Further Reflections on Sandra Lipsitz Bem’s Impact

Abstract

Over 20 years since her last published new work, Sandra Lipsitz Bem's ideas continue to inspire and influence many contemporary researchers-as reflected in the many excellent papers appearing in the two special issues of Sex Roles. In my review, I highlight how Sandra Bem was repeatedly at the vanguard of the intellectual zeitgeist that shaped the psychology of gender over the last four decades. Notably, Bem was at the forefront of second-wave feminist psychology in the 1970s. In this regard, she challenged androcentric ways of thinking about gender and sexuality. Moreover, she helped to expand our notion of gender and gender identities beyond bipolar or dichotomous models. By extension, her androgyny and gender schema theories pushed people to consider the multifaceted features of gender and sexuality. Bem heralded the benefits of greater flexibility and gender equality for children as well as adults. In addition, she was one of the first psychologists to study how language and gender divisions are intertwined. Finally, she was on the forefront of researchers addressing heterosexism and genderism. The papers appearing in the two special issues are used to illustrate each of these important contributions.

Effect of Gender in SLA, Inspiring Gender Roles SLA Research

“…The stereotype "female brain" outperform "male brain" in language learning has already received some critiques. Gender polarization (regard binary male and female as a principle of everyday life) and biological essentialism (factor leads to polarization is biological natures of female and male) [2] cannot adequately account for the controversial findings on sex differences in SLA. One of the most common critiques include it is rather learners' exposure to stereotyped models in their environment inducing long-term effects on selfconcept and skill development of people of the two sexes than its biological integrity [3].Extraordinary successful female learners create role model effects on females while discourage male learners.…”

Gender Identity Development among Teenagers Living in the Subarctic Region of Russia

“…People with different types of gender identity are characterized by different adaptive capabilities. For a long time, there has been a theory in psychology that the masculine type of gender identity is best for men and the feminine type of gender identity is best for women [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]. However, nowadays this theory is no longer applicable.…”