Traditional Gender Role Expectations Research Articles

Gender role conflicts experienced by Indonesian women with gynecological cancer: A phenomenological study.

Gynecological cancer and its treatments can lead to sexual problems, potentially disrupting the gender role performance of women. Sexuality and gender roles are context-specific, yet these issues remain unexplored in the Indonesian context. This study aimed to explore the gender role conflicts experienced by Indonesian women having gynecological cancer. A qualitative design with a phenomenology approach was utilized in this study. Data were collected through individualized, face-to-face, in-depth interviews conducted from 1 April to 30 December 2022 with 22 women diagnosed with gynecological cancer who had undergone treatments at the Dharmais Cancer Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Three themes were developed: 1) challenges in fulfilling female gender roles after having cancer diagnosis and therapies, 2) emotional struggles related to gender role conflicts, and 3) efforts to cope with gender role conflicts. The study sheds light on how sexual complications due to gynecological cancer and its treatments extend beyond physical issues. A deeper layer of problems around sexual dysfunctions among gynecological cancer survivors is often rooted in traditional gender-role expectations. Nurses should have a comprehensive and contextual understanding of the unique experiences of women living with gynecological cancer to facilitate a positive adaptation to their cancer journey.

Men as Advocates for Women in Leadership

Despite improvements in gender equity within higher education nationally, underrepresentation in women’s leadership persists in Christian higher education. As women in leadership navigate the context of member institutions of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), characteristics of evangelical culture (e.g., theological views of gender, traditional gender role expectations) may at times impede these relationships across gender; however, some evidence has suggested that women who attained a presidency within a CCCU institution have identified male advocates to be influential in their leadership journeys. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of men who had been identified by women presidents of CCCU institutions as having been advocates in their leadership identity development and journeys. This article explored the findings of a hermeneutic phenomenological analysis of data from interviews with 14 male participants nominated by women presidents of CCCU institutions across North America. The findings of this study centered on three themes: (a) the pursuit of theological congruence, (b) gender blind, the double bind, and being first, and (c) pragmatism and persuasion. Based on these findings, the interdependence of organizational culture, self-awareness, and the social construction of a leadership identity through reciprocal relationships was discussed. Implications for practice include recommendations for evaluating institutional contexts and personal biases, as well as cultivating reciprocal relationships between women and men.

Succession intentions of daughters in family businesses: experiences from Sri Lanka

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the succession intentions of daughters in family businesses in Sri Lanka by shedding light on the motives behind their willingness to succeed in the family business.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews was used to explore the factors that may influence succession intentions among a group of seven prospective successor-daughters.FindingsFindings showed that while a majority of the daughters sampled have positive succession intentions, there were a few who were either undecided or unwilling. Interestingly, what motivated some daughters to be willing successors was also considered demotivating for others. Daughters perceived succession in family businesses to be impacted by both personal and family background, traditional gender-role expectations and other socio-cultural factors.Originality/valueFindings from this study provide key insights into gender-related issues with regard to succession in family businesses.

Education, Employment, Family Formation Behaviors, and the Gender Health Gap: A Cross-National Comparison of Korea, the United States, and Finland

Abstract Despite improvements in the social status of women in recent decades, women still tend to report lower levels of health compared to men. This study examines the role of individual factors (i.e., education, employment, and family formation behaviors) and aggregate factors (i.e., gender context, work cultures, and work-family policy) in the association between gender and health using the cases of Korea, the United States, and Finland. The study’s results indicate that women experience lower levels of health than men in Korea and the United States, especially among younger adults, even after accounting for education, employment, and family status. In Finland, however, women do not have lower levels of health than men. Moreover, among older individuals, Finnish women exhibit a health advantage relative to Finnish men. The findings indicate that traditional gender role expectations, long hours at work, and inadequate work-family balance largely account for gender disparities in health in Korea and the United States. Gender egalitarianism at work, reduced work hours, and more family friendly work policies should help reduce such disparities.

