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This longitudinal study examines the association between child gender and child aggression via parents' physical control, moderated by parents' gender-role stereotypes in a sample of 299 two-parent families with a 3-year-old child in the Netherlands. Fathers with strong stereotypical gender-role attitudes and mothers were observed to use more physical control strategies with boys than with girls, whereas fathers with strong counterstereotypical attitudes toward gender roles used more physical control with girls than with boys. Moreover, when fathers had strong attitudes toward gender roles (stereotypical or counterstereotypical), their differential treatment of boys and girls completely accounted for the gender differences in children's aggressive behavior a year later. Mothers' gender-differentiated parenting practices were unrelated to gender differences in child aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary responds to 'Two Traditions of Research on Gender Identity,' where Wood and Eagly () discussed two traditions of research on gender identity: gender self-categorization and gender-typed traits. This commentary replies, with a focus on research and theory from the U.S., by noting the importance of each approach, but more importantly, by noting the areas of gender identity not addressed by Wood and Eagly. Issues of complexity discussed include the multidimensional nature of gender, the limitations of the gender binary system, intersectionality, and the developmental context. Also, this commentary provides advice for incorporating the developmental context in research on gender identity. The commentary concludes by discussing the usefulness of qualitative research methodologies for incorporating other complexities in research, but also notes the need for innovation in methodology to better reflect the complex nature of gender in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia and Italy are both nations where complex contradictions exist in the current social roles and expectations for women. The current study used the Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory (CFNI: Mahalik et al. ) to compare the endorsement of eight feminine norms (Nice in Relationships, Thinness, Care for Children, Modesty, Domestic, Romantic Relationships, Sexual Fidelity, Invest in Appearance) by samples of Australian and Italian women, and to demonstrate how any observed differences relate to social and historical differences between the two nations. Two hundred forty-six female undergraduate students from an inner-city university on the East coast of Australia and 187 female undergraduate students from two universities in North-East Italy completed the CFNI. Comparisons were made between the two samples on the eight norms that the inventory examines. Italian women endorsed the Domestic and Romantic Relationships norms to a greater degree than Australian women, whereas Australian women endorsed the Nice in Relationships, Modesty and Sexual Fidelity norms to a greater degree than Italian women. Both samples endorsed the Thinness, Care for Children and Invest in Appearance norms to a similar degree. The current results are discussed in terms of other relevant findings regarding women's roles in the two nations. The results both highlight the need to avoid the assumption that Western cultures are uniform with their expectations of women, while emphasizing the central roles that physical appearance and child-rearing still play in women's social roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender identity reflects people's understanding of themselves in terms of cