Cross-cultural studies of gender roles

Learning objectives Explain ways of classifying different cultures Describe studies which show gender role development in collectivist cultures Understand difficulties in assessing the role of culture in gender development.

Different kinds of culture Traditional Egalitarian Hofstede proposed 4 further dimensions Masculine (e.g UK, US, Japan) Feminine (e.g. India, Pakistan) Individualistic Collectivist

Margaret Mead (1930s) Anthropologist Lived with different tribes in New Guinea Interpretations of gender roles was different to Western societies And different between tribes

Arapesh tribe Men and women showed stereotypical behaviours similar to the West.

Mundugumor tribe Both sexes behaved in a macho way

Tchambuli tribe Gendered behaviour was the opposite of that expected in Western society.

Whiting and Edwards (1975) Found gender roles were organised in similar ways across a range of traditional cultures.

Individualistic vs collectivist Individualistic cultures tend to value independent behaviour (associated with males) and this was found in both male and female English Australians.

Collectivist cultures tend to favour feminine traits of caring and community awareness and this was found in both male and female Chinese Australians.

Differences within cultures Individualistic cultures can be different. E.g. northern Italians have less traditional ideas about gender compared with southern Italians. Differences may also be found within collectivist cultures.