Communication Between Cultures

Having examined some of the research involving changes in the perception of gen-

der in the United States, we are now ready to examine gender roles in other cultures.

As part of our transition to an intercultural analysis of gender behavior across cul-

tures, we remind you once again that families in every culture are charged with similar

responsibilities, including the need to“teach”appropriate gender roles. However, as

you will observe in the following examples,“the way families go about meeting

these needs—their structure, customs, patterns of authority, and so on—differ widely

across cultures. Thus, ideas about what a family is and how people should behave

within it are culturally determined.”^57

Asian. In places such as Japan, Vietnam, China, and Korea, gender roles can be

traced to the influence of Confucianism. The basic Confucian assumptions regard-

ing men, women, and child-rearing practices are distinct and prescriptive. The

message speaks of male dominance within the family. Expanding on Korea’sCon-

fucian legacy toward male dominance, Kim notes,“Confucianism made men alone

the structurally relevant members of the society and relegated women to social

dependence.”^58 These and countless other gender-specific admonitions regarding

dissimilar actions were also contained in manuals such asLesson for Girls, written

between circa 45 and 120 CE. You can observe this pro-male bias in sayings such

as“Woman’s greatest duty is to produce a son.”You can see the importance of sons

over daughters in early Confucian families. In Korea and China, boys studied the

classics and played indoors and out, while“girls were confined to the inner quar-

ters of the house where they received instruction in womanly behavior and tasks,

such as domestic duties, embroidery, and cooking.”^59 Even today, although many

young girls work in China (and many may even have important positions), at

home, gender roles are still rather rigid. This is the case in many other Asian cul-

tures where homes remain“male-dominated, and women are consigned to subordi-

nate roles.”^60 Jankowiak maintains that at the core of these gender attitudes, at

least for the Chinese, is the belief that both biological and cultural forces contrib-

ute to these differences.^61

Many of the gender attitudes we have just described for Korea and China can be

found in other Asian and East Asian cultures. Among Vietnamese,“Women are

raised more strictly and given less freedom than men.”^62 Although the practice has

changed among Vietnamese Americans, it was the rule in traditional Vietnamese

families that only males were educated.^63

In Japan, a highly industrialized nation where many women attend universities and

are in the workforce, there are still major gender differences within the family that go

back thousands of years. Within Japanese society, gender roles that men and women

engage in at play, in school, at work, and in other settings are learned at home. Even

now,“The modern Japanese family, organized to maximize the contribution of men at

work, really depends on the devotion of women at home.”^64 Within the home, chil-

dren may even see the father served first at meals, getting the first bath, and receiving

nods and deep bows from the rest of the family. All of these activities call attention

to the importance of males in Japan. Young boys are indulged, pampered, and even

allowed to be a little unregulated. All of this is intended to teach them what it

means to become a Japanese man. Young girls receive very different treatment as the

family attempts to instruct them in the values associated with being modest and

Cultural Variants in Family Interaction 83

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