CRISP Volume 8 No 21

Using a combined student and community sample, the present study examined whether there were cultural differences in gender role stereotypes between Anglo-Australians and Chinese background immigrants and sojourners in Australia. In addition, cultural differences in the sex-based differentiation of gender roles were examined, along with an assessment of the possible mediating role of acculturation. Five-hundred and ninety participants (418 Anglo-Australians, 172 of Chinese background) from academic institutions and community groups in Melbourne, Australia were administered the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), an individual-level measure of gender roles. Factor analyses of the Bem items showed similar factor structures for the two cultural groups, despite differences on their country-level indices of masculinity (Hofstede, 1998). Further, Hofstede's proposal that sex differences in gender roles would be more pronounced in "masculine" societies was not supported, however both genders identified more strongly with masculine values/traits if they were Anglo-Australian in background, and with feminine values/traits if they were of Chinese origin. The possible role of acculturation in mediating these identifications was not established. [302] --------------[303] CRISP Volume 8 No 21 http://www.uiowa. edu/~grpproc/crisp/crisp.8. 21.html 2 of 19 11/08/2008 11:27 AM INTRODUCTION It is widely recognized that there are differences in gender roles between males and females, and that much of this difference is due to the socialization process. It follows that in different cultures, where children are socialized into adopting various value and behaviour patterns, there might be cultural differences in gender roles. These cultural differences in gender roles may develop in at least two different ways. First, the conception of masculine and feminine gender roles might be different for different cultures, such that what is regarded as feminine in one culture may be regarded as masculine in another. Second, the conception of masculinity and femininity might be similar across cultures in general, but in some cultures, one might expect greater differences between the sexes in the uptake of these roles. The following is an examination of the literature on the above two possibilities. In terms of cultural differences in the conception of masculinity and femininity, Ward and Sethi (1986) and Keyes (1983), in their examinations of Asian gender roles among secondary and tertiary students, found that many of the stereotypical western feminine characteristics (often described as "relational") and stereotypically male ("instrumental") characteristics were either regarded as desirable for both genders or were neutral for Asians. Examining gender role stereotypes among Chinese children, adolescents and tertiary students, Cheung (1996) maintained that in Chinese societies, the gender stereotypes were largely consistent with those found in western studies, with higher cross-cultural agreement for male stereotypes than female stereotypes. Best and Williams (1994) examined gender roles among tertiary students from 25 countries and concluded that there were more cross-cultural similarities than differences, although there were some minor variations which could be due to cultural variations. To sum up, in these studies based on student samples, there seemed to be broad similarities in gender roles across many different cultural groups. Considering the influence of culture on the extent of gender-role differences, Kashima, Kim, Gelfand, Yamaguchi, Choi and Yuki (1995) examined the nature of cultural and gender differences in self-construals to see whether there were any overlaps between gender and cultural differences. Using a sample of tertiary students from Japan, Korea, Hawaii, mainland United States and Australia, they found that cultural differences were "most pronounced on the individualist dimension" (p.932) whereas gender differences were most clear on the relational dimension of the self. They further found that males and females from the same culture tended to be close together, except for those from Australia and mainland United States, where the same gender groups tended to be more similar to each other than their counterparts from the same culture. Their findings suggest that there might be cultural differences in the extent of gender differences but they did not elaborate on this issue. Best and Williams (1994) collected data from young men and women from Asian countries (India, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore), European countries (England, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands), North American countries (Canada, the United States), Nigeria and Venezuela, and found that the self concepts of males and females tended to be more highly differentiated in countries with high "power-distance. " By power-distance was meant the extent to which people in the society accept unequal distribution of power. Best and Williams (1994) found that gender roles were more pronounced in countries higher on power-distance, for example, India, Singapore, Pakistan (Hofstede & Bond, 1984; Bond, 1996). [303] --------------[304] The work of Hofstede (1998) is relevant here. He argues that a form of the masculinity/femininity dimension differentiates countries, as well as individuals. He postulates that while an individual can have both masculine and feminine traits, a country's culture is either masculine or feminine. "Masculinity stands for CRISP Volume 8 No 21 http://www.uiowa. edu/~grpproc/crisp/crisp.8. 21.html 3 of 19 11/08/2008 11:27 AM a society in which men are supposed to be assertive, tough and focused on material success; women are supposed to be more modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life. The opposite pole, femininity stands for a society in which both men and women are supposed to be modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life (p. 6-7). " In masculine countries, decisiveness, liveliness and ambitiousness are more often seen as masculine, whereas caring and gentleness are more often regarded as feminine. In feminine cultures, all these terms are seen as applying to both men and women. In masculine cultures, assertiveness is emphasised whereas in feminine cultures, modesty is emphasised. Femininity pertains to societies in which social gender roles overlap: both men and women are supposed to be modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life. Masculinity pertains to societies in which social gender roles are clearly distinct: men are supposed to be assertive and tough and women are supposed to be modest and tender (Hofstede & Vunderink,1994). Men's values differ more from women's values in masculine cultures than in feminine cultures, and more for younger than for older persons. The gender gap in values (tender versus tough) is larger in masculine than in feminine cultures. Hofstede developed a "masculinity index" for many of the world's countries, based on his analysis of work goals of employees of a large multinational company in 40 different countries (Hofstede, 1980). Examples of high scoring countries are Austria and Japan and of low scoring countries are Norway and Sweden. The results of studies examining the relationship between a country's masculinity index and the extent of gender difference, are, however, inconsistent. Hofstede and Vunderink (1994) found that, contrary to their predictions, there were greater gender differences in masculine values such as advancement and earnings among Dutch tertiary students than a group of American tertiary students studying in Netherlands, even though the United States scored much higher than the Netherlands on the masculinity index. Again contrary to expectations, Best and Williams (1994) found that gender differences in self concepts on masculinity/femininity among young men and women were less differentiated in high masculinity index countries, but self concepts of males and females tended to be more differentiated in high power distance countries. There were several major limitations to the above studies. The samples used were mainly student samples and it is not clear whether the findings would relate to older groups more established in their society. Many of the major cross-cultural studies did not include a Chinese group. Furthermore, except for Hofstede and Vunderink (1994), all studies compared students/young people residing and studying in their own countries of origin, so that the interesting issue of the influence of acculturation could not be established. In the present study we aimed to examine cultural divergence in gender-role differences, using a group of Chinese students and adults residing in Australia, and comparing them with Anglo-Australians. Australia is regarded as among the top third masculine countries in Hofstede's study, with a Masculinity index of 61 (Hofstede & Vunderink, 1994) whereas Asian countries are found to have lower Masculinity indices. The Masculinity indices cited for various Asian countries were: Hong Kong (57), Malaysia (50), Singapore (48), Indonesia (46), Taiwan (45), Thailand (34) (Hofstede, 1998). Using a combined student and community sample, we examined three research questions. First, were there cultural differences in gender role stereotypes between Anglo-Australians and Chinese migrants and sojourners in Australia? Second, were there cultural differences in the extent of gender differences between Anglo-Australians and Chinese migrants and sojourners in Australia? Third, were gender role stereotypes associated with indices of acculturation such as length of time in the receiving society? To address these questions, we used the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), an individual level measure of gender role stereotypes, and performed factor analyses for the two cultural groups (which differed on their country-level masculinity indices) separately to examine similarities and differences in factor structures. New factor scor