each task as a context for
need gratification and reward.

A list of five essential characteristics or attitudes important
to a future role as father was requested from each subject. As well,
an open-ended request concerning how each subject had already prepared
for an eventual role of father was also presented. (See Appendix B.)
The responses were then categorized and ranked by summed number of

responses for the sample as a whole.

Order of Events

 

The investigation was presented to the subjects as a study of

multidimensional attitudes toward social roles. Form packets were

50

distributed in a standardized manner after class and the procedures
explained. Materials in the packet (see Appendix B) were presented
in the following order:

1. Investigation Consent Format
Sex Role Survey
Participation as Father Scale

Important Characteristics of Father Response

(II->00“)

Preparations for the Role of Father Response
Upon the completion of the packet, the relationships under investiga-
tion were presented to the subjects along with the information used

for the development of the investigation.

Control of Variance

 

Error variance was controlled through a constant attempt to
isolate and reduce inconsistencies. A number of instruments claiming
to measure the behavioral traits in question were investigated. The
Sex Role Survey (MacDonald, 1974) was selected as potentially the
most valid and reliable. (See Instrumentation.) The experimental
and quantifying procedures of MacDonald's (1974) original investiga-
tion were rigidly replicated to enhance consistency and reduce
measurement error. For further evidence of construct validity,
consult MacDonald (1974). Analysis by means of a Pearson product-
moment coefficient was selected over the Spearman and Kendall tau
coefficient to enhance accuracy and variability through analysis of
actual scores rather than by score rankings. Conversion into Z scores

provided one means to statistically relate the correlations for

51

hypothesis testing. Causal significance was not of issue due to
the nature of the variables in question. Correlational significance
provided the most appropriate and accurate statistical presentation.

A number of secondary variance sources had been recognized
and responded to accordingly in this investigation. Subjects were
limited to unmarried males. Educational range and age were within
the presented parameters. The questions of individual characteris-
tics of fatherhood, as well as preparations for this role, were
presented in this investigation for a broader understanding of
behavioral foundations.

The instrument packets were administered to all subjects.
The time of day was limited to the morning hours (immediately fol-
lowing class), with each group having a maximum completion time of
one hour. The survey order was held constant, as were the provided
instructions. Subjects were all first-year students enrolled in
either general, introductory, or applied psychology courses. Extra
credit was given for involvement in a variety of outside projects,
including participation in this investigation. Variations between
the groups based on their course enrollments were not accounted for.
Although it was recommended that there be no communication between
potential and actual subjects regarding this investigation, varia-

tions due to this potential problem were not accounted for.

CHAPTER IV

RESULTS

This chapter presents the results of the statistical analysis
in relation to each of the hypotheses. Additional data are also
reported. The following areas are presented: paternal role char-
acteristics, personal preparations for fatherhood, sex role survey,
paternal allocation of child-rearing tasks, hypotheses, and child-

rearing task relationships to gender-identity components.

Paternal Role Characteristics
The responses to the issue of the characteristics for a

future role in fatherhood are presented in Table 1.

Table 1.--Paterna1 role characteristics of the sample (n = 122)-

 

 

. . Total Number Percentage
Characteristic of Comments of Total
Understanding 22 .18
Caring 16 .13
Loving 16 .13
Successful employment 12 .09
Patience 11 .09
Responsibility 11 .09
Desires time with child 8 .06
Disciplining 8 .06
Communicative 5 .04
Source of authority 5 .04
Willing to share housework 4 .03
Emotionally stable 4 .03

 

52

53

The majority of responses for this sample were concerned
with emotional and interpersonal skills and abilities. The least-
mentioned characteristics included a willingness to share in house-
hold tasks in general, as well as providing a source of emotional

stability.

Personal Preparations for Fatherhood

 

The sample's responses to personal preparations for the future
role of fatherhood are presented in Table 2. Eleven responses were
categorized from most to least mentioned across the sample as a whole.
By far the most—mentioned response for this group was the complete

lack of perceived preparation.

Table 2.--Personal preparations for the future role of fatherhood

 

 

(n = 59).
. Total Number Percentage
Preparatlons of Comments of Total
Have not prepared yet 18 .30
Working with children 7 .11
Learning about children 6 .10
No comment 6 .10
Actions with younger siblings 5 .08
Self-regulation/understanding 5 .08
Learning patience 4 .06
Learning from father 4 .06
By being employed 2 .03
Teaching children l .01
Babysitting l .01

 

Sex Role Survey_

 

Individual self-ratings on each subcomponent, as well as

totals for the Sex Role Survey (MacDonald, 1974) are presented in

54

Appendix C. The instrument's median and potential range by subcom-

ponent are as follows:

Category Median Range
1. Total 212 371-53
2. Business and Professions 84 147-21
3. Sex Appropriate Behavior 52 91-13
4. Social-Domestic Work 44 77-11
5. Power in the Home 28 49- 7

Mean scores, variances, and ranges for this investigation are pre-
sented in Table 3. Relative to the instrument's median, this par-
ticular sample indicated support for Equality Between the Sexes in
Total Scores as well as Equality in Business and the Professions and
Equality in Social-Domestic Work. This sample was neutral to the
notion of Power in the Home and indicated support for inequality in

Sex Appropriate Behavior, as traditionally defined.

Table 3.--Sex Role Survey: sample means, variance, and ranges.

 

 

Component R" Variance Range
Total Sex Role Survey Score 168 1591.38 84-243
Equality in Business/Professions 54 333.05 26- 96
Sex Appropriate Behavior 59 149.70 27- 8O
Social-Domestic Work 27 66.25 12- 41
Power in the Home 28 73.89 13- 43

 

Paternal Allocation of Child-Rearing Tasks

 

Specific individual scores on the Participation as Father
Scale, by individual task and subject totals, are presented in Appen-
dix C. Sample means by task, variance, and actual ranges are presented

in Table 4.

55

 

 

 

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56

The sample's average desired investment for each task is
presented in Table 5. The mean scores for individual tasks ranged
from a commitment and investment high of 82 percent for the task of
Repairs in the House (7'= 82) to a commitment low of 24 percent for
the task of Infant's Laundry (Y'= 24). The sum of the means for the
sample was 658, representing a group mean across tasks of 47.178

percent.

Table 5.--Child-rearing task allocations ranked by sample mean.

