Streamlining measurements of gendered personality: integrating the Bem Sex-role inventory into national surveys

This paper validates a brief four item scale that measures gendered personality in place of the 20-question Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI). Gendered personality measures whether people conform to different personality traits commonly associated with men and women. The concept comes from psychology, but is also shown to predict various aspects of political behavior. However, because of its length, it has not been more widely integrated into national surveys. This paper uses new survey data to identify a set of two masculine and two feminine traits that can serve as a shorter version of the BSRI in future research.