Men’s Marriage Trends in Asia: Changes and Continuities

Focusing on men’s negotiation of traditional norms and new gender dynamics amidst rapid social changes, the current study reveals nuanced trends and inter-regional heterogeneity in marriage behavior of men during the past decades in Asian societies. Since the 1970s, marriage age for men across Asia has risen and the slope of change is especially sharp in East Asia; while men in East and Southeast Asia increasingly remain single in their 30s and early 40s, earlier and almost universal marriage continues to dominate men’s nuptiality in South Asian societies. We contextualize these empirical patterns in the complex interplay of aggregate-level socioeconomic development, the changing labor market conditions (as reflected in a high level of job insecurity and informalization), shifting gender dynamics in educational attainment and labor market participation, and remaining legacies of traditional gender role expectations. This study offers compelling empirical evidence for further theorizing marriage and gender in Asia.

Unraveling the Socio-Cultural Insecurities behind Early Marriages: Exploring the Resulting Divorce

This research explore the complex dynamics of early marriages and divorce in Khatiamari Village, Bogura, Bangladesh, aiming to shed light on the underlying factors and implications of these practices. The objectives of the study were twofold: first, to investigate the socio-cultural factors that contribute to the prevalence of early marriages in the community, and second, to examine the impact of early marriages on marital stability. The study employed in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with community members particularly those who experienced early marriage and divorced to collect comprehensive insights. Khatiamari Village was selected due to its high divorce rate, making it an intriguing subject for investigation. The study found that poverty and economic insecurity significantly influence parents’ decisions to arrange early marriages for their children. They perceived early marriage as a means to alleviate financial burdens and secure economic stability for their daughters, perpetuating a cycle of inequality and hindering progress in disadvantaged areas. Economic hardships and traditional gender role expectations within early marriages also strain relationships, affecting overall marital stability and well-being. The implications of early marriages were far-reaching, with young couples facing challenges such as emotional immaturity, limited life experience, and inadequate coping skills, leading to unresolved issues and potential divorce. Additionally, early marriages often resulting adverse health outcomes for young girls who became mothers at an early age, further exacerbating the cycle of poverty. The study underscored the urgent need for comprehensive interventions that prioritize education, vocational training, and sustainable livelihood programs to empower women and break the cycle of poverty. This research sheds light on early marriages and increasing divorce rates in Khatiamari Village and similar areas. It emphasizes the need for sustainable solutions to foster a healthier, more inclusive community, enabling individuals to thrive and make positive contributions to their families and society.

Changing attitudes about the impact of women's employment on families: The COVID-19 pandemic effect.

We use representative longitudinal panel data from the Dutch European Values Survey (EVS) to study whether the COVID‐19 pandemic shifted opinions about how a woman's full‐time employment impacts family life. The data was collected before the COVID‐19 pandemic in 2017 and in May 2020. The analysis focuses on groups whose unpaid and paid work situation changed abruptly with the COVID‐19 pandemic: parents with coresident children, and those who experienced a change in paid workload that clashes with traditional gender role expectations, namely women whose workload increased and men whose workload decreased or who stopped working. We found that groups that faced an abrupt change in their paid and unpaid work routines that clashed with their previously held gender attitude changed their gender attitude in alignment with the new paid or unpaid work situation. For women in couple households with children, this meant that they saw a halt in their progression toward gender egalitarian attitudes. For those who experienced a change in paid workload that clashes with traditional gender role norms, it meant stronger progression toward gender egalitarian attitudes. The results are interpreted on the basis of cognitive dissonance theory and exposure theory and placed in the context of previous findings.

When family interrupted work: The implications of gendered role perception in the face of COVID-19.

