The Sex-Role Attitudes of Three Generations of Women

Abstract

This study investigated the attitudes toward women held by three generations of 43 females college students, their mothers, and their maternal grandmothers. Attitude was assessed by the 55-item Attitude Toward Women Scale (A WS) (Spence & Helmreich, 1972). Students were the most liberal in their attitudes and grandmothers were the most conservative, with the attitudes of the mothers in the middle reflecting slightly more conservative attitudes than the students. Significant familial relationships were found between student-mother and mother-grandmother A WS scores, whereas the A WS scores of students and grandmothers were not related. Age and education predicted A WS scores, accounting for 30%0 of the variance for the total sample. Age was negatively related, and educational level positively related to liberal attitudes.