Cross Cultural Studies in Gender Essay

most(prenominal) query into sexual urge roles has occurred in Western societies, and gener totallyy shows a illumine divide in sex roles, most encouraging masculine conduct in boys, and feminine behaviour in girls. However, in order to elevate explore the base of temperawork forcet vs. nurture (biological vs. social approach) it is important to inquiry sex roles in a variety of countries.If clear themes, it may hint that sex role developwork forcet is genius, as would show that hands argon exchangeable to men a chase after the whole world, and come towise for feminines, showing on that point must be somewhatthing ascertain the way men counterfeit, whereas if there be clear culture differences, it would imply social occurrenceors determine gender. Cross pagan research has been explored for many years by anthropologists.Some of the earliest work came from Margret Mead in the 1930s. Comparing three Papua New Guinean tribes, the Arapesh, the Mundugumor and the T chambuli, she discovered contrary behaviours displayed by two men and women in each individual tribe. In the Arapesh, men and women were seen to be gentle, responsive- fitting the Western stereotype as feminine.In the Mundugumor tribe, she comprise staminates and females to violent and hostile- the Western stereotype of masculinity and finally in the Tchambuli tribe, she found role reversal to Western stereotypes, as males were more than(prenominal) than emotionally dependant and flirtatious, whereas the females were dominant, impersonal and definite. Although at first, Mead reason out that her research showed that gender roles came through with(predicate) cultural determinism as big differences were found mingled with males and females in varied cultures, implying that gender roles were driven by social factors.However, after later psychoanalysis and extending her research to look at other tribes in Samoa, she changed her view (1949) to that her research actually show ed cultural determinism, as notwithstanding differences in the roles males and females played in each society, in all the societies she looked at men were more aggressive than the women, contri justing to the idea that gender role is determined by nature, as there atomic number 18 some behaviours which be innate and cosmopolitan, e. g. ggression in men, but that degree to which they are expressed is relative to the particular culture. This fits under the biosocial approach, as her research suggests there are some behaviours which are universal, but the degrees to which these behaviours are expressed depends on social factors, such as culture. Meads make was a natural experiment, meaning the tribes were observed in their usual environment, suggesting she was noting their trustworthy behaviour. However, her method has been heavily criticised by other psychologists such as freewoman (1984).Her research was conducted through interviews and observations of the tribes, but Freeman w ho also worked with Samoan tribes was told that Mead yieldd the tribesmen with what she wanted them to say. Although this questions the validity of her research, in later years there has been grasss of cross cultural research to show differences and similarities and divisions of restriction and behaviour by gender in every society (Munroe and Munroe 1975). Further research to support the nature side of the argument is from silver hake and Edwards 1975.Through looking at 11 non- Hesperian societies, they found that gender roles were organised in similar ways across a range of traditional cultures. They found girls were encouraged to spend more time with their mothers and were more apparent to be given interior(prenominal) and child care jobs, whereas the boys were likely to be assigned jobs outside the house such as herding animals. This lead to girls spending more time with younger infants and adults, whereas boys spent more time with their peers, and so It seemed younger gir ls were found to be more amenable and nurturing than boys who in early adolescence began to get more responsibility.Whiting and Edwards concluded that the behavioral differences observed came about because of the tasks they are given. Girls are taught how to be responsible at a young age as they are exposed to female role models, and develop skills of caring for younger siblings. In another, Whiting and Whiting (1988) observed children in their natural environment with parents, siblings and peers. There were universal differences that girls were more nurturing and boys showed more dominance.However, the fact there were key differences between boys and girls such as what they were socialised into, and what they were encouraged to achieve, implies that both upbringing and biology play a role in development enculturation just magnifies the biological difference, thence differences across cultures such as between US and India. Bee (1995) supported the idea of socialisation being the most important factor in determining gender, as he stated children became the company they keep. However, researches such asOmar et al found similarities in varied countries such as Switzerland, Ethiopia and the US. Their research indicated that all boys show higher levels of competitiveness and aggression than females, indicating there are footslogger biological factors. Further support for the nurture argument comes from Berry et al (2002). They studied male superiority on spatial perceptual tasks in 17 societies. He found that this superiority is only found in relatively tight tumble, sedentary societies but absent in meandering(a) societies.This shows that the magnitude of sex differences is linked to culture and ecology. In tight knit societies, the division of labour is greatest because women stay at home whilst men travel, whereas in nomadic societies, both men and women travel and hunt so there is less division of labour (Van Leeuwen 1978). Therefore, this implies that so cial factors dictate gender role, due to the cultural differences in division of labour found. Berrys large analyse of a variety of societies indicates his results can be illustration of the general population and we can generalise results.However, Kimura (1999) offered an selection biological interpretation, that in hunting societies, those with poor spatial perception are likely to die, therefrom eliminating such genes from the gene pool. This explains why in nomadic societies, there would be less gender difference in spatial abilities. Further biological support comes from Buss et al (1989). Involving 10,000 participants from 37 cultures, he found universal themes in what males and females looked for in marriage partners. Women desired males who had good financial prospects, whereas men placed more important in physical attraction and youthfulness. some(prenominal) sexes agreed intelligence, kindness and reliability are important. Due to the fact these determination were uni versal, and the scale of the study implies we can generalise, it suggests gender roles are biologically determined. However, an alternative argument may be that women look for providers, not because of biology, but because of the fact women tend to earn less in society, and in some countries, fuddle fewer rights, which is a social issue determining differences in gender roles. But despite the fact that labour division are the very(prenominal) in most cultures- irls are brought up to be nurturing, responsible and obedient, likely to raise the children, whereas boys are raised to be more independent, self-reliant and high-achieving, and provide for their family, suggest that it is biology that determines sex roles. However, it is difficult to decipher whether division is the turn to essence of biological differences or whether it is a more indirect outcome of biological differences. Eagly and Wood concluded that all cultures shape their socialisation processes along with the line s of inherent biological tendencies.However, there has been research to counter this. Sugihara and Katsurada (2002) found that Japanese men do no not seek to be macho like Americans, but instead value being well-rounded in the humanities (usually associated as femininity), showing that labour divisions are not the same in all cultures. As well as looking at the divisions of labour between difference cultures, there has also been research into the differences between gender roles in leftist and individualistic cultures.In 2002, Chang, Guo and Hau, compared 145 American and 173 Chinese students by giving the students a 10 distributor point Egalitarian grammatical gender Role Attitudes Scale, which measured their attitudes to gender equality at home and in the work place. Chang et al found that American students emphasised the important of equal gender roles at work, whereas the Chinese students emphasised the importance of equality at home and in the family. Although this does indi cate differences, this may be due to the nature of their home country. In communist China, equality at work is interpreted for granted.Further exploring this, Leung and Moore (2003) compared Australians of side and Chinese decent using Bems SRI and partial(p) differences in line with the Hofstedes dimensions. Both male and female English Australians showed masculine traits which are valued in individualistic cultures, whereas Chinese Australians male and female, showed feminine traits valued in a collectivist culture. Both research studies imply that cultural values and expectations have a strong on the development of gender roles and expectations (nurture). A big enigma with much research is how you measure sex stereotypes.Williams and Best (1990) study highlighted some of the problems linked to this. 2,800 university students from 30 different nations were given a 300 item adjective checklist (ACL) and asked to decide for each adjective whether it was associated more with men or women. They found a broad consensus across countries- men were seen as more dominant, aggressive and autonomous, whereas women were more nurturing, deferent and interested in affiliation. This suggests there are universal gender stereotypes about gender roles, indicating, they are derived though our genes.However, this study proposed many problems in how they measured sex stereotypes. Firstly, the participants had to pick either male or female, there was no equal category (although there was a cannot say category) which may have resulted in the division in gender roles being exaggerated. Furthermore, the task was related to stereotypes, not actual behaviours. Some argue that such stereotypes have a significant effect on socialisation within the culture, and this are related to behaviour, but the selective information does not butt against this.Finally, because all of the participants are students, it indicates there behaviours are similar e. g. intelligences, and exposed to simila r influences which may explain the broad consensus. Another problem is a lot of the cross-cultural research has been collected by western researchers, therefore, even though they were collecting data in western and non-western societies, the method of research depart be developed by western psychology. This may indicated imposed etic, and the data collected is meaningless and demonstrates cultural bias.To overcome this, Berry et al (2002) concluded that there should be a greater use of more authorized indigenous research, opposed to indigenous researchers carrying out the method of western psychologists. To conclude, despite methodological problems, due to the universal similarity in gender roles found in various investigations, it indicated that biology drives gender roles. However, difference found between cultures indicates social factors are also important, so there is a thickening interaction between both factors, so the biosocial approach may be a more suitable approach, as it is less deterministic and acknowledges both aspects.As well, it is important to account for historical changes. Much research was through with(p) in the 1970/1980s when the gender gap in many western countries was much larger than is it today, as it is now accepted that both males and females work, and paternal equality. However, males still occupy more powerful positions than women, and women perform more domestic duties. But it is an important factor to consider when looking at data.