GENDER AND ROMANTIC-LOVE ROLES

This research tests the notion that gender differences in love-role definitions contribute to male dominance in intimate relationships. Six factor-analytic scales—fidelity, communication, sacrifice, submission, centrality, and commitment—are used to measure love-role definitions. The scores from a sample of 285 college students generally oppose the hypotheses. There are significant gender differences, but they are not in the predicted direction. For example, women do not prescribe more sacrifice for a woman than they do for a man. The findings show that women are not handicapped in the competition for influence by the love-role definitions that they and men hold. However, it is suggested that the idea may have more validity for people who are uninfluenced by feminist views and for other samples.