 

 

Rank 7' Child-Rearing Task
1 82.0 Repairs in the House
2 58.0 Disciplining the Infant
3 56.0 Transporting to the Doctor
4 54.0 Playing With Infant
5 54.0 Teaching Infant
6 50.0 Putting the Infant to Bed
7 49.0 Reading to the Infant
8 45.0 Getting Up at Night
9 43.0 Staying With Ill Infant
10 41.0 Feeding Infant
11 40.0 Household Cleaning
12 36.0 Bathing the Infant
13 28.5 Changing Diapers
14 24.0 Infant's Laundry

 

Hypotheses

 

Five hypotheses have been operationalized for the relation-
ship between a subject's score on the Sex Role Survey subcomponents
and individual subject totals on the Participation as Father Scale.
The statistical relationship between the variables and sample totals

is presented in Table 6. Pearson product-moment coefficients were

57

calculated for the hypotheses and transformed into Z scores by means

of a Fisher Z-transformation of r (Glass & Stanley, 1970).

Table 6.--Statistical relationship between Sex Role Survey components
and Participation as Father Scale totals.

 

 

Variables ny Zr 2 p<.05
Total Sex Role Survey Score -.l33l - .134 - .814 N.S.
Equality in Business/Professions -.4698 - .510 -3.100 *
Sex Appropriate Behavior -.9l70 -l.585 -9.639 *
Social-Domestic Work -.l736 - .175 -1.06O N.S.
Power in the Home -.1501 - .151 - .918 N.S.

 

*Significant at the .05 level.

Hypothesis I

 

There was no correlational relationship, at an alpha of .05,
between a subject's summation score on MacDonald's (1974) Sex Role
Survey and his total mean score on the Participation as Father Scale.
The null hypothesis was not rejected. The 2 score of -.814 was not

found to be significant. (See Table 6.)

Hypothesis II

 

Evidence existed for a correlational relationship, at an
alpha of .05, between a subject's score on the Sexual Equality in
Business and the Professions subcomponent of the Sex Role Survey and
his total mean score on the Participation as Father Scale. The
alternative hypothesis was not rejected. The Z score of -3.100 was

found to be significant. (See Table 6.)

58

Hypothesis III

 

Evidence existed for a correlational relationship, at an
alpha of .05, between a subject's score on the Equality in Sex
Appropriate Behavior subcomponent of the Sex Role Survey and his
total mean score on the Participation as Father Scale. The alterna-
tive hypothesis was not rejected. The Z score of -9.639 was found

to be significant. (See Table 6.)

Hypothesis IV

 

There was no correlational relationship, at an alpha of .05,
between a subject's score on the Equality in Social-Domestic Work
subcomponent of the Sex Role Survey and his total mean score on the
Participation as Father Scale. The null hypothesis was not rejected.

The 2 score of -1.060 was not found to be significant. (See Table 6.

Hypothesis V

 

There was no correlational relationship, at an alpha of .05,
between a subject's score on the Equality of Power in the Home sub-
component of the Sex Role Survey and his total mean score on the
Participation as Father Scale. The null hypothesis was not rejected.
The Z score of -.918 was not found to be significant. (See Table 6.)

Child-Rearing Task Relationships to
Gender-Identity Components

A concern for a correlational cancellation effect resulted in
one post-hoc consideration. Pearson product-moment correlation coef-
ficients were calculated for each child-rearing task relative to Sex

Role Survey components. Individual tasks, in correlation with Sex

59

Role Survey totals, are presented in Table 7. Fisher transformations
of the Pearson coefficients were used for the 2 scores. A correla-
tional ranking from strongest negative was instituted for Pearson
coefficients because a negative relationship implied positive support

for equality.

Table 7.--Correlational relationship: child-rearing tasks and Sex
Role Survey totals.

 

 

332k Child-Rearing Task ny Zr 2 p<.1O p<.05
1 Infant's Laundry -.534 -.596 -3.62 * *
2 Household Cleaning -.422 -.450 -2.74 * *
3 Changing Diapers -.361 -.378 -2.30 * *
4 Bathing Infant -.236 -.240 -1.46
5 Reading to Infant -.161 -.161 - .98
6 Playing With Infant -.150 -.151 - .92
7 Staying With 111 Infant -.082 -.082 - .50
8 Feeding Infant -.O7O -.07O - .42
9 Getting Up at Night -.O6O -.060 - .36
10 Transporting to Doctor -.024 -.024 - .15
11 Teaching Infant .030 .030 .18
12 Putting Infant to Bed .104 .104 .63
13 Repairs in the House .390 .412 2.50 * *
14 Disciplining Infant .426 .455 2.77 * *

 

*Significant at this level.

Five tasks were significantly correlated with Sex Role Survey
totals at the .05 level. These are: Infant's Laundry, Household
Cleaning, Changing Diapers, Repairs in the House, and Disciplining
the Infant. Thus, as Sex Role Survey score totals declined and support
for equality increased, male commitment and time investments also sig-

nificantly increased for Infant's Laundry (Z = -3.62), Household

60

Cleaning (Z = -2.74), and Changing Diapers (Z = -2.30). However, as
Sex Role Survey totals declined and support for equality increased,
male investments significantly declined for Repairs in the House
(Z = 2.50) and Disciplining the Infant (Z = 2.77).

A ranking of Pearson coefficients for the Equality in Business
and Professions subcomponent, with transformations and Z scores, is

presented in Table 8.

Table 8.--Corre1ationa1 relationship: child-rearing tasks and
Equality in Business and the Professions.

 

 

Egyk Child-Reading Task ny Zr Z p<.lO p<.05
1 Infant's Laundry -.543 -.607 -3.69 * *
2 Household Cleaning -.427 -.457 -2.78 * *
3 Bathing the Infant -.327 -.339 -2.06 * *
4 Changing Diapers -.270 -.277 -l.68 *

5 Reading to Infant -.148 -.149 - .90

6 Playing With Infant -.084 -.O84 - .51

7 Staying With Ill Infant -.O35 -.035 - .21

8 Getting Up at Night -.O32 -.O32 - .19

9 Transporting to Doctor -.002 -.002 - .Ol
10 Teaching the Infant .069 .069 .42
ll Feeding the Infant .280 .280 1.75 *

12 Repairs in the House .307 .317 1.92 *
13 Putting Infant to Bed .347 .347 2.20 * *
14 Disciplining Infant .358 .374 2.27 * *

 

*Significant at this level.

Five tasks were significantly correlated at the .05 level.
These tasks are Infant's Laundry, Household Cleaning, Bathing the
Infant, Putting the Infant to Bed, and Disciplining the Infant. As

support for equality in business and professional activity increased,

61

male desired time-use also significantly increased for Infant's
Laundry (Z = -3.69), Household Cleaning (Z = -2.78), and Bathing the
Infant (Z = -2.06). As scores declined, increasing the support for
equality, male commitment to time-use significantly decreased for
Disciplining the Infant (Z = 2.27) and Putting the Infant to Bed
(Z = 2.20). One negative correlation was revealed at the .10 level:
Changing Diapers (Z = -l.68), which increased with support for equality.
Two positive relationships were revealed at the .10 level: Feeding the
Infant (Z = 1.75) and Repairs in the House (Z = 1.92), which decreased
with support for equality.

