For example, females with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH), which results in elevated androgen exposure in early gestation, are more likely than their unaffected siblings to engage in male-typical behavior during childhood, and report same-sex sexual attractions during adulthood. Thus, in the present study, we included evaluations of participants by observers, in addition to self-reports, to verify the link of female sexual orientation with masculinity-femininity with multiple measures.Īndrogen exposure during prenatal development is a potential explanation for the link between sexual orientation and masculinity-femininity within each sex, in addition to explaining overall differences in masculinity-femininity between males and females. These perceptions by others are particularly valuable, because self-reports of masculinity-femininity are possibly biased due to social desirability. In adulthood, homosexual women are also perceived as more masculine than heterosexual women. Furthermore, based on evaluations by others of their childhood photographs and videos, girls who identified as homosexual in adulthood were rated as more masculine and less feminine than girls who later identified as heterosexual. Longitudinal work also suggests that early childhood masculinity is robustly associated with homosexual attractions in females later in life. Research on masculinity and femininity shows a consistent pattern with respect to women’s sexual orientation: Homosexual women recall or report more masculine and less feminine behaviors and self-concepts in childhood and adulthood, and report more male-typical and less female-typical interests than heterosexual women in adulthood.

Inkscape review .92