During the COVID‐19 pandemic, many individuals are confronted with the work‐from‐home challenge, which often results in work‐family interference. Although prior to COVID‐19, the influence of traditional gender role expectations was shown to be reduced over time, it is unclear whether and how such traditional worldview might influence judgments towards men and women when family interrupted work under the threat of COVID‐19. This study presented and tested competing predictions derived from the gender role theory. An experimental study with 971 adults showed that during (vs. before) COVID‐19 pandemic, men were evaluated more negatively when they experienced family interruption to work compared with women. The negative evaluation further led to more punitive reactions and less support at work. The results suggested that gender role expectations reinforced the traditional status quo by punishing status‐quo‐breakers under the threat of COVID‐19.

Coping With Parental Pressure to Get Married: Perspectives From Chinese “Leftover Women”

Postponed marriage has become a trend in China’s major cities over the last decade. However, due to persistent traditional gender role expectations, women who remain single in their late 20s and beyond still face significant parental pressure to get married and are the subjects of negative societal discourse. Through semi-structured interviews with 30 never-married Chinese professional women who are white-collar workers based in Beijing, this research explored the parental pressure these women faced, their response to the pressure, and their own perceptions on marriage and romantic relationships. The results demonstrate the two generations’ different viewpoints on marriage, romantic relationships, and gender roles, as well as young women’s aspirations for autonomy and independence.

Work-to-family conflict and firm performance of women entrepreneurs: Roles of work-related emotional exhaustion and competitive hostility

When entrepreneurs suffer from work-to-family conflict, it can affect firm performance. This article considers how emotional exhaustion experienced in the course of running a business mediates this link and how beliefs about competitive hostility invigorate that effect. Using survey data collected from 200 women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia, a country marked by culturally traditional gender role expectations, the empirical findings show that a sense of being emotionally overextended, due to the demands of running a firm, creates a conduit for the negative interference of the family upon the firm. This escalates into diminished firm performance. The results also demonstrate that this conduit is particularly prominent when entrepreneurs feel more threatened by hostile market environments. For entrepreneurship scholarship and practice, this article establishes two notable factors; a feeling of being ‘worn out’ by the business and adverse competitive markets. These factors clarify the complex link between work-induced family strain and business performance for women entrepreneurs, who might be particularly challenged when balancing time demands in gender-discriminatory environments.

Dilemmas Of Singlehood In Contemporary Pakistani Culture: A Qualitative Study Of Unheard Voices

Marriage has always been central to women’s lives in Pakistan and to remain single is not only considered socially unacceptable but also perceived as non-compliance to the cultural hegemony of the institute of marriage. Pakistan is a country where marriage is considered mandatory and singlehood is viewed as anomalous particularly in the case of women. The present study put light on the experiences of those women who remain unmarried in a traditional society like Pakistan where women are generally seen only as wives and mothers. This study attempted to analyse the perspectives of never-married women with greater emphasis on the issues and challenges faced by them. The primary objective of this paper is to highlight the cultural and psycho-social aspects ofsinglehood and to voice the opinions and ‘lived experiences’ of the never-married female from their perspective. In Pakistani culture, women are generally expected to get married by their mid-twenties. The study was conducted with the help of a qualitative phenomenological approach. It relied on anthropological methods of data collection from twenty never-married women over the age of thirty-five years. Findings revealed that respondents in this study acknowledged their latent desire to be married and having fulfilled lives, however, owing to some tragic socio-familial circumstances, such as financial constraints, the death of father and the responsibility to look after widowed mother and younger siblings, caste-based endogamy, lack of physical attractiveness, failure to find a compatible spouse, were identified as some of the contributory. Regardless of whether the causes for their single status were circumstantial or optional, unmarried women experience criticism, disgrace, loneliness, and feeling of being left out in a patriarchal societal setup where traditional gender role expectations bound women with marriage and motherhood.

Coping with Parental Pressure to Get Married: Perspective from Chinese “Leftover Women”

Postponed marriage has become the trend in China’s major cities in the recent decade. However, due to persistent traditional gender role expectations, women who remain single in their late 20s and beyond still face more negative discourses as well as significant parental pressure to get married. Through semi-structured interviews with 30 single Chinese white-collar professional women based in Beijing, the current research explored the parental pressure these women received, women’s response to the pressure, and these women’s own perceptions on marriage and romantic relationships. The results demonstrate the different perceptions on marriage, romantic relationship, and gender role perceptions between two generations, as well as young women’s aspirations for autonomy and independence.

