Understanding of men and women in American society encompasses broad understanding of the attitudes of the diversity of racial and ethnic groups within it. One important aspect of that understanding is a knowledge of women's sex roles. This Minority Research Initiation Planning Grant studies comparatively the sex role attitudes of married and unmarried African American women in order to develop a conceptual framework for examining these attitudes which takes into consideration the social and historical context of the experiences of African Americans. Data from a national cross-sectional study of Black adults and a re-interview subsample of this cross-sectional survey will be analyzed to assess the significant predictors of the married and unmarried women's sex role attitudes. This project will enhance our understanding of the factors contributing to the development of attitudes about women's sex roles. This project also provides an excellent opportunity for a promising young scholar to lay the foundation for building a more comprehensive model of sex role attitudes than currently exists.
