Attitudes Toward Women Scale

The Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS), developed by Janet T. Spence and Robert Helmreich in the early 1970s, measures attitudes about the rights and roles of women—relative to men—in occupational, educational, and relational domains. As an attitude measure focusing on gender roles, the AWS assesses opinions about the behavioral [Page 40]patterns deemed appropriate for men and women in society. Examples include believing that men should be more responsible for supporting their families, whereas women should be more responsible for nurturing their children.

Spence and Helmreich created versions of the AWS with 55 items, 25 items, and 15 items, which were published in 1972, 1973, and 1978, respectively. Sample items on the AWS are as follows: “There are many jobs in which men should be given preference over women in being hired or promoted” and “Under modern economic conditions with women being active outside the home, men should share in household tasks such as washing dishes and doing the laundry.” Respondents indicate their level of agreement with each statement on a four-option scale. A summary score is created across all scale items such that higher numbers indicate more egalitarian gender-role attitudes. More than three decades of research have demonstrated all three versions of the AWS to be reliable, consistently yielding the same results, and valid, accurately measuring what they are intended to measure. These properties have added to the usefulness and importance of the scale.

This entry addresses the background of the AWS, the significance of the scale, changes over time in gender-role attitudes, and new directions in their measurement.