Explain Cultural Variations in Gender Roles Patrick Bradley IB Psychology HL

Margaret Mead The main study that focused around cultural variations in gender roles, is Margaret Meads study of three tribes in New Guinea in Her findings ultimately suggest that gender roles can vary from culture to culture.

Tribe 1, The Arapesh Here, men and women were kind and gentle and therefore displayed female gender stereotypes and both genders shared chores relating to raising crops and caring for children.

Tribe 2, the Mundugumor Both the men and women were arrogant, competitive, and emotionally unresponsive thus displaying male gender stereotypes. Neither the men or the women were interested in child rearing and so the children quickly became self reliant

Tribe 3, the Tchambuli Here, traditional gender roles were reversed. The men spent most of their time discussing things like bodily adornments with other men, while the women were responsible for food production and making tools and clothes.

Conclusion Obviously all three of these tribes had varying gender roles for men and women. These tribes all were within 100 miles of each other, therefore Mead’s study suggests that there is cultural variation in gender roles.