The Influences of Culture and Media On Gender Roles Flashcards
What is meant by culture?
- The ideas, customs & social behaviour of a particular group or society
What was one of the earliest cross-cultural studies of gender roles?
Carried out by Margaret Mead (1935) of cultural groups in Papua New Guinea
- The Arapesh were gentle & responsive (similar to the stereotype of of femininity in industrialised societies)
- The Mundugumor were aggressive & hostile (similiar to the stereotype of masculinity in industrialised societies)
- The Tchambuli women were dominant & they organised village life, men were passive & considered to be ‘decorative’ (the reverse of the stereotype in industrialised societies)
What did Margaret Mead’s cross cultural study suggest?
(this is to do with nurture)
- Suggests that there may not be a direct biological relationship between sex & gender & that gender roles may be culturally determined.
- In her later work Mead conceded that she had underestimated the universal nature of many gender-typical behaviours
- However she went to argue that the extent to which innate behaviours are expressed is largely the result of cultural norms
Give one limitation of Margaret Meads study?
- OL: Meads cross cultural study has been criticised
- Mead has been accused of making generalisations based on a short period of study
- Derek Freeman (1983) conducted a follow up study of people from papa new Guinea after Meads investigation
- He argued Meads findings were flawed as she had been mislead by some of her ppts & that her preconceptions of what she would find had influenced her reading of events- this is an e.g. of both observer bias & ethnocentrism
Suggests Mead’s interpretations may not have been objective & calls into question the conclusions that she drew
What are the cultural similarities in gender roles?
(this is to do with nature)
- Many cross culutral similarities in gender roles e.g.
- David Buss (1995) found consistent patterns in mate preference (a kind of gender role behaviour) in 37 countries across all continents
- In all cultures women sought men who could offer wealth & resources whilst men looked for youth & physical attractiveness in a potential partner
ALSO
- A study by Robert Munroe & Ruth Munroe (1975) revealed that in most societies division of labour is organised along gender lines (with men typically the ‘breadwinners’ & women often the ‘nurturers’)
What does the media have to do with gender roles?
- Media provides gender roles with whom children may identify & want to imitate- children are likely to select role models who are the same gender & who enage in stereotypical gender-appropriate behaviour
How does the media create rigid stereotypes?
- Evidence that media do provide very clear gender stereotypes that are quite rigid -
(Bussey & Bandura 1999)Men are independant ‘advice givers’, whereas women are depicted as dependant unabitious ‘advice seekers’
Similarly a study of TV adverts by Furnham & Farragher found men were more likely to be shown in autonomous roles within professional contexts whereas women were often seen occupying familial roles within domestic settings
- This suggests that the media may play a role in reinforcing widespread social stereotypes concering gender-appropriate behaviour
What is the correlation between the media & self efficacy?
- Media may also give information to men & women in terms of the likely success or otherwise, of adopting these behaviours
- Seeing other people perform gender-appropriate behaviours increases a child’s belief that they are capable of carrying out such behaviours in the future (this is what bandura referred to as self efficacy)
- Mitra et al 2019 analysed the attitudes of people in India who had watched a programme designed to challenge deep-rooted gender stereotypes
- Programme (Adha-full) was a detective drama that ran for 78 episodes
- Girls who watched the programme were more likely to see themselves as capable of working outside the home than non-viewers.
- This suggests their self-efficacy as a result of media influence
What research support is there on culture changing gender roles?
-OS: Supported by evidence:
Geert Hofstede (2001) argues that in industrialised cultures the changing status & expectations of women are a function of their increasingly active role in the workplace away from the domestic sphere.
- This has led to a breakdown of traditional stereotypes in advanced industrialised socieities.
- In traditional societies women still occupy the role of house-maker as a result of social, cultural & religious pressures.
This suggests that gender roles are very much determined by cultural contexts.
Give another strength of media influence on gender roles.
- OS is that it has a theoretical basis
- Cultivation theory argues that the more time individuals spend ‘living’ in the media world, the more likely they are to believe that this reflects social reality
- Bond & Drogos (2014) found a positive correlation between the time spent watching the reality TV programme Jersey Shore & permissive attitudes towards casual sex
- This effect was still found to be true when researchers controlled for the influence of such factors such as existing sexual attitudes, parental attitudes & religious beliefs
This suggests media ‘cultivates’ perception of reality & this affects gender behaviour
Give one limitation of the influence of media on gender.
- OL between G & M is that there may not be a casual relationship
- Durkin (1985) argues that even very young children are not passive & uncritical recipients of media messages
- In fact, norms within the childs family may be the bigger determinant on the childs gender attitudes & behaviour
- If media representations confirm existing gender norms held by the family then these are likely to be reinforced in the childs mind. If not then such representationns are likely to be rejected
This suggests that media influences are secondary to other influences such as family
