influence of culture and media on gender roles

• strength of influence of culture on gender role?

  P - influence of culture on changing gender roles supported by evidence

  E - hofstede argues that in industrialised cultures the changing status and expectations of women are a function of their increasingly active role in the workplace and away from the domestic sphere. led to breakdown of traditional stereotypes in advanced industrialised societies. in traditional societies women still occupy role of house maker.

  L - gender roles are very much determined by cultural context.
• limitation of the influence of culture on gender role?

  P - meads cross cultural research has been criticised

  E - mead accused of making generalisations based on short period of study. freeman conducted follow up study of people from Papua New Guinea after meads investigation. argued that meads findings were flawed as she'd been misled by some of her participants and that preconceptions of what she would find had influenced her reading of events. example of observer bias and ethnocentrism.

  L - meads interpretation not objective and calls into question the conclusions that she drew.
• strength of research into media influence on gender roles?

  P - theoretical basis

  E - cultivation theory argues that the more time individuals spend living in the media world the more likely they are to believe this reflects social reality. bond and drogos found a positive correlation between time spent watching the reality tv programme jersey shore and permissive attitudes towards casual sex. effect was found to still be true when researchers controlled for the influence of such factors as existing sexual attitudes, parental attitudes and religious beliefs.

  L - media cultivates perception of reality and this affects gender behaviour.
• limitation of gender roles and the influence of media?

  P - no causal relationship

  E - durkin argues that even very young children aren't passive and uncritical recipients of media messages. in fact norms within child's family may be the bigger determinant on the child's gender attitudes and behaviour. if media representations confirm existing gender norms held by the family then these are likely to be reinforced in the child's mind. if not then such representations likely to be rejected.

  L - media influences are secondary to other influences like family.
• gender roles?

  set of behaviours and attitudes are considered typical of 1 gender and atypical of the other.
• culture?

  ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular group of people or society
• media?

  communication channels such as tv film and books through which news entertainment education and data are made available.
• cross cultural study of gender roles by mead of cultural groups in papua new guinea?

  -arapesh were gentle and responsive similar to stereotype of femininity in industrialised societies.

  -mundugumor were aggressive and hostile similar to stereotype of masculinity is industrialised societies.

  -tchambuli women were dominant and organised village life, men were passive and considered to be decorative.

  -so may not be a direct biological relationship between sex and gender and that gender roles may be culturally determined.
• cultural similarities (nature) researches?

  -Buss - found consistent patterns in mate preferences in 37 countries across all continents. women sought men who could offer wealth and resources. men looked for youth and physical attractiveness.

  -Munroe and Monroe revealed that in most societies division of labour is organised along gender lines.
• self efficacy?

  -seeing other people perform gender appropriate behaviours increases a childs belief that they're capable of carrying out such behaviours in the future.

  -study analysed attitudes of people in India who watched a programme designed to challenge deep rooted gender stereotypes. programme was a detective drama. girls who watched programme more likely to see themselves as capable of working outside the home than non-viewers. suggests that self-efficacy had changed as a result of media influence.
• rigid stereotypes?

  -media does provide very clear gender stereotypes that are quite rigid. men are independent, ambitious 'advice givers' whereas women are depicted as dependent , unambitious 'advice givers'.

  -study of tv adverts by furnham and farragher found that men were more likely to be shown in autonomous roles inn professional contexts whereas women more likely to be seen occupying familial roles within domestic settings.

  -so media may play a role in reinforcing widespread social stereotypes concerning gender appropriate behaviour.