Loosening the GRIP (Gender Roles Inhibiting Prosociality) to Promote Gender Equality

Prosociality is an ideal context to begin shifting traditional gender role stereotypes and promoting equality. Men and women both help others frequently, but assistance often follows traditional gender role expectations, which further reinforces restrictive gender stereotypes in other domains. We propose an integrative process model of gender roles inhibiting prosociality (GRIP) to explain why and how this occurs. We argue that prosociality provides a unique entry point for change because it is (a) immediately rewarding (which cultivates positive attitude formation), (b) less likely to threaten the gender status hierarchy, and therefore less susceptible to social backlash (which translates into less restrictive social norms), and (c) a skill that can be learned (which leads to stronger beliefs in one’s own ability to help). Using the GRIP model, we derive a series of hypothesized interventions to interrupt the self-reinforcing cycle of gender role stereotyping and facilitate progress toward broader gender equality.

Adults are expected to take responsibility for their problems, especially when those problems are congruent with traditional gender role expectations

Adults are expected to take responsibility for their problems, especially when those problems are congruent with traditional gender role expectations

Adults are expected to take responsibility for their problems, especially when those problems are congruent with traditional gender role expectations

Adults are expected to take responsibility for their problems, especially when those problems are congruent with traditional gender role expectations

Achieving Gender and Social Equality: More Than Gender Parity Is Needed.

In this Perspective, the authors review Association of American Medical Colleges data on gender parity and intersectionality, consider the literature on gender parity in academic medicine and the underlying gender norms that explain these statistics, and offer recommendations for moving past indicators of parity to achieve gender and social equality.Improvements in gender parity among medical school graduates have not translated to gender parity among practicing physicians or medical school faculty, particularly for racial/ethnic minorities. Further, gender parity does not correspond to gender equality, such that gender-based disparities in salaries and advancement persist. In addition, social norms related to traditional gender role expectations reinforce existing biases and lead to sexual harassment and discrimination against women in the workplace.Building on their analysis of existing data and the literature, the authors offer concrete recommendations to achieve gender equality in academic medicine that not only improve parity but also support policies and practices to address the norms that further bias and discrimination. These recommendations include the collection, monitoring, and open reporting of data on salaries as well as on sex and race/ethnicity; stronger policies related to family leave and sexual discrimination and harassment; and accountability structures to ensure that policies are enforced. While these efforts alone cannot eliminate gender inequalities, academic medicine should be at the forefront of creating a climate in medicine that is supportive of gender equality as part of their larger goal of promoting social equality.

Women in accounting: Revolution, where art thou?

Goldin hypothesised women’s transition from evolution to revolution, where they claimed increasing dominion over their careers. Such change is salient for the professions such as accounting, where gender inequality persists. This qualitative study reports on how a group of 36 male and female accounting professionals employed by Big Four firms and in academia in New Zealand decided to redefine, disassemble and reconstruct their careers. Gender and role expectations strongly influenced their career pathways. Despite spousal and organisational support, most females in the study retained a flexible focus on career. These decisions were mainly influenced by how they thought about life, work, and career, and relationships with significant others. These results re-confirm traditional career patterns and to an extent, broader traditional gender role expectations in the profession. Acknowledging that inequality in the accounting profession appears entrenched makes it clear that the changes Goldin hypothesised have not yet been fully fulfilled.

Maternal Clinic Attendance: Does Husbands' Knowledge about Pregnancy and Childbirth have Influence on Intra-Household Decision-Making?

