The Influence of Culture & Media on Gender Development (AQA A Level Psychology)

Culture & gender roles

• Culture refers to the shared beliefs, values, and practices of a particular group or society that shape individual behaviour and attitudes 

• If gender is learnt through socialisation, identification and internalisation then the surrounding culture will influence gender development, lending support to the argument that gender is a social construct

• While the sex categories ‘male’ and ‘female’ are recognised in all cultures, suggesting a universal understanding of gender, the gender roles associated with these  sex categories can vary cross-culturally

• In Sweden, many fathers raise small children during a generously paid paternity leave, while their wives or partners go back to work, giving the children they are raising a non-traditional view of the male gender role

• In modern-day India there is the gender identity of Sadhin, which refers to person born as a female who adopts men’s clothing, physical appearance and behaviour, but identifies as neither male nor female, living a celibate life

Fathers from a range of cultures may adopt non-stereotypical gender roles.

Media & gender roles

• Media forms, such as television, magazines, books, social media and music shape and reinforce gender roles

• Males are more represented in most TV programmes, including children’s programmes, and in most children’s books

• Children who watch a lot of television, play video games or spend a lot of time on social media may develop more stereotypical ideas of  gender roles

• Both females and males are usually portrayed in a gender-stereotypical way, with girls being more passive than boys who are shown as more aggressive and dominant than girls

• Gradual changes are taking place, with more representation of other genders (non-binary, transgender and agender) in the media, but they constitute a tiny minority of media representation of gender

• The social media advertisement shown below, (part of the UK COVID-19 campaign Stay Home. Save Lives) showed women taking care of the household and the children, while the man was sitting on the sofa with his family

A very recent UK government advertisement showing stereotypical gender roles. 

Research which investigates the influence of culture on gender development

• Mead's 1935 research in Papua New Guinea found that gender roles and behaviour were not fixed but culturally bound, challenging the idea of universal gender norms

• Whiting & Edwards (1988) conducted a cross-cultural study that suggested  it was culturally universal for girls to be encouraged into child-caring roles and  boys to be socialised into tasks like looking after animals

Research which investigates the influence of media on gender development

• Steinke et al (2008) conducted a content analysis of fourteen popular TV science programmes and found that 58 percent of scientists shown were male, and male scientists were portrayed with the masculine qualities of independence and dominance

• Lewis et al (2021) concluded that the majority of the 247 children’s books they investigated reflected gender stereotypes, with male activities seen as gender neutral, while books about girls containing more specifically female material

Evaluation of the influence of culture and media on gender development

Strengths

• Media may be used to promote positive non-traditional gender roles, leading to changes in what children are exposed to when developing their gender identity

• Research into the influence of culture on gender development can show how globalisation may be contributing to a reduction in the differences between masculine and feminine gender roles, implying that cultural influences are stronger than biological ones

Weaknesses

• The fact that those who spend a lot of time on social media, TV and video games hold stronger gender-stereotyped beliefs is merely correlational evidence, not necessarily indicating media to be the cause of such attitudes

• Most cross-cultural research into gender relies on the naturalistic observation method which may reduce the validity of their findings on gender roles, as the presence of the researcher may change the behaviour, potentially leading to the observer effect in participants

Link to Issues and Debates:

Lewis et al’s recent research showed that children’s books are still androcentric, with male activities seen as the norm. This is an example of gender bias. It is a beta bias as it assumes that the male activities apply equally well to females and the interests of girls are ignored. 

The influence of culture and media on gender development is on the nurture side of the nature/nurture debate, with a general acceptance in the research, that gender is mainly socially constructed, which leaves it with the problem of explaining the cross-cultural universalism of two genders, masculine and feminine, except through exceptional cases like that of the Sadhin described above, and of the recent increase of awareness of non-binary genders.