Self-perceptions of life-span gender-role development

This article discusses two studies in which participants reported on self-perceptions of life-span gender-role variability based upon their expected or past performance in normative age-related developmental tasks. In Study 1, students rated themselves on the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) at the present time and in two prospective tasks (parenthood and retirement). In Study 2, retired adults completed the PAQ at the present time and in two retrospective tasks (work-entry and parenthood). Both studies showed that participants perceived their masculine and feminine gender-role attributes as varying significantly as a result of the function of the three rating contexts, and both masculinity and femininity were perceived to increase from the chronologically earliest of these tasks to the latest.