The Effect of Sex Role Differences on the Societal Reaction to Mental Retardation

Abstract

This paper investigates the thesis that sex role definitions in the U.S. support a double standard in societal reactions to mental incompetence. Role expectations for women are such that females are generally expected to be less competent than males in a variety of instrumental tasks, although perhaps more expressive. Males in turn are expected to be more active and aggressive than females in their exercise of the greater power and responsibility ascribed to them. In light of these generalized expectations we suggest that incompetence in instrumental fields is more disturbing when demonstrated by males, and we hypothesize that societal reactions to the mental deficiencies of males are more prompt and severe. The paper supports this hypothesis with data suggesting that mentally retarded males are more likely to be institutionalized than retarded females, and that males tend to be institutionalized at earlier ages and for milder disorders. It is noted that these data are consistent with previously reported data on mental illness.

Retardation and the burden of stigma

“…Perhaps the relationship represents a greater intolerance of mental impairment on the part of males than females. Other studies have reported that greater subnormality is perceived in male rather than female retardates who objectively behave quite similarly RETA RDA TION AND STIGMA 385 (Levinson, 1980) and that a greater degree of subnormal behavior may be tolerated for females than males before females are perceived, labeled, and treated as mentally retarded (Tudor et al, 1979;Churchill, 1964). It is possible that some of these differences will disappear as role expectations specific to gender become less pronounced.…”

“…Perhaps there exists a double standard of societal reaction to mental and social impairments (Tudor et al, 1979), in which responses are more pronounced when the deviant is male. Even with the most severely impaired, cases in which Tudor et al indicated the effect was minimal, there was a finding in the predicted direction.…”

“…Parents were asked to indicate the degree of importance they attached to religion in their lives (very important to not at all important) and make a similar response to a question regarding its influence on their everyday lives. 2 Similarly, age of child was included because it has been found to affect differential reactions to retardates by gender (Tudor et al, 1979) and could also interact with visibility of defect and family social status in its association with stigma.…”

“…Others (e.g., Tizard, 1970) report that sex differentials are more prominent at the margins of the categories (among the milder forms of retardation) than the more serious types in which both genders would be judged incapable of performing adult roles. For example, a recent study (Tudor et al, 1979) reports greater proportions of males than females being institutionalized, with the differences more pronounced for the milder rather than the more seriously retarded. The authors have not addressed the role of stigma in this process, however, and the differences in confinement and detection could be more a function of disruptive and disturbing behavior among males than gender-based expectations of behavior.…”

“…Tudor et al (1979) claim that Downloaded by [University of Auckland Library] at 14:38 08 October 2014 different expectations of performance associated with gender may account for both the greater incidence of retardation among males in epidemiological studies and higher referral rates for diagnosis and treatment of males than females. Mercer (1973) has observed that school systems overselect males for testing and from that pool a higher percentage of males than females are labeled retarded.…”