Sex role complementarity versus similarity in married couples

Abstract

Surveyed 108 Australian married couples about the effect of sex roles on their marital happiness. Questionnaires included the Bem Sex-Role Inventory and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Measures of the sex-role orientation and happiness of each partner with the relationship permitted an evaluation of the similarity and complementarity hypotheses as well as an assessment of the general compatibility of sex-role combinations. Results provide substantial evidence for the importance of femininity in relationships; the happiness of the husband was positively related to the wife's femininity, and the happiness of the wife was positively related to the husband's femininity. Couples in which both partners were high on femininity (androgynous and feminine) were far happier than were couples in which at least one of the partners was low on this dimension. Although similarity of both masculinity and femininity between partners was associated with happiness, the complementarity hypothesis was convincingly refuted in terms of both happiness and choosing a partner. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1983 American Psychological Association.