The Gender Roles Expectations Scale for Women in Indian context

Pages: 1510-1514
Archana Kamble and Gautam Gawali (Department of Applied Psychology, University of Mumbai, Mumbai, Maharashtra)

Many customs and traditions (CTs) from patriarchal societies are women-targeted, like in India. Following such CTs under the religious influence, the societies form the rigid gender roles for women often restricting their independence to prove themselves in outside world with a large burden of domestic responsibilities. Women also seem to accept and comply with these gender roles ritualistically with almost no complaints. Developing the Gender Roles Expectations Scale (GRES) is an attempt by the authors to identify some major gender roles expected from women. It is a 7-point rating scale intended to study the extent to which women accept and internalize these expectations. On the basis of findings of earlier research conducted in the field, book references, and observations; total eight important domains were identified and total 75 items were developed, pertaining to gender roles. The GRES was divided into three subscales: Societal Expectations (SE), Personal Expectations (PE), and Expectations from Self (ES).Total 25 items were assigned to each subscale allied with eight domains. The GRES was further subject to experts’ comments followed by a pilot study.