Culture and Gender
What are gender roles? Gender roles in society means how we are expected to act, speak, dress, groom, and conduct ourselves based upon our assigned sex. For example, girls and women are generally expected to dress in typically feminine ways and be polite, accommodating, and nurturing. Men are generally expected to be strong, aggressive, and bold.
Every society, ethnic group, and culture has gender role expectations, but they can be very different from group to group. They can also change in the same society over time.
Gender equality is when people of all genders have equal rights, responsibilities, and opportunities. Gender equality is a human right.
Is gender equality real?
While women still take home just 81 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts and make up only 5.2% of CEOs at S&P 500 companies, women employed in predominantly male workplaces are more likely to face gender discrimination than those in mostly female or evenly mixed workplaces, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
Assignment
In this week’s position paper look up Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory. It was developed by Geert Hofstede and is a framework used to understand the differences in culture across countries and identify the ways that business is done across different cultures.
Choose one of the four original dimensions of cultural difference (power distance index, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity and the uncertainty avoidance index) and describe your experiences in the places you have worked that supports or does not support gender equality.
(1-2 pages, 2 sources, APA citations and references)