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Sandra Ruth Lipsitz Bem (June 22, 1944 – May 20, 2014) was an American psychologist known for her works in androgyny and gender studies. Her pioneering work on , gender polarizationPolygendered and Ponytailed: The Dilemma of Femininity and the Female Athlete, 2009, Women's Press, Dayna B. Daniels, Gender polarization, Retrieved Aug. 22, 2014, (see page 29) "...Gender polarization can be defined as the organizing principle upon which many cultures and their social institutions have been created...Bem, S. (1993). Gender polarization. The lenses of gender: transforming the debate on sexual inequality, (pp. 80–82). Binghamton, NY: Vail-Ballou Press. and gender stereotypes led directly to more equal employment opportunities for women in the United States.
Early on in Bem's career she created the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI), which is an inventory that acknowledges that individuals may exhibit both male and female characteristics. The BSRI is a scale developed to determine what kind of sex role an individual fulfills. It is a self-report inventory that asks participants how well 60 different attributes describe themselves by using a seven-point scale. These attributes reflect the definition of masculinity (20 questions) and femininity (20 questions), and the remaining 20 questions were merely filler questions (Bem, 1993). In this inventory the feminine and masculine items were chosen on what was culturally appropriate for males and females at that time in the early 1970s. The BSRI was later used to measure psychological flexibility and behavioral indicators. Bem also developed the gender schema theory. According to the gender schema theory, "the child learns to evaluate his or her adequacy as a person in terms of the gender schema, to match his or her preferences, attitudes, behaviors, and personal attributes against the prototypes stored within it."Bem, S.L. (1981).
Gender schema theory; A cognitive account of sex typing, Psychological Review, 88(4), 354-364
This theory states that an individual uses gender as a way to organize various things in a person's life into categories. Her research questioned the social beliefs and assumptions that sex roles are opposite, bipolar, and mutually exclusive. The data she collected were supportive of a merging of male and female traits to enable a person to be a fully functioning, adaptive human over an emphasis on gender stereotypes.
She asserted that masculine and feminine dimensions could be divided into two spheres, rather than one: A person with high masculine and low feminine identification would be categorized as "masculine". A person with high feminine identification and low masculine identification, would be categorized as "feminine". A person who had high identification with both characteristics would be categorized as "androgynous". A person who has low identification with both dimensions would be considered "undifferentiated".
One of Bem's main arguments was that traditional gender roles are restrictive for both men and women, and can have negative consequences for individuals as well as society as a whole.
As previously mentioned, a person could be categorized as "androgynous" when taking the BSRI. Androgyny is defined as "the integration of both masculinity and femininity in a single individual". Androgyny allows one to freely engage in both masculine and feminine behaviors. According to Bem, people's behavior can demonstrate what she defined as situational appropriateness. Situational appropriateness is demonstrated when behavior is reflective of one's environment. For example, a woman demonstrating knowledge of sports at a basketball game is appropriate. Androgyny may also blend modalities. An example of androgyny blending modalities would be a woman being both assertive and compassionate when firing someone from a job.Bem,S.L.(1974). The measure of psychological androgyny. Journal of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, 42(2), 155-162
After obtaining her Ph.D., Bem got a full-time tenure-track position as a professor at Carnegie-Mellon for three years and then moved on to work at Stanford University, where she worked until 1978. She left Stanford University because her application for tenure was denied. She and husband Daryl Bem both took tenured teaching positions at Cornell University in 1978, where she became a psychology professor and the director of the women's studies program. While at Cornell, Bem focused research on gender schema theory, sexuality, and clinical psychology until she retired in 2010.
Bem's first career goal was to be a secretary like her mother, so that she could have her own phone and desk – symbols of autonomy and status that her father never had. Bem was raised by her Jewish working-class parents in a government-subsidized neighborhood for the first eight years of her life. During Bem's childhood, her mother would have violent outburst and fights with her father causing her family much distress. Her mother was the dominant figure in her parents' relationship, and Bem recalls having a very tumultuous childhood, during which Mrs. Lipsitz would become extremely emotional while upset and throw objects during arguments. Bem also stated that she was quite unsuccessful in her attempts at flirting and dating with men, and so she internalized a belief that no man would ever want to marry her, which helped to solidify her career ambitions.
But she eventually married Daryl Bem, also a psychology professor. The two met when she took his social psychology class at Carnegie–Mellon University. She was 20 years old at the time. She initially rejected his marriage proposal, having concerns about her own career. The two later agreed on an egalitarian marriage, in which they agreed to share in making decisions, doing household chores, supporting each other's careers, and performing parenting duties – all as equally as possible. With this in place, she consented to the marriage. After months of dating, the two were married on June 6, 1965. Much of Bem's family, including her mother, would not attend the wedding because it was a non-Jewish affair and they did not agree with this decision.
The Bems had two children together. They also had a grandson, Felix Viksne Bem (son of daughter Emily). While they eventually chose to live separately, they remained married until Sandra's death on May 20, 2014.
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