This paper examines how the conceptual and psychometric limitations of gender role attribute questionnaires weaken Archer's (1989) contention that correlational analyses demonstrate the orthogonality of gender role attributes, attitudes, and behaviours. An examination of two popular attribute questionnaires (the PAQ and the BSRI) shows that masculinity and femininity are conceptually and operationally defined as instrumentality and expressivity, respectively. This restricted definition means that, although the PAQ and the BSRI may themselves show no association with gender‐related attitudes or behaviour, it is possible that there is such a relationship for attributes other than instrumentality and expressiveness. In addition, the multifactorial structure of the most popular trait questionnaire illustrates a serious psychometric limitation for gender role research, one which obscures further the interpretation of the relationship between the three gender role dimensions. Discussion centres on overcoming these limitations in order to address the multidimensionality of the gender role self‐concept.