Beliefs About Women Scale (BAWS)

Abstract

The Beliefs About Women Scale (BAWS) is a widely utilized psychological instrument designed to quantify individuals’ adherence to stereotypic beliefs about women. Developed primarily by Snell and Godwin, this comprehensive self-report measure assesses various dimensions of gender stereotypes, which are relevant to understanding personal functioning, cognitive activity, and interpersonal relationships in both men and women. The scale is fundamental for researchers examining the societal and psychological impact of traditional beliefs regarding female roles and characteristics.

Keywords

Beliefs About Women Scale, BAWS, Gender stereotypes, Sex Roles, Stereotypes, Attitudes towards women, Psychological assessment, Self-report scale, Gender roles.

Authors

Snell, W. E., Jr., Godwin, L.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the BAWS is the comprehensive assessment of attitudes and beliefs held by individuals concerning women. It is specifically designed to measure how strongly respondents endorse various traditional and non-traditional stereotypic beliefs across multiple domains, including competence, emotionality, sexuality, and interpersonal behavior.

The scale was developed to move beyond global measures of sexism, allowing researchers to investigate specific, nuanced stereotypes and their correlations with personal adjustment, mental health standards, and social reactions, such as those related to acquaintance rape scenarios.

Construct

The BAWS measures the multidimensional construct of Stereotypic Beliefs About Women. This construct is operationalized through fifteen distinct, yet related, subscales that capture specific facets of gender-based assumptions. These facets range from perceived differences in dominance, passivity, and vulnerability to beliefs about cognitive aptitude, career motivation, and morality. The resulting multifactorial structure allows for a detailed profile of specific stereotypes endorsed by the respondent, facilitating a deeper understanding of the complexity of gender roles.

Validity

The validity of the BAWS is established through extensive empirical work by the authors, detailed in key references, including the 1986 scale development and validation paper. Evidence for construct validity is supported by the scale’s ability to correlate logically with other measures of gender attitudes and related psychological variables, such as moderators of stress-distress relationships.

The scale’s structure, composed of 15 distinct, empirically derived subscales, reinforces its claim to measure a broad, multifaceted construct of stereotypic beliefs, demonstrating strong differentiation among the various dimensions of beliefs about women.

Reliability

Information concerning the internal consistency and test-retest reliability for the BAWS subscales is detailed in the original validation literature. The development process, which involved refinement and subsequent factor analysis, aimed to ensure that the internal consistency of the 15 subscales was adequate for research purposes.

High internal consistency indicates that the items within each subscale reliably measure their intended facet of the stereotype, providing confidence in the precision of the scores derived for each of the fifteen dimensions.

Factor Analysis

The comprehensive structure of the Beliefs About Women Scale is predicated on a robust factor analysis approach, which resulted in the identification of fifteen distinct subscales. Each subscale is composed of five items designed to measure a specific, unitary dimension of stereotypic beliefs.

This multifactorial structure allows for a granular analysis of stereotypes, differentiating, for instance, beliefs related to emotional insight from those related to social dominance or manipulative behaviors. The original development papers from 1986 and 1989 provide full details regarding the factor structure and item loadings that support this 15-factor model.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report psychological scale measuring attitudes and beliefs about women.

Format: 75 items utilizing a 5-point Likert scale response format (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree).

Language Available: English (Original validation).

Population Group: General adult population, frequently utilized with college student samples.

Age Group: Typically 18 years and older.

Population Details: Used to assess stereotypic beliefs in both male and female respondents, linking these beliefs to measures of personal functioning and interpersonal relationships.

Test Methodology: Respondents indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with each statement on a 5-point scale (scored from -2 to +2). Scoring involves implementing reverse coding for specific items (16, 31, 61, 32, 18, 49, 50, 21, 36, 37, 52, 23, 54, and 26), and then averaging scores within the 15 subscales. Items 37, 52, and 59 are designated as filler items and are excluded from the final computation of subscale scores. Higher positive scores correspond to greater agreement with the relevant stereotype.

Keywords

Psychological assessment, Gender roles, Sexism, Dominance, Passivity, Emotionality, Cognitive aptitude, Likert scale, Subscales, Psychometrics.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not specified in the source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Contact information for W. E. Snell, Jr. and L. Godwin must be sought through their respective academic institutions.

Correspondence Address: Details not provided in the source entry.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Beliefs About Women Scale (BAWS) was initially developed and validated in 1986. Specific details regarding current licensing fees and formal permissions for use are not provided in the original entry. Researchers interested in utilizing the scale should consult the foundational articles or contact the primary authors, W. E. Snell, Jr. or S. S. Belk, for guidance on research use.

