Sandra Bem

Sandra Ruth Lipsitz Bem was born June 22, 1944 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Peter and Lillian Lipsitz. She grew up in a "working class" family, with one younger sister. She is married to Daryl Bem, also a psychology professor .

Educational and Career History

Bem attended Carnegie-Mellon University (1961-1965) and majored in psychology. Subsequently, she entered the University of Michigan in 1965 and obtained her Ph.D. in developmental psychology in 1968 . Her early work focused on the behavior of young children and their ability to solve problems, and utilize self-control and instruction. After obtaining her Ph.D., she worked as a professor at Carnegie-Mellon for three years and then moved on to work at Stanford University, where she worked until 1978. She then took an associate professor position at Cornell University and still is a professor emeritus there today .

Influences to the field of psychology

Bem is an American psychologist known for her works in androgyny and gender studies . In her early career, she was heavily involved in women's liberation movement, and she did work on sex-biased job advertising. Her involvement lead to being a contributor to landmark cases concerning recruitment of women in the work force against companies such as AT&T and the Pittsburgh Press.

She asserted that masculine and feminine dimensions could be divided into two spheres, rather than one. A person with high masculine and low feminine identification would be categorized as "masculine". A person with high feminine identification and low masculine identification, would be categorized as "feminine". A person who had high identification with both characteristics would be categorized as "androgynous". A person who has low identification with both dimensions would be considered "undifferentiated".

One of her main arguments was that traditional gender roles are restrictive for both men and women, and can have negative consequences for individuals as well as society as a whole . She also created the Bem Sex Role Inventory (1971) which assesses masculine and feminine traits and behaviors on a continuum, and also includes a scale for androgyny. Further, Bem contributed to developing gender schema theory which assumes that in some individuals for which gender or sex is a salient characteristic, it can be a category by which these individuals organize objects and actions, and view the world through the lens of their gender . This theory was the first to suggest gender as a possible cognitive processing schema that results from cultural circumstances. Critics of Bem's work generally argued against the political nature of her theories and her objectivity in the material which she studied.

Works

• Bem, Sandra L. (1974). "The measurement of psychological androgyny". Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 42, 155-62.
• Bem, Sandra L. and C. Watson. (1976). "Scoring packet: Bem Sex Role Inventory". Unpublished Manuscript
• Bem, S. L. (1976). "Sex typing and androgyny: Further explorations of the expressive domain". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 1016.
• Bem, S. L. (1976). "Sex typing and the avoidance of cross-sex behavior". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 33, 48.
• Bem, S. L. (1977). "On the utility of alternative procedures for assessing psychological androgyny". Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 54, 196-205
• Bem, S. L. (1977). The 1977 annual handbook for group facilitators.
• Bem, S. L. (1979). "Theory and measurement of androgyny: A Reply to the Pedhazur- Tetenbaum and Locksley- Colten Critiques." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1047.
• Bem, S. L., & Andersen, S. M. (1981). "Sex typing and androgyny in dyadic interaction: Individual differences in responsiveness to physical attractiveness." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 74.
• Bem, S. L. (1981). "Gender schema theory: A cognitive account of sex typing source". Psychological Review, 88, 354.
• Bem, S. L. (1981). "The BSRI and gender schema theory: A reply to Spence and Helmreich". Psychological Review, 88, 369-71.
• Bem, S. L. (1982). "Gender schema theory and self-schema theory compared: A comment on Markus, Crane, Bernstein, and Siladi's "Self-schemas and gender"". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43,1192
• Bem, S. L. (1989). "Genital knowledge and gender constancy in preschool children". Child Development, 60, 3.
• Bem, S. L. (1993). The lenses of gender: Transforming the debate on sexual inequality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
• Bem, S. L. (1995). "Dismantling gender polarization and compulsory heterosexuality: Should we turn the volume down or up?" Journal of Sex Research, 32, 329-334.
• Bem, S. L. (1998), An Unconventional Family. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
• Bem, S. L., Schellenberg, E. G., & Keil, J. M. (1995). ""Innocent victims" of AIDS: Identifying the subtext". Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 25, 1790-1800.
• Chesler, P., Rothblum, E. D., & Cole, E. ( 1995). Feminist foremothers in women's studies, psychology, and mental health. New York: Haworth Press.
• Frable, D. E. S. and Bem, S. L. (1985). "If you are gender schematic, all members of the opposite sex look alike". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 459.