The Influence Of Culture On Gender Roles Flashcards
Define culture
Rules, customs, morals and child rearing practices etc that join a group together
Individualist culture
Individuals more focussed on their own interests and independence
Collectivist culture
More concerned with group interest first
Traditional cultures
Idea of nuclear family: eg men go to work, women bring up children
Egalitarian cultures
Both men and women have equal influence
Equality between the sexes
Spatial perception skills
In sedimentary societies (live in one place) the division of labour is greatest as women stay home and men go hunting
Nomadic: both men and women have spatial skills as both sexes travel and hunt
Relationship between the wealth of a society and gender roles
Greater wealth: less difference between men and women in terms of gender roles
Less division of labour in wealthy societies
Greater role equality in western world: women have become increasingly more equal in workplace
Cultural similarities in gender roles- whiting and Edwards
Males: assertiveness, independence, self reliance
Females: food prep, child care, compliance, nurturing
Sometimes child care shared
Mead cross cultural research
Studied three tribes of arapesh, mundagamor, tchambuli
Arapesh: m&f similar behaviours/ both gentle and affectionate, shared child rearing
Mundagamor: shared masculine/ macho roles, both aggressive and competitive, child rearing disliked
Tchambuli
Women more dominant and men more emotionally development
Mead’s conclusions from research
That sex differences were cultural rather than biological and determined by social factors rather than bio ones
Determinism or relativism
Later changed view to cultural relativism rather than determinism: degree to which these behaviours are expressed are relative to the culture
Re analysis found that although women were aggressive in mundagamor and arapash were non aggressive; in all men were more aggressive than women
Freeman criticism of Mead
Found evidence to suggest that the people mead studied simply provided her with the info she wanted to hear following his work with natives
Errington and Gewert contradiction
Tchambuli tribe: women didn’t dominate men, nor vice versa
Buss
Across 37 cultures found in every culture women look for men who have good financial prospects, older, are intelligent and ambitious
Men look for physically attractive women and prefer those who are younger
Universal sharing of what to look for in partner
Williams and Best cross cultural research into gender stereotypes (1990)
Tested thousands of students in 30 different countries with 300 item adjective checklist
Ppts decide if each adjective was more freq ass with men/ women
Findings of Williams and Best
Broad consensus across countries
Men: more dominant, aggressive and autonomous
Women: more nurturing, deferent and interested in affiliation
Suggests universal gender stereotypes regardless of culture
Three criticisms of Williams and Best study
‘Forced choice’, wasn’t a ‘cannot say’ option
Task related to stereotypes and not actual behaviours
All ppts were uni students sharing common attributes; educated and arguably more exposed to similar global influences
What does a similarity of gender roles across cultures suggest?
Gender role behaviours and biological and innate, indication of an evolutionary approach
Culture in which men don’t strive to be ‘macho’
Japanese men do not seek tonne macho like American men, value being well rounded in the arts
Criticisms of influence of culture on gender roles
Imposed etic; values from one culture used on another; cultural bias
Eg Mead using western ideas
Globalisation may contribute to lessening; suggests stronger social influence than biological
Interactionist argues Nature and nurture rather than exclusively one