A ranking of tasks in correlation with the Equality in Sex
Appropriate Behavior subcomponent, with Z transformations and 2 scores,

is presented in Table 9.

Table 9.--Corre1ational relationship: child-rearing tasks and Equality
in Sex Appropriate Behavior.

 

P

 

R§2k Child-Rearing Task ny Zr Z p<.10 p<.05
1 Reading to Infant -.580 -.662 -4.024 * *
2 Infant's Laundry -.539 -.603 -3.660 * *
3 Changing Diapers -.488 -.534 -3.246 * *
4 Household Cleaning -.285 -.293 -l.780 *

5 Playing With Infant -.246 -.251 -1.530
6 Staying With Ill Infant -.233 -.237 -1.440
7 Bathing Infant -.221 -.225 -1.370
8 Putting Infant to Bed -.l98 -.201 -l.220
9 Getting Up at Night -.l73 -.175 -l.O6O
10 Teaching the Infant -.152 -.153 - .930
11 Feeding the Infant -.054 -.054 - .330
12 Transporting to Doctor .091 .091 .550
13 Disciplining Infant .474 .516 3.140 * *
l4 Repairs in the House .608 .707 4.300 * *

 

*Significant at this level.

62

Five tasks were significantly correlated with the subcomponent
of Equality in Sex Appropriate Behavior at the .05 level. These
include Reading to the Infant, Infant's Laundry, Changing Diapers,
Disciplining the Infant, and Repairs in the House. Thus, as support
for equality increased, male time investments significantly increased
for Reading to the Infant (2 = -4.02), Infant's Laundry (Z = -3.66),
and Changing Diapers (Z = -3.25). However, as support for equality
increased, male investments significantly decreased for the tasks of
Disciplining the Infant (2 = 3.14) and Repairs in the House (2 = 4.30).
One negative relationship was revealed at the .10 level: Household
Cleaning (Z = -1.78), which increased with support for Equality in
Sex Appropriate Behavior.

A ranking of tasks in correlation with the Equality in Social-
Domestic Work subcomponent, with Z transformations and Z scores, is
presentedirllable 10.

Four tasks were found to be significantly correlated with the
subcomponent of Equality in Social-Domestic Work. These include
Infant's Laundry, Household Cleaning, Changing Diapers, and Disciplin-
ing the Infant. As support for equality increased, commitment to
investments significantly increased for Infant's Laundry (Z = -3.16),
Household Cleaning (Z = -3.02), and Changing Diapers (Z = -2.04).
However, as support for equality on this subcomponent increased, male
desired time-use significantly decreased for Disciplining the Infant
(2 = 2.46). At the .10 level, a significant relationship was revealed
between increased support for Equality in Social-Domestic Work and a

decrease in the desired time-use for Teaching the Infant (Z = 1.73).

63

Table 10.--Correlational relationship: child-rearing tasks and
Equality in Social-Domestic Work.

 

 

:ggk Child-Rearing Task ny Zr 2 p<.1O p<.05
1 Infant's Laundry -.478 -.520 -3.16 * *
2 Household Cleaning -.460 - 497 -3.02 * *
3 Changing Diapers -.323 - 335 -2.04 * *
4 Bathing the Infant -.244 - 249 -l.51
5 Playing With Infant -.207 - 210 -1.28
6 Feeding the Infant -.l74 -.176 -l.O7
7 Reading to Infant -.152 -.153 - .93
8 Transporting to Doctor -.148 -.149 - .90
9 Repairs in House -.102 -.102 - .62

10 Putting Infant to Bed -.083 -.O83 - .50

11 Staying With Ill Infant -.O78 -.O78 - .47

12 Getting Up at Night -.009 -.009 - .05

13 Teaching Infant .278 .285 1.73 *

14 Disciplining Infant .384 .405 2.46 * *

 

*Significant at this level.

A ranking of tasks in correlation with the subcomponent of
Equality in Power in the Home, with Z transformations and 2 scores,
is presented in Table 11.

One task, Infant's Laundry, was found to be significantly
correlated at the .05 level. As support for Equality in Household
Power increased, the desired time-use of the male for the task of
Infant's Laundry (Z = -2.35) significantly increased. At the .10
level, there was an increase in desired time-use for Household

Cleaning (Z = -l.88) with increasing support for equality.

64

Table 11.--Correlational relationship: child-rearing tasks and
Equality in Power in the Home.

 

 

Egfik Child-Rearing Task ny Zr 2 p<.1O p<.05
1 Infant's Laundry -.386 -.387 -2.35 * *
2 Household Cleaning -.300 -.310 -1.88 *

3 Changing Diapers -.203 -.206 -1.25
4 Bathing the Infant -.l61 -.162 - .98
5 Playing With Infant -.117 -.118 - .72
6 Teaching Infant -.087 0.087 — .53
7 Staying With Ill Infant -.O86 -.O86 - .52
8 Transporting to Doctor -.052 - 052 - .32
9 Putting Infant to Bed -.008 -.008 - .05
10 Reading to Infant .006 .006 .04
11 Getting Up at Night .039 .039 .24
12 Feeding Infant .070 .070 .42
13 Repairs in the House .152 .153 .93
14 Disciplining Infant .179 .181 1.10

 

*Significant at this level.

 

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, DISCUSSION, AND IMPLICATIONS

Summary

One's internal system of social reference is the product of
socialization patterns strongly linked to the nature of that society.
Male disillusionment with the social superficialities of our system
has steadily increased (Yankelovich, 1981). This system has not
legitimately supported or acknowledged males in their more direct
contributions to the household. The emergence of greater male com-
mitment to child rearing, as one aspect of household time-use, implies
a transcendence of traditionally socialized values and perspectives.

The male's power base as teacher, expert, and producer within
the household has become reduced with a redirected and declining
commitment to the household and domestic space. From the exchange
perspective, commitment to a context is based on that context's
ability to reward and satisfy. For personal balance, successful
gratification and actualization may require symmetrical transactions
with all the systems defining the utility of the individual.

The area of child rearing is one context for a male's self-
identity. It could be a primary context for actualization. Fathers
and mothers could be equally effective caregivers. Indeed, paternal
interest in child-rearing tasks is a socialized response (Mulford &
Salisbury, 1964). This male reference frame has until recently been

65

66

firmly entrenched in the perception of maximum gains in areas out-
side the household realm (Oakley, 1974). According to Kagan (1971),
this process of socialization is the acquiring of dominant beliefs,
values, motives, and the culture's behaviors, so as to gradually
become increasingly similar to other members of a particular subgroup.
Males have placed a strong emphasis on work competence, independent of
family function. The commitment to the potentially meaningful,
growth-oriented aspects of the household has become only tangentially
rewarding to the male when he is, by definition, not family oriented.
A change in the perception of gratifying contexts is occurring for
the male.

