The use of laminate tension tests to determine the lamina shear stress-strain response is well documented for left bracket plus or minus 45 right bracket //n//s and left bracket 45 right bracket //n laminates. The general applicability of this method for finding effective laminate shear modulus and average laminate shear stress-strain response for any symmetric orthotropic laminate is shown in this paper. For the special case of a symmetric orthotropic laminate is shown in this paper. For the special case of a symmetric bidirectional laminate consisting of any number of 0 degree and 90 degree plies, the laminate shear properties are identical to the lamina shear properties, and the test may then be used for the determination of lamina shear stress-strain response.