Reference’s

The primary psychometric information for the BAWS is detailed in the following key references:

• Snell, W. E., Jr. & Godwin, L. (1993). Social reactions to depictions of casual and steady acquaintance rape: The impact of AIDS exposure and stereotypic beliefs about women. Sex Roles, 29, 599-616.
• Snell, W. E., Jr., Holtzman, W., Jr., Belk, S. S., Garcia, R., & Hernandez, J. E. (1990). The influence of counseling orientation and culture on mental health standards for women and men. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 14, 73-88.
• Belk, S. S., & Snell, W. E., Jr. (1989). Stereotypic beliefs about women as moderators of stress-distress relationships. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 45, 665-672.
• Belk, S. S., Snell, W. E., Jr., Holtzman, W. H., Jr., Garcia-Falconi, R., & Hernandez-Sanchez, J. E. (1989). The impact of ethnicity, nationality, therapy orientation, and mental health standards on stereotypic beliefs about women: A pilot study. Sex Roles, 21, 671-695.
• Belk, S. S., & Snell, W. E., Jr. (1986). Beliefs about women: Components and correlates. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 12, 403-412.
• Belk, S. S., & Snell, W. E., Jr. (1986). The Beliefs About Women Scale (BAWS): Scale development and validation. Social and Behavioral Sciences Documents, 16, 10.
• Hampton, B., Lambert, F., & Snell, W. E., Jr. (1986). Therapists’ conceptions of mentally healthy beliefs for women and men. Journal of Rational – Emotive Therapy, 4, 107-124.

Items of the Beliefs About Women Scale (BAWS)

INSTRUCTIONS: The statements listed below describe attitudes toward men and women which different people have. There are no right or wrong answers, only opinions. Indicate how much you agree or disagree with each statement, using the following scale:

• A = Strongly Disagree.
• B = Slightly Disagree.
• C = Neither agree nor disagree.
• D = Slightly Agree.
• E = Strongly Agree.

1. Women are less dominating than
2. Women are more passive than men
3. Women are more vulnerable than men
4. Women can deal with their emotions better than men
5. Women are more interpersonally concerned than
6. Women are less career motivated than
7. Women are inferior to men in their cognitive
8. Men can make decisions easier than
9. Women don’t generally like to be active in their sexual
10. Women are not very responsible during their menstrual
11. Women are more concerned with their physical appearance than men
12. Women like to tease men
13. Women set the standards for moral
14. Women are more frivolous than
15. Women tend to pout if they don’t get their
16. Women are more competitive than
17. Women comply more often than men
18. Men are more excitable in a major crisis than women
19. Women are more emotional than
20. Men cannot relate to other persons as well as women
21. Women care as much as men do about developing a job
22. Men are superior to women in
23. Women are more self-reliant than
24. Most women don’t like to express their
25. When they are on their periods, women are easily
26. Men are as conceited about their appearance as women
27. Women use seductive behavior to lead men
28. Women should be treated with great
29. Women are more likely than men to act in silly
30. Withholding favors is one of the primary ways women obtain their goals.
31. Women are more interested than men in being in control of their lives.
32. Men are as submissive as women
33. Women’s feelings are more easily hurt than men’s.
34. Women have more insight into their feelings than men
35. Women are usually more aware of other people’s feelings than men
36. Women are as skillful in business-related activities as men
37. Men are not as analytical as women
38. Men make better leaders than women
39. Most women want their partner to take the initiative in their sexual
40. Women are very emotional during their
41. Women spend more time attending to their physical appearance than men
42. Women usually say no (sexually) when they really mean
43. Women are more devout individuals than men
44. Women are more childish than men
45. Women try to get what they want by being
46. Men want power more than women
47. Women tend to give up more easily than men
48. Women have more need for security than
49. Men can express tender emotions better than women
50. Men are usually m ore loyal to their partner/spouse than women
51. Women dislike being in leadership positions more than men
52. Women have greater mechanical aptitude than
53. Women are usually less well-organized than
54. Women are as interested in sex as men
55. When a woman is on her period, she cannot concentrate very
56. Women pay more attention to their looks than most men
57. Women act in seductive ways just to play around with
58. Men are not as sensitive to profanity as women.
59. Men are less sophisticated than women.
60. Women tend to use their emotions to control
61. Women are more aggressive than men
62. Women are more easily influenced than men
63. Women are more fearful than men
64. Women are more honest in expressing their emotions than men
65. Women are more understanding of people than men
66. Women don’t like responsibility as much as men
67. Men are better at science and math than women
68. Women are generally not as competent as men
69. Women’s sexual desires are less intense than men’s
70. Women’s menstrual cycle makes them unfit for major leadership
71. Women gain more status through their physical appearance than men
72. Women like to flirt and tantalize men.
73. Women are more spiritual than
74. Women are more innocent-looking than
75. Women usually threaten to cry if then can’t have their own

Subscales of the Beliefs About Women Scale (BAWS)

The BAWS consists of fifteen separate subscales, with five items contributing to the score of each subscale:

1. Women are less dominating than (Items 1, 16, 31, 46, 61)
2. Women are more passive than (Items 2, 17, 32, 47, 62)
3. Women are more vulnerable than (Items 3, 18, 33, 48, 63)
4. Women have more emotional insight than (Items 4, 19, 34, 49, 64)
5. Women are more interpersonal than (Items 5, 20, 35, 50, 65)
6. Women are less career interested than (Items 6, 21, 36, 51, 66)
7. Women are less intelligent than (Items 7, 22, 37, 52, 67)
8. Women are less decisive than (Items 8, 23, 38, 53, 68)
9. Women are less sexual than (Items 9, 24, 39, 54, 69)
10. Menstruation debilitates (Items 10, 25, 40, 55, 70)
11. Women are more appearance conscious than (Items 11, 26, 41, 56, 71)
12. Women are sexual (Items 12, 27, 42, 57, 72)
13. Women are more moral than (Items 13, 28, 43, 58, 73)
14. Women act sillier than men (Items 14, 29, 44, 59, 74)
15. Women use manipulative strategies. (Items 15, 30, 45, 60, 75)