Husbands are very influential in making decisions for maternal healthcare, and the quality and type of decision depend on the level of understanding of maternity. This study explores how husbands’ knowledge about key signs of pregnancy and childbirth translates into wives’ involvement in decision-making and the type of decisions made towards care-seeking. These qualitative data were generated from individual interviews involving thirty husbands whose spouses were receiving maternity care in the Yendi Municipality of the Northern Region of Ghana. Purposive and quota sampling were used to reach the participants. Irrespective of husbands’ knowledge about maternity, cultural beliefs and traditional gender role expectations had a far-reaching effects on wives’ involvement in decision-making and the type of decisions made towards care-seeking. Though most husbands with adequate knowledge about maternity were more liberal by involving their wives and respecting their views in the decision-making process, others tended to be more conservative by considering decision-making as men’s space. Most decisions were individualistic and male-centred. Healthcare promotion programmes should be directed towards changing the mind-set of men about cultural beliefs and gender roles in relation to maternity care. There should be provision of education on pregnancy and childbirth and the associated benefits and dangers to equip men on how to recognise pregnancy-related complications to enable them to reach informed decisions for care-seeking.

Gender differences in drinking behavior among Latino/a heavy drinkers

BackgroundIn the United States (U.S.), higher levels of acculturation have been associated with higher rates of heavy alcohol use more consistently among Latino women than among Latino men. This paper explores mechanisms underlying the link between acculturation and alcohol use among Latino/as in the U.S. We examine alcohol use expectancies and motives from the perspectives of the social cognitive theory of gender development. MethodsQualitative narratives data from six focus groups of individuals (total n = 37), who met criteria for heavy drinking (4/5 drinks/occasion for females/males), were examined separately by gender (18 females; 19 males). Coded narratives data were analyzed using a framework that compared lives in Latin America and in the U.S. Emergent themes were analyzed for their consistency across genders. Gender-specific themes were identified. ResultsChanges in family structure and the loss of social networks prompted divergent patterns of drinking among men and women, such that relative to patterns in their countries of origin, drinking among Latino women increased while it decreased among Latino men. Men and women reported drinking to replace missing social bonds, a motive not frequently reported in the literature on drinking motives. Women who engaged in heavy-drinking nonetheless described traditional gender role expectations after U.S. arrival. Only men endorsed positive alcohol expectancies in Latin America. Women reported drinking to alleviate psychological distress in the U.S. ConclusionsPre and post-immigration comparisons revealed different drinking trajectories among men and women after immigration to the U.S. These patterns appeared to be influenced by new social contexts and changes in familial expectations regarding women’s roles. Future inquiry that examines gender-specific themes in alcohol expectancies and motives unique to the experience of immigration, is warranted.

Male involvement in maternal healthcare through Community- based Health Planning and Services: the views of the men in rural Ghana

BackgroundThe need to promote maternal health in Ghana has committed the government to extend maternal healthcare services to the door steps of rural families through the community-based Health Planning and Services. Based on the concerns raised in previous studies that male spouses were indifferent towards maternal healthcare, this study sought the views of men on their involvement in maternal healthcare in their respective communities and at the household levels in the various Community-based Health Planning and Services zones in Awutu-Senya West District in the Central Region of Ghana.MethodsA qualitative method was employed. Focus groups and individual interviews were conducted with married men, community health officers, community health volunteers and community leaders. The participants were selected using purposive, quota and snowball sampling techniques. The study used thematic analysis for analysing the data.ResultsThe study shows varying involvement of men, some were directly involved in feminine gender roles; others used their female relatives and co-wives to perform the women's roles that did not have space for them. They were not necessarily indifferent towards maternal healthcare, rather, they were involved in the spaces provided by the traditional gender division of labour. Amongst other things, the perpetuation and reinforcement of traditional gender norms around pregnancy and childbirth influenced the nature and level of male involvement.ConclusionsSustenance of male involvement especially, husbands and CHVs is required at the household and community levels for positive maternal outcomes. Ghana Health Service, health professionals and policy makers should take traditional gender role expectations into consideration in the planning and implementation of maternal health promotion programmes.