Source: Image of Teacher & Child, Public Domain, http://mrg.bz/C8msvl
Hi, I'm Julie Tietz, and welcome to Conflict Resolution-- Putting the Pieces Together. Today to talk about gender and culture and how different cultural assignments of gender roles and traits can lead to cross-cultural conflict.
We see in culture various categories of traits and behaviors and roles divided or categorized by gender. So masculine and feminine traits in various different ways. And how cultures categorize these traits vary from one culture to the next. So these categorizations are not universal. However, there are some that are considered more common in cross-cultures.
For example, official and unofficial power roles. So official power roles are usually associated with men, so they are seen as having more authority to make decisions about governing the specific culture and have more leadership type roles, whereas women are typically associated with having unofficial power, so their decision-making ability and authority is less important and they are more supportive of those official power holders.
And when we categorize our culture-- or our culture, rather, categorizes our traits by gender, these develop into our cultural norms. So what we believe to be right and true and proper ways to behave according to our gender. So what may be appropriate or gender-appropriate in one culture may be considered gender-inappropriate in another. So culture gender appropriateness is the behavior that's considered right and proper and correct for a member of a culture to act within their specific gender.
So going back to our previous slide, we know that each culture varies in how they categorize traits and behavior according to gender. So in one culture, it may be appropriate; in another, it may be inappropriate. When we witness gender-inappropriate behavior, it can cause us to have negative perceptions about that individual or their culture, and it can lead us to stereotyping. And stereotyping is forming a belief that certain general trends are traits of a culture applied to every single member of that culture.
Rather than realizing that, when we talk about culture, we're talking about it and abroad and general sense, and realizing that not every single member of a culture takes on those broad and general sense of beliefs and worldviews of that particular culture. Let's look at an example of what this could look like in terms of stereotyping and culture gender appropriateness.
In our culture, kindergarten teachers are always female. That is the gender that we have assigned to that particular role or job. And so we send our kid to kindergarten for the first time, and his teacher is a male. And we immediately have this sense of insecurity or anxiety about the kindergarten teacher being a male.
We think that he's weak, he's too emotional, he is completely outside of the gender norms of what a man should be. And we begin to doubt whether or not he can perform or take on a job-- the job of a kindergarten teacher successfully and appropriately because females are the ones that are comforting and supportive. And so how can my child be comforted and supported if he has a male teacher in the kindergarten? So this is a way in which our negative traits-- or negative perceptions, rather, can create bias or stereotyping, and in other situations, even conflict.
Let's look at our key points on gender and culture before we go. Every culture has specific gender categories. So certain traits or behaviors that men do and certain traits or behaviors that women do, and these vary across cultures. And when there is a display of inappropriate gender behavior, it can make us feel uncomfortable and attribute negative perceptions of the other person. And when we attribute those negative perceptions, it can lead to stereotyping and bias, and at times, even conflict.
Here are your key terms before we go, feel free to pause and look at them closer. Thank you so much for taking the time out. I hope that you've learned something, and I can't wait to catch you again next time.