Traditionally defined male roles and contextual commitments
have costs as well as benefits. An imbalance toward increased costs
has exacted a social transformation of norms. A postindustrial social,
economic, and psychological system of internal beliefs is emerging
(Illich, 1978). Many males are beginning to face the insecurity and
uncertainty of norms for future success that conflict with the tradi-
tionally established male value sets. As we emerge out of a period
of material affluence and into more expressive value systems, the
reference framework of many industrialized institutions has become
increasingly cumbersome, noncommunicative, and isolated from inter-
personal realities. The traditional male roles within these systems
have become increasingly ineffective and psychologically destructive.

The economic reality exists for a transcendence of tradi-
tionally socialized commitments for the male. Motivation for symmetry

in dyadic role investments needs to be supported and reinforced by

67

individual action. No foundational change in interpersonal negotia-
tions between males and females can be achieved without intimate
participation of males in child rearing (Fabrikant, 1978). Yet, to
date, a large percentage of the population refuses to support any
tampering with motherhood. What needs to emerge is an expanded orien-
tation and commitment of males to the understanding of fatherhood,

the dyad, children, and self. Males supporting the transcendence of
inequalities based on gender are a growing minority in the social
order. The conditions to necessitate the negotiation of changes in
family roles presently exist.

Little information exists regarding male reference frame-
works in the areas of gender equality and participation in domestic
and interpersonal roles. Russell (1978) claimed that a male's concept
of sex-appropriate behavior may be one influential factor over the
extent of his commitment to child-rearing activity. This investiga-
tion supported that conclusion. MacDonald (1974) argued that the
differences between supporters and nonsupporters of equality might
prove to be of critical value in this area. While few scientific
investigations have been undertaken in this area, this preliminary
work supported a correlation between commitment to child rearing and
support of equality between the sexes. The range and depth of the
modern roles for husband and father have yet to be clearly established.
The commitments and desires of the male as future parent may indeed
provide an accurate point of reference for the description of child-

rearing time-use.

68

Conclusions of This Investigation

A transition toward symmetrical commitment and time-use was
observed to be occurring on a number of fronts for this sample.

This population varied greatly in their attitudes toward equality
between the sexes. The group mean reflected support of equality in
the areas of business and professional activity, as well as in social-
domestic work. The group was neutral to the issue of equality in
household power and continued to make behavioral distinctions based on
traditionally defined gender roles.

Although the subjects were supportive of equality in all
systems, in the abstract, they were less supportive in actual behavioral
equality. This investigation suppbrted the conclusion that sex stereo-
types are still evident among many young adult males despite changes
in gender-related attitudes. In the area of future parental invest-
ment, the males desired an overall egalitarian commitment to child-
rearing tasks. They did, however, vary greatly in their perceived
desirability of child-rearing tasks. Many members of the sample
wanted to maintain the power to perpetuate parental reSponsibilities
in an asymmetrical manner. A minority of the respondents desired
extensive interaction with their future children. Adult male roles
did not appear to be as restrictive as once perceived. Yet a high
degree of variation existed between tasks in commitment and support.

The group of low-desirability tasks for the sample included
Infant's Laundry, Household Cleaning, Changing Diapers, and Bathing
the Infant. High-desirability tasks included Household Repairs,

Disciplining the Infant, Transporting to the Doctor, Teaching the

69

Infant, and Playing with the Infant. A number of tasks showed no
relationship to gender attitudes and were most clearly allocated
within symmetrical boundaries. Those tasks were Getting Up at Night,
Staying with an 111 Infant, Feeding the Infant, Putting the Infant to
Bed, and Reading to the Infant. While the group mean for the overall
allocation revealed a symmetrical balance, the distribution by spe-
cific task revealed greater conformity to the traditional, stereo-
typical roles for males.

The hypotheses concerned with the relationship between a
subject's responses on the Sex Role Survey and his commitment to
child-rearing tasks revealed correlational significance for the sub-
components of Equality in Business and the Professions, as well as
Equality in Sex Appropriate Behavior. These subcomponents were found
to be statistically significant with allocation totals. A broader
level of significance was revealed for the individual correlational
analysis of child-rearing tasks. For each of the subcomponents,
statistically significant individual relationships were uncovered.
Attitudes concerning Equality in Power in the Home did not strongly
relate to allocation variations. Total scores and the subcomponents
of Business and the Professions, Sex Appropriate Behavior, and Social-
Domestic Work all revealed similar relationships. As support increased
for equality between the sexes, the time allocated by the subjects for
traditional and stereotypical child-rearing tasks declined; meanwhile,
the allocation of time invested in nontraditional, female roles
increased toward symmetry. Symmetrical child rearing may indeed be

an emerging paternal phenomenon.

70

The males in this sample confronted the issue of child-
rearing task allocations from an abstract gestalt position of general
sexual equality and the male stronghold of business and the profes-
sions. The gender-role gestalt areas of equality in social and domes-
tic tasks, as well as household power, did not appear to be as firmly
entrenched in the male decision-making process, although this is the
context in which these specific commitments occur. In the American
male, neither area is significantly stressed in socialization.
Enhancement of these subcomponents may occur during actual partici-
pation and active investment by the male.

The roles and routines of the modern husband and father have
yet to be clearly established within domestic space. Trends have
revealed a steady movement away from the traditional perSpective of
male roles and may reflect a more androgynous leaning in the male's
gender-role gestalt (Mulford & Salisbury, 1964). In general, sup-
porters of equality reflect a high degree of androgyny, are more
symmetrical in household tasks, less authoritarian, and less cogni-
tively rigid.

Marital and parental roles have increasingly expanded in the
expressive-emotional domain as instrumental responsibilities have
been established within other social organizations. In recent history,
males have become isolated and in exile from the transactional and
interpersonal functions of the modern household. They have found
status, value, and commitment in areas almost solely outside the realm
of the household. All the subjects of this investigation saw father-

hood in a social-emotional context, but the vast majority of the males

71

had not as yet prepared for this future role, although, as Rossi
(1968) stated, our society has few useful guidelines for successful
parenthood.

The males in this investigation were sharing directly in all
child-care areas by establishing a commitment to future investment.
In 1974, MacDonald claimed that little had been done to reveal the
differences between supporters and nonsupporters of equality between
the sexes, though such information might prove to be of critical value.
For this investigation, attitudes on two dimensions of equality
between the sexes were related in a correlational manner to desired
time-use in child-care roles. Support for equality between the sexes
was generally related to shrinking parameters around the egalitarian
time-use. This investigation supported the conclusion that a male's
gender-role orientation may be an influential factor in the extent
and range of activity in which a male finds child-rearing time-use

desirable.

