Culture and gender roles
Cards (5)
- ao1: nature vs nurture
- Nature - if a gender behaviour is consistent across cultures we consider it innate or biological
- Nurture - if a gender behaviour is culturally-specific we consider this is due to the influence of shared norms and socialisation.
- ao1: the role of nurture
- Mead's (1935) research on cultural groups in Samoa supported the cultural determination of gender roles.
- Arapesh were gentle and responsive (similar to the stereotype of femininity in industrialised societies).
- Mundugumor were aggressive and hostile (similar to the stereotype of masculinity in industrialised societies).
- Tchambuli women were dominant and they organised village life, men were passive and considered to be decorative (reverse of gender behaviour in industrialised societies).
- ao1: the role of nature
- Buss (1995) found consistent mate preferences in 37 countries studied across all continents. In all cultures:
- Women sought men offering wealth and resources.
- Men looked for youth and physical attractiveness
- Munroe and Munroe (1975) found that in most societies. division of labour is organised along gender lines.
- ao3: One limitation is that Mead's research has been criticised.
- Freeman (1983) studied the Samoan people after Mead's study, and claimed Mead had been misled by some of her participants.
- He also claimed Mead's preconceptions of what she would find had influenced her reading of events (observer bias and ethnocentrism).
- This suggests that Mead's interpretations may not have been objective and questions the conclusions that she drew.
- ao3: One strength is that the influence of culture has research support.
- In industrialised cultures, changing expectations of women are a function of their increasingly active role in the workplace (Hofstede 2001).
- In traditional societies women are still house- makers as a result of social, cultural and religious pressures
- This suggests that gender roles are very much determined by the cultural context.