Functional Analysis of Sex Roles

T HE CONCEPT of social roles with special reference to sex and age roles has been the subject of increasing sociological interest. But the of sex roles in various segments of our society requires further systematic empirical study. This paper attempts to outline what is believed to constitute a fruitful theoretical orientation for such research and to illustrate the application of this theoretical approach in a pilot study, involving twenty intensive case histories of middle class urban married women, in the summer of I949. The study was focused on the problem aspects of sex roles, and while the discussion will be thus delimited, the theoretical approach it advocates appears equally applicable to other aspects of this general subject. That there exists a great deal of strain in women's roles among the urban middle classes is generally recognized but the description and analysis of this phenomenon remain to be developed. The mere diversity of roles that women must play at different ages or in different relations need not in itself create a problem. Many societies show such diversity without causing either social conflict or personal disorganization. Indeed in any society, age, sex, class, occupation, race, and ethnic background involve the individual in a variety of socially sanctioned patterns of interaction vis-a-vis different categories of persons. Why, then, to put the question most generally, do sex roles today present such an arena of social and mental conflict? Probably the most influential and systematically developed answer to this question today is the one found in psychiatric literature. This answer centers upon two