Limitations of the Study

 

This study was limited to the single male students enrolled
in the psychology division of Muskegon Community College in Muskegon,
Michigan. It is therefore not appropriate to generalized beyond
this group. The investigation was also limited by the selection of
instruments. The relationship between variables was not of a cause-
and-effect nature. The statistical use of a Pearson product-moment
coefficient was considered as the most accurate procedure for the

hypotheses tested. This context provided an Opportunity to use

72

Fisher transformation procedures for 2 scores relative to the

hypotheses.

Social Implications of This Study

A number of conclusions were revealed for this psycho-social
area. It is clear that for this sample, a broad range of variations
in gender-related attitudes existed. Astrong correlational relation-
shipwas also present between attitudes regarding equality in business
and professional roles and desired time-use in the area of child care.
A similar relationship existed for the subcomponent of Equality in
Sex Appropriate Behavior. The males in this sample confronted the
issue of child-rearing time-use from an abstract and distant attitude
position of general sexual equality and the male stronghold of the
workplace.

When investigating the mean across tasks, the males appeared
to desire a symmetrical contract in the area of child-rearing tasks.
It was not until individual tasks were correlated that the true
nature of the variations was revealed. It appears that the greatest
variations were between tasks, and the most likely place where asym-
metrical and stereotypical allocations are to be revealed. From the
male perspective, some tasks were perceived as highly desirable and
others as not. These categories matched the more traditional distri-
butions of child-rearing tasks. As support for equality increased,
there was a correlationally significant decrease in the time allo-
cated to these highly desirable, traditional roles. Simultaneously,

there was an increase in the time allocated to the least desirable,

73

traditionally female roles. The notion that gender-role identity
is one multidimensional parameter for desired male time-use patterns
in child care was supported.

If this sample is an accurate reflection of the male community-
college population, the contributions of this instrument may be in
providing a foundation for understanding reference positions for
interpersonal negotiations and contracts. While variations are quite
broad, there is strong support for domestic activity as a male source
of gratification. As the traditional, industrial value set is
transcended, investment in more intimate, interactional, and non-
stereotypical roles in child rearing is enhanced. Russell's (1978)
notion of child-rearing symmetry as an aspect of gender-role identity
appears to receive initial support and warrants further investigation.

Children are established within a social context aimed at
shaping, maintaining, and restraining attributes by defining and
clarifying behavioral boundaries. Male input in this area has yet
to be fully sanctioned or legitimized by the norms of society or the
research community. Because of this, male commitment in this area is
a strong, personal act. Baumrind (1980) was essentially correct in
her conclusion that "if men don't rear children, it is not because
they can't," but because they don't perceive of the activity as
rewarding (p. 645). Males have the power to perpetuate the asym-
metrical distribution of child rearing. Society supports a male
commitment to nonfamilial institutions.

To understand fully the process of dyadic mutualization as the

social context in which child care occurs. the internal reference

74

framework of both the female and male member must be clearly revealed.
Mutualization is indeed a process of communication and interpersonal
negotiation. One cannot accurately understand the coordination of
child-rearing roles and routines when failing to account for the
reference framework of the male as parent. The second-class treatment
of fathers in the research on child rearing cannot be condoned. Too
few have concerned themselves with the critical nature of child-care
allocations as a response in the male.

It is quite apparent from this investigation that males do
vary in their perceptions of child-rearing and individual tasks as
potential contexts for need gratification. An enhanced male commit-
ment to child care appears to be correlationally related to a trans-
formational shift away from traditional gender-role values. Further
research in this area is warranted. If the time a male is willing to
invest in a role is one accurate measure of the value of that role
for actualization and need gratification, a male desire for greater

sexual symmetry in time-use of child-care roles is indeed emerging.

Implications for Research

 

The male commitment to child care is alive and well. In
spite of early gender-role training, many males seem to have been
able to adapt successfully to this transition in role behavior. As
we place nonmarketable values at the center of our context of prime
commitment, this profound transformation in individual and social
images, values, and needs will become concrete (Illich, 1978).

Thought does precede action.

76

These males appear to confront child-care communications and
negotiations from an abstract perspective of general sexual equality
and the stronghold of business and the professions. The male ref-
erence framework is strongly entrenched in this work-role foundation.
Males have been socialized to perceive the world from this socialized
context. Changes in how males seek to organize child care are
expected to result in changes in male perceptions of their work-role
foundations. The holistic orientation of the organismic and humanis-
tic frameworks supports the notion of a reverberation effect in all
remaining institutions with increased male commitments to child care.
Institutions afford the means for achieving actualization as well as
presenting obstructions in the forms of threats and pressure.

A number of psycho-social factors exist to account for the
failure of many males to view child rearing as an actualizing context:

1. We are all susceptible to institutional manipulation.

2. Fear and an emphasis on social treats and pressures

have locked us into safety and security need fulfillment.

3. Our present cultural context does, in fact, stifle

actualizing attempts.

4. These internal habits are blocks to growth.

Society is awakening to the new cultural situation of male disillusion-
ment with the superficialities of consumerism.

Society can accommodate this new ethic of commitment to
family, closer personal relationships, and expressive values (Yankelo-
vich, 1981). Flexibility in work schedules may provide support for

a more balanced institutional commitment by males. Commitment to

76

the standard time framework of the work role has become a block to
increasing male investment in domestic areas. As well, enhancing the
value and economic support for part-time male employment would go

far to legitimize the actualization of both dyad members. Presently,
51 percent of women work outside the home (Yankelovich, 1981).
Yankelovich (1981) claimed that the majority of households with an
income greater than $25,000 have two primary income sources. Broader
support for job-sharing opportunities is warranted.

We cannot only expect a social transformation, but familial
changes as well. The internal framework of absolute individuality
and self-fulfillment is being transcended. In its place we are dis-
covering an ethic of commitment to family, group, deeper interper-
sonal communication, expressive values, and duty to others. This is
the true course of actualization. Now, many males are voicing their
commitment to such a transition. This commitment could have strong
socialization effects on the next generation. Family theory and
therapy must consider the wider range of male commitments during this
transformation. Males require categorization beyond that of gender
alone. This investigation also supported community inclusion of male
wants and needs relative to the family. Professionals need to be
providing male-oriented human and family services, as well as making
the commitment to include males and male issues in community family
education and planning.

