In our western culture, brainstorm
characteristics of gender role
Cultural differences in gender role
• If there are big differences across cultures in terms of gender role, it is interesting to psychologists as this would suggest that gender is very influenced by nurture. If biology is the main influence on gender roles, there will be little variation in gender across cultures.
Cross cultural studies of Gender role
One study which suggested cross cultural variation in gender roles
was that of Margaret Mead’s study of 3 tribes
in New Guinea
Mead’s study in Papua New Guinea
My view is that traitswhich are considered masculine or feminine
have no link to ourbiological sex
In 1935 I went to New Guinea
to look at 3 different tribes who lived totally independently of each other within 100 mile
radius
Mead (1935)
• Gender roles different to those in western societies
• Arapesh- men and women fitted feminine stereotype
• Mundugumor- men and women fitted masculine stereotype
• Tchambuli- gendered behaviour opposite of western world
We are the Arapesh
tribe
We are gentle,
loving & co-operative
We make sure our boys & girls are
raised with these qualities
You might think that makes them
feminine
Both of us as parents ‘bear a child’ & even I take to my bed whilst my child
is born
I am from the Mundugumor tribe &
here I am with Margaret
We are ex-cannibals (So Margaret was lucky!)
Males & females in our tribe are arrogant, fierce &
quarrelsomeWe hate pregnancy & rearing our children
So we are all masculine?
We hang our babies in rough baskets against the wall. If
they cry then one of us gives the basket a scratch
I am a member of the Tchambuli tribe & we
do things a bit different here
Females are interested in economic affairs
& they look after trading & food gathering
Males are sentimental,
emotional & unable to make decisions
They sit around in groups, gossiping & preening themselves
Flaws in Mead’s research
Non-scientific: findings are unstructured, therefore have low reliability. Mead could not speak the language and the people knew they were being watched. Gewertz (1981) observed the Tchambuli in the 1970s
and found males to be more aggressive than females – this suggests that Mead might have been observing them in a transitory stage (maybe due to Australian laws on violence)
Cultural determinism – Mead seems to have over emphasised the role of cultures (overlooking biology and evolution) – she saw what she wanted to see..
So it seems our gender roles in USA
aren’t universal Or are they?
I went to 4 other cultures in 1949
Samoa, Bali, Iatmul, Manus
Mmmm. Perhaps I was wrong about my strong cultural determinism view
I now think that women are more nurturing etc than
men Silly me!
So motherhood is a biological inclination
but fatherhood is clearly a social
invention
BERRY HAS ARGUED THAT THERE ARE WIDE CULTURAL
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CULTURES IN TERMS OF :
• GENDER AND SPATIAL AWAREMENSS
• GENDER AND CONFORMITY
Berry – cross cultural gender differences
The 6 cultures studyWhiting (1975)
• Studied child rearing practices in 6 cultures; North America, Philippines, India, Mexico, Kenya and Japan
• Researchers integrated themselves within the communities
• Observations of children daily lives were made- each watched for 5 minutes per day
• 24, 3-10 year olds from each group were observed 15 times
The 6 cultures study: Findings
• Parents basic goals were the same; children to survive, be attached to the family, healthy and to learn survival skills
• Concerned that children learned appropriate social behaviour which included gender role
Whiting & Edwards (1975)
Traditional cultures arrange gender roles in a similar way
In 11 non-Western traditional cultures girls were encouraged
to spend time withtheir mothers
They were given domestic & childcare roles
Boys were given tasks suchas feeding & herding cattle – outside
the home
Conclusion – gender roles do vary across cultures but also
some similarities
Gender roles are More clearly defined in
traditional cultureswhere children work
The 6 cultures study: Findings
• Children’s gender socialisation was influenced by how much work they were expected to do and what it consisted of
• North America: 2% work compared to Kenya=41%• This can be accounted for by degree of complexity in
their lives• In Kenya sharp distinctions were made between males
and females- had to work from a young age• North American children did little work so gender roles
were less defined
Watch this clip...
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EronVtKYr0c
• Samoan Tribe• 3rd Gender
Describe the unusual gender roles in Samoan
culture !!
•The other argument is that there are huge similarities in gender roles across cultures – suggesting gender is biologically driven.
William and Best (1990)
• Universal agreement across cultures about which characteristics were masculine and feminine
• Men= dominant and independent • Women= caring and sociable• Children exhibited the same attitudes • Nature not nurture!!
Buss• Use Buss’s study of male and female mating
preferences to show how there are clearly similar gender roles across a wide range of cultures
Evaluation
• Berry (2002):cross cultural research is driven by the interests of western psychologists, using measures rooted in western thinking – this is called the imposed etic.
• Need to use indigenous researchers- those who belong to the culture researched
Instead of looking at differences between
cultures we can look at differences within cultures
There are big differences in gender roles within cultures.
Tager & Good (2005) compared ideas about masculinity in a sample of
southern Italian and northern Italian males –(in North America)
Found: Less traditional ideas held by northernrather than southern Italians
So within as well as betweencultural differences occur
Best & Thomas (2004)Much research on gender
BUTmost from western USA samples
Therefore??
Therefore the findingsare only applicable to the First World of Psychology
(Moghaddam (1997)
So real indigneous cross-cultural research
is needed to look at the effectof context on gender behaviour