Vocational interests, personality, and sociosexuality as indicators of a general masculinity/femininity factor

• We investigated three domains of masculinity/femininity (MF).
• We found a general M/F factor even after controlling for sex.
• This M/F element occurs at least partially beyond its link to biological sex.
• Personality and sociosexuality were the strongest indicators of MF.

Several individual difference domains include variables that show substantial sex differences and may be considered indicators of masculinity/femininity (M/F). We examined the structure of gender-related characteristics from three domains (vocational interests, personality characteristics, and sociosexually relevant sexual fantasies) to determine whether a general factor of M/F can be derived even when participant sex is controlled, and if so, which domains and which variables within those domains are the best indicators of that factor. In a sample of 198 undergraduate students, we found strong intercorrelations between indicators of M/F across domains in the combined-sex sample but only weak intercorrelations within sex. The results also indicated that a general masculinity/femininity factor could be obtained, even when participant sex was controlled, and was defined more strongly by personality characteristics and sociosexuality of sexual fantasies than by vocational interests.