According to Pleck (1979), two areas present themselves for
further investigation into male attitudes relative to child rearing

and domestic space:

77

1. Monitoring changes in male attitudes and behaviors.

2. The examination of emerging dyadic patterns.

There appears to be correlational significance between symmetrical/
asymmetrical child-care allocations and scores on MacDonald's (1974)
Sex Role Survey. This instrument provides an accurate monitor from
which to broaden our understanding of the attitudes related to child-
care time-use patterns. The first area of interest is the issue of
the relationship between general personality traits and variations in
male gender-related attitudes. The investigator concluded that the
relationship between these two areas can be presented by means of the
Institute for Personality and Ability Testing's 16 Personality Factors
Test (1979). A range of scores of over 16 personality parameters is
provided by this instrument, and this could be the next phase of
correlational research relative to child-care patterns.

A second change that could be monitored in the males relative
to child-rearing time-use patterns is in the area of contextual moti-
vators. Allport, Gordon, Vernon, and Lindzey (1960) provided an
interesting and accurate means of measuring values in the following
areas: theoretical, economic, aesthetic, social, political, and
religious. In correlation with the Sex Role Survey (MacDonald, 1974),
this could provide one means of uncovering the relationship between
child-rearing-task patterns in males and their underlying value foun-
dations with this Study of Values (Allport, Gordon, Vernon, & Lindzey,
1960). The investigator supports further exploration of this line of

research.

78

Relative to other institutions, variations in male occupational
interests may also provide added insight into personality patterns
relative to gender equality and child-care desires. The covaria-
tional relationship between the Sex Role Survey (MacDonald, 1974)
and the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey (Kuder, 1970) may provide
the most accurate response to this issue, as the general research
supports a relationship between occupation and child-rearing desires
and interests.

One final significant area for continued monitoring is
recommended in personality patterning and parameters. Toward the
goal of understanding the relationship between this area and atti-
tudes regarding equality between the sexes in social roles, a future
investigation of the covariational relationship between the Sex Role
Survey (MacDonald, 1974) and individual responses to the Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is warranted and proposed.
Of special interest are the subvariables of Ego Strength (ES),
Dependency (Dy), Dominance (00), Social Status (St), and Masculinity-
Femininity (MF) (Hathaway & McKinley, 1967).

These four additional channels of research will provide
further information in the areas of personality traits, contextual
motivators, occupational interests, and significant personality
patterning relative to attitudes concerned with sexual equality and
indirectly with male desired time-use patterns in child rearing.
While this degree of background data is believed to be a necessary
prerequisite to an accurate understanding of male-gender attitudes

and child-care desires, the relationship between desired time-use

79

and actual task performance remains unknown. It must be concluded
that a longitudinal investigation is warranted in light of this.

If child-rearing role allocation and commitment is a mutuali-
zation process, a number of interactional avenues need to be supported
and investigated. The process of mate selection and interaction is
one such issue. This raises the question of the relationship between
male-gender-related attitudes and the similar frameworks in selected
mates. A cross-referenced investigation of dyads on an instrument
such as the Cassel Test of Social Insight (1963) might further our
understanding in this area, relative to child rearing, when blocked
on Sex Role Survey scores of the dyad. These external variables may
have an influential effect on mate selection, as well as the resulting
interpersonal communications and negotiations.

Using Sex Role Survey data (MacDonald, 1974) as a blocking
mechanism is possible because within the area of child-rearing tasks,
a number of dyadic interaction patterns exist before actual perform-
ance. The investigator hypothesizes that dyadic pairs appear to fall

into four contractual formats:

 

Androgynous Male Traditional Male
Androgynous Female Androgynous Female
Androgynous Male Traditional Male
Traditional Female Traditional Female

 

The diagonal from lower left to upper right contains two extremes
which might be considered as "crossed" pairs. The diagonal from
upper left to lower right represents the extremes of a "matched" pair.

The investigator believes that the greatest internal reference

80

dissonance could be revealed for mate selections resulting in crossed
pairs. Further knowledge could be gained by blocking dyads on gender
orientations for an extensive investigation using dyadic responses on
the Marital Diagnostic Inventory in correlation (Navran, 1973). This
could circumvent the difficulty of referencing internal-reference
compatibility directly in the next round of study. Indeed, the
complexity of each individual negotiating goals from a need-gratifying
base is increased by the ongoing and rarely conscious nature of the
process. These ideas need to be empirically tested.

Relative to this line of questioning is the issue of the
distribution of these format types within our general population.
Are crossed pairs an inevitable side effect of the transition from
traditional asymmetrical distributions of role to more symmetrical
modes? Are negotiation incompatibilities a factor in our rising
national divorce rate? There is need for further understanding of
how tasks are negotiated in a dyadic relationship and the effects of
the behaviors associated with matched and crossed pairs on child-care
roles. It is now known from this investigation that gender-role
attitudes provide one instrument of access to the commitment of males
to the tasks and roles of child care. We need to enhance our under-
standing of the specific relationships between female-gender-related
attitudes and child-care commitments as well for accuracy in the
mutualization processes. Males view child-rearing time-use from a
framework linked strongly to overall behavioral equality and equality
in business and professional activity. Female-pattern strengths

remain relatively unknown.

81

Above all else, the child is at the center of child-rearing
tasks, allocations, and actual behavior. Socialization is a primary
household production function, relative to the child. The role of
the father is one vital aspect of the child's ecology. The nature
of the modern commitment to this function relative to other male
roles is still not clear. Does a relationship exist between time
invested in child care and the type and style of exchanges between
father and child? We are already aware that androgynous males are
less authoritarian. Further information about the male's reference
framework is necessary. Indeed, are gender-role variations only
indicative of quantitative shifts, or are qualitative measures the
more accurate assessor of the exchange? The final issue must remain
as the effect of symmetrical and asymmetrical task distributions on
the social development of the child and its own internal-reference
framework for gender role.

With the birth of the child, ongoing mutualization processes
concerning child rearing no longer reside in the abstract. Actual
behavior must be initiated and patterns performed. During this
period, the dyadic contracts become transformed into a triadic pro-
cess. Children are an influence on parental behavior. Yet the
emerging conceptualization of child care, commitments, investments,

and behaviors predates the actual existence of the child.

Reflections

 

Until recently, our social ethic optimized the separation of
the dyad (Oakley, l974). Males are now awakening to a new cultural

commitment to the household and child care. Although a recent

82

development, males are expanding their interest in child rearing
(Earl & Siegel, 1980). The true complexity of such communications
and negotiations cannot be accurately understood without full knowl-
edge of the value and need base of each member. Males do vary in
their perceptions, commitments, and investments in the context of
child rearing. Attitudes concerned with the issue of sexual equality
are related to male time-use desires for child-care activities. This
has been clearly supported by this investigation.

