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Sex Roles

  • ️Thu May 04 2023

Synonyms

Definition

Sex roles refer to culturally shared expectations about the typical (descriptive norms) and appropriate (prescriptive norms) or inappropriate (proscriptive norms) characteristics, behaviors, and occupations of a person based on their presumed or actual sex/gender. These expectations are most commonly based on a binary, complementary, naturalizing, and essentializing understanding of masculinity and femininity.

Introduction

In virtually every society, it is assumed that people can be unambiguously classified in one of two sexes, namely male and female. According to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), sex is “[a] multidimensional construct based on a cluster of anatomical and physiological traits (sex traits)…which include: external genitalia, secondary sex...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany

    Sarah Buhl, Jennifer L. Führer & Frank Asbrock

Authors

  1. Sarah Buhl

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  2. Jennifer L. Führer

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  3. Frank Asbrock

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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah Buhl .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, ROCHESTER, MN, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Gavin Vance

  3. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester Hills, MI, USA

    Madeleine K. Meehan

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Buhl, S., Führer, J.L., Asbrock, F. (2023). Sex Roles. In: Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sexual Psychology and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08956-5_2133-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08956-5_2133-1

  • Received: 18 November 2022

  • Accepted: 02 December 2022

  • Published: 04 May 2023

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-08956-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-08956-5

  • eBook Packages: Living Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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