The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

70 Chapter 3

TAKE HOME POINTS

■ One’s attitudes toward gender can be classified as tradi-

tional, egalitarian, or transitional.

■ Although gender-role attitudes have become less tradi-

tional over time, most people fit into the transitional

category, not fully embracing equality for women and

men across all domains.

■ To understand cultural differences in gender-role atti-

tudes, one needs to understand what the expectations

for men and women are in the particular culture.

■ Compared to Caucasians, African Americans have less tra-

ditional attitudes about women working outside the home.

Affective Component: Sexism

Sexismis one’s attitude or feeling toward peo-

ple based on their sex alone. Disliking a doc-

tor because she is female or a nurse because he

is male are examples of sexism. Instruments

that measure sexism often consist of people’s

beliefs about men and women but contain an

affective component to these beliefs. That is,

the beliefs reflect either a high or low regard

for someone because of his or her sex.

Traditional Versus Modern Sexism

You might expect that sexism has declined

over the past several decades, and perhaps it

has. But today, there is a more subtle version

of sexism. Swim and colleagues (1995) dis-

tinguished between traditional and modern

sexism. Traditional sexism includes endorse-

ment of traditional roles for women and men,

differential treatment of women and men,

and the belief that women are less competent

than men. Traditional sexism reflects an open

disregard for the value of women. Few people

or White women and men (Carter, Corra, &

Carter, 2009). Whereas Black and White

men have similar attitudes toward women’s

involvement in politics, Black men have a

more favorable view than White men toward

women working outside the home. The fact

that Black women have been employed out-

side the home for a longer period of time than

White women due to economic necessity may

account for some of these differences.

Attitudes toward gender roles are more

traditional in other cultures compared to

the United States. For example, historically,

women and men in China have held very tra-

ditional roles. The Confucian doctrine of the

Chinese culture emphasizes the lower status

of women compared to men; one doctrine is

“The virtue of a woman lies in three obedi-

ences: obedience to the father, husband, and

son” (cited in Chia, Allred, & Jerzak, 1997,

p. 138). In a study comparing students from

Taipei, Taiwan, to students in North Caro-

lina, it was found that Chinese students had

more conservative attitudes toward marital

roles in terms of who should make the deci-

sions within the family (Chia et al., 1994). In

addition, Chinese male students thought it

more inappropriate for men to express emo-

tion than did American students. Even when

Asian women work outside the home, this

is not necessarily evidence of what Western

cultures would perceive as nontraditional

attitudes toward gender. A study of Asian

immigrant women showed that those who

worked outside the home did not perceive

employment as a distinct role but as an exten-

sion of their domestic role, which is to place

the family’s welfare above that of the indi-

vidual (Suh, 2007). Even though education is

greatly valued in Asian cultures, the value for

women and men is not the same. The value

of education for women is to make them suit-

able partners and mothers (Hall, 2009).

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