Becoming a parent is a critical transition in one's life. As
males have discovered the actualizing potential of child rearing,
fathers have become more intimately involved in the lives of their
children (Benson, 1968). The fact that the males of this investiga-
tion appeared interested in a balanced investment pattern overall
supports the notion that males may be more willing to make a commit-
ment to child care than females realize and even more than many feel
they should be (Dunn, 1960; Hartley & Klein, 1959). Male roles need
not be as restrictive as once perceived in our society. Yet this
investigation also supported the notion that many intimate child-
rearing roles are not compatible with the traditional masculine per-
spective of gender role. Fathers expressing attitudes of androgyny
were found to be more open to intimate involvement in day-to-day
care activities and play than those males classified as traditional
(Russell, 1978).

Within the parameters of our recent social transformation,
the commitment structure is changing toward realignment and a lessen-

ing of gender differences (Benson, 1968). Society is becoming aware

83

of this new cultural situation. The primary motivation for equality
will come through individual action. A change from a passive to an
active domestic role on the part of the male is a prerequisite to
balance in the dyad's commitment to domestic tasks. The status of
the household should change through the perception of it as a chal-
lenging, growth—oriented, achievement-directed context (Oakley, 1974).
Males may now be moving faster than females in their attitudes about
behavioral equality and participation in domestic and interpersonal
roles. This transitional male ethic toward household and expressive
goals may indeed be the post-industrial response to the radical
feminism of the 19605. The male commitment to parenthood may provide
a point of reference for the description of changes in this emerging
child-care framework. This new pattern of equality will not be lost
on the children, as they will perceive it as the natural order of

things (Benson, 1968).

APPENDICES

84

APPENDIX A

INVESTIGATION CONSENT FORM

85

86

INVESTIGATION CONSENT FORM Subject No.:
I.
A Study of Multidimensional II.
Attitudes Toward Social Roles III.
IV.
V.

 

I understand that the investigation being conducted by
Frederick L. Hinebaugh under the supervision of the Department of
Family and Child Ecology, Michigan State University, is for the
purpose of examining the relationships which may exist between my
attitudes and the legitimized roles within my self-identity. I
realize that the time required of me for the purpose of this investi-
gation will include only the time required by the information packet
I have just received. I understand that participation in this study
may not result in direct benefits for me, nor will I be penalized in
any fashion if I want to withdraw from participation. I also under-
stand that the information I provide by filling out these forms will
be kept strictly confidential. Only the researcher will have access
to the original forms, which reveal my identity, for the purpose of
addressing results. General results will be reported, but none of
these will identify the results of individual subjects. I know that
I will--upon request--receive a report of this study's general results,
within the restrictions of confidentiality as outlined above.

APPENDIX B

QUESTIONNAIRE BOOKLET

87

88

We are interested in knowing your own personal way of think-
ing and feeling regarding the following statements. Opinions differ,
and your own is as good as that of anyone else. We have tried to
cover many different and opposing points of view regarding males and
females. You may find yourself agreeing strongly with some of the
statements, disagreeing just as strongly with others, and perhaps
being uncertain about others. Mark each statement in the right
margin according to how much you agree or disagree with it. Please
mark every one. Circle +1, +2, +3, -1, -2, -3, depending on how you
feel in each case.

 

+1 = I agree a little -1 = I disagree a little
+2 = I agree on the whole -2 = I disagree on the whole
+3 = I agree very much -3 = I disagree very much

 

89

+1 = I agree a little -1 =
+2 = I agree on the whole -2 =
+3 = I agree very much -3 =

I disagree a little
I disagree on the whole
I disagree very much

 

301

402

103

304

205

306

108

409

310

311

412
413

214

216

117

Women have the same right to compete with
men in every sphere of economic activity.

As the head of the household the father

should have final authority over his children.

The entry of women into the business world
in direct competition with men should be
discouraged.

The relative amounts of time and energy
devoted to household duties on the one hand
and to a career on the other should be deter-
mined by personal desires and interests
rather than by sex.

A woman who has refused to bear children has
failed in her duties to her husband.

There should be a strict merit system of
public appointment without regard to sex.

Women should not be able to hold political
offices that involve great responsibility.

The husband should be regarded as the legal
representative of the family group in all
matters of law.

Women should be given equal opportunities
with men for vocational and professional
training.

Married women should struggle against
enslavement by domestic obligation.

The man should "wear the pants" in the family.

A husband has the right to expect his wife to
be obliging and dutiful at all times.

There is no particular reason why a girl
standing in a crowded vehicle or building
should expect a man to offer her his seat.

There are many words and phrases which are
unfit for a woman's lips.

On the average, women should be regarded as
less capable of contributing to economic
production than are men.

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1
+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2
+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3
+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

-1

90

+1 = I agree a little -1 =
+2 = I agree on the whole -2 =
+3 = I agree very much -3 =

I disagree a little
I disagree on the whole
I disagree very much

 

119

221

222

423

424

4/325

126

327

228

229

130

131

233

234

136

A woman should not be expected to go to the
same places or to have quite the same freedom
of action as a man.

It is naturally proper for parents to keep
daughters on the average under closer con-
trol of action than a man.

Women should always take the passive role
in courtship.

In general the father should have greater
authority than the mother in bringing up
children.

The husband should be favored by law in the
disposal of the family property or income.

A mother's authority as regards the chil-
dren should be equivalent to that of the
father.

It is a disgrace to have one's wife working
outside the home in competition with men.

Women should not be expected to subordinate
their careers to home duties to any greater
extent than men.

A husband has the right to expect his wife
to bear him children.

Women in their dress should place feminine
modesty before utility.

No matter how they are treated, the majority
or women seem to be bossy and nagging.

Women should be concerned with the duties of
child rearing and house tending, rather than
with foolish desires for professional and
business careers.

There is hardly anything more revolting than
seeing a woman dress, act, and cuss like a
man. '

A woman should be proud to take her husband's
name at marriage.

Expensive vocational and professional train-
ing should be given only to men.

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2 +3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

91

+1 = I agree a little -1 = I disagree a little
+2 = I agree on the whole -2 = I disagree on the whole
+3 = I agree very much -3 = I disagree very much

 

137

238

139

140

343

145

247

148
149

150

151

352

153

254

156

A woman should keep herself an attractive
love object and not worry about her rights.

It is infinitely more disgusting to hear
profanity from the lips of a woman than
from a man.

Women are generally more unreliable than
men in their personal relations.

Women should recognize that it is foolish
to attempt to equal men in business and
the professions.

A married woman has an equal right with
her husband to work outside the home.

Despite the ideal of equality of the sexes,
there are certain jobs, like that of President
of the United States, which are too important
to be held by a woman.

Women have an obligation to uphold modesty
in dress.

Women do not belong in politics.

Training for cultural and political leader-
ship should be restricted to men.

Women should take increasing responsibility
for leadership in solving the intellectual
problems of the day.

Men are naturally more capable than women
in financial matters.

Under modern economic conditions, involving
women outside the home, men should share in
household tasks such as washing the dishes.

If women must have a college education, they
should be limited to a general cultural
course and stay out of professional schools
netirely.

A woman on the average needs male protec-
tion and guidance.

It must be admitted that the average woman
has a rather narrow sense of justice.

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1
+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2
+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3
+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

+1 = I agree a little -1 =
+2 = I agree on the whole -2 =
+3 = I agree very much -3 =

92

I disagree a little
I disagree on the whole
I disagree very much

 

158 Women should give up their false ideal

159

160

361

362

263

of intellectual equality with men.

It is ridiculous for a woman to run a
locomotive and for a man to darn socks.

Sons in a family should in general be given
training for careers in preference to
the daughters.

The ideal marriage is one in which the
husband and wife share equally in housework
and outside work.

A father should spend just as much time
taking care of the children as does the
mother.

It is not a good idea for the mother of
small children to work outside the home.

Turn to next page.

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+2

+3

+3

+3

+3

+3

93
Desired Allocation of Child-Rearing Tasks

The role of father is one of many roles you may become involved
in at some future time. Fatherhood is indeed one basis for a man's
self-identity. Although there is increased emphasis on the role of
father in the family, fathers have been neglected in family research.
For the listed child-rearing activities, we are interested in knowing
the amount of time you see yourself investing relative to your spouse.
Considering a 100 percent need for each activity, from your future
infant (age 0-1 year), fill in the percentage of time ypu_find most
desirable. Desired times in an activity may differ; your choice is
as good as that of anyone else. Now, please fill in the percentage

that most accurately supports your feelings about the following activi-
ties.

YOUR DESIRED PERCENTAGE
(0-100% for each item)

1. Changing Diapers % out of 100%
2. Reading to Infant %
3 Infant's Laundry %
4. Disciplining Infant %
5 Getting Up at Night %
6 Playing with Infant %
7. Staying with 111 Infant %
8. Teaching Infant %
9. Bathing Infant %
lO. Transporting to Doctor %
11. Putting Infant to Bed %
12. Repairs in the House %
13. Feeding the Infant %

14. Household Cleaning %

94

TOWARD A BROADER UNDERSTANDING OF FATHERING:

List five characteristics or attitudes you feel are important
for a future role as father:

1.

 

 

 

boom

 

 

How have you prepared for the future role of father?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

APPENDIX C

RAW DATA

95

I"

Table C-l.--Sex Role Survey:

subject scores and totals.

96

 

 

Subject I II III IV V
l 90 8O 29 40 239
2 65 65 30 25 185
3 69 53 28 26 176
4 59 6O 21 40 180
5 59 65 34 20 178
6 58 53 24 29 164
7 69 66 33 27 195
8 33 51 14 24 122
9 53 73 22 32 180

10 55 59 4O 31 185
ll 48 57 21 25 151
12 46 68 26 20 160
13 96 7O 4O 37 243
14 26 4O 22 33 121
15 41 62 27 34 164
16 79 80 4O 43 242
17 37 58 13 20 128
18 69 69 26 35 199
19 83 76 41 38 238
20 38 46 29 23 136
21 4O 65 37 40 182
22 52 67 23 35 177
23 63 62 29 16 170
24 71 65 33 20 189
25 33 53 19 24 129
26 27 52 23 13 115
27 79 68 31 40 218
28 31 34 13 24 102
29 74 50 27 23 174
30 68 63 36 28 195
31 31 27 12 14 84
32 72 66 4O 36 214
33 29 44 16 17 106
34 38 64 18 32 152
35 45 38 22 18 123
36 58 65 27 41 191
37 41 64 22 19 146
38 44 38 37 29 148
39 35 55 25 17 132
40 52 67 28 38 185

 

97

Table C-2.--Participation as Father Scale: subject ratings and totals.

 

Subject Task Number

 

 

Total
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

l 10 70 0 100 50 50 20 50 50 100 50 100 50 O 700

2 0 10 0 50 0 20 O 15 0 100 10 100 10 50 365

3 50 50 30 50 50 60 50 50 50 80 50 75 50 40 735

4 5 35 15 55 40 50 35 50 25 25 40 75 35 50 545

5 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 5O 50 75 50 50 725

6 50 50 5O 80 100 80 100 100 80 100 100 100 70 50 1,110

7 10 40 10 60 50 50 100 50 30 90 50 9O 30 10 670

8 10 50 0 50 10 50 50 50 10 100 50 80 3O 50 570

9 20 50 20 50 50 50 50 50 20 100 50 100 20 100 730

10 2 60 10 50 50 75 40 75 20 60 50 80 40 30 642
ll 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 90 50 50 740
12 5 25 0 50 25 50 50 50 10 50 50 100 50 50 565
13 30 50 10 60 20 50 100 90 50 8O 90 100 80 61 871
14 40 50 40 50 30 50 50 60 40 60 40 85 25 30 660
15 50 75 20 50 40 60 20 75 30 40 50 80 30 30 650
16 15 30 1 90 50 60 10 50 5 30 50 98 20 15 524
17 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 700
18 20 20 10 20 20 40 20 20 20 40 20 80 20 20 270
19 20 50 5 90 30 30 20 50 10 20 20 100 20 5 470
20 10 35 20 50 50 68 40 55 45 6O 50 70 30 50 633
21 20 50 30 70 50 50 50 50 40 50 50 80 20 30 640
22 45 65 50 70 50 60 40 60 69 8O 82 90 60 50 751
23 40 50 30 7O 40 60 60 60 60 100 70 90 8O 70 880
24 30 50 10 65 50 70 50 50 40 4O 50 70 40 30 645
25 20 50 50 50 50 50 30 50 3O 20 40 70 30 50 590
26 30 50 40 50 50 50 50 50 70 50 50 90 40 50 720
27 20 4O 20 60 50 50 40 50 40 50 50 50 50 40 610
28 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 700
29 25 50 0 15 60 75 40 75 2 5 50 75 30 10 512
30 25 60 5 75 50 4O 20 50 35 0 50 90 6O 35 595
31 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 700
32 20 60 10 6O 50 50 20 50 20 30 40 75 20 10 515
33 10 70 10 50 30 50 30 50 10 80 20 100 40 40 590
34 50 50 50 50 50 70 50 50 50 50 50 70 50 50 740
35 50 75 25 75 50 75 0 75 50 25 75 9O 50 50 815
36 30 50 10 80 50 50 50 60 30 50 50 80 40 30 660
37 20 40 15 55 50 60 50 50 40 60 50 74 60 40 665
38 30 60 20 70 50 40 40 40 20 60 40 70 20 30 590
39 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 80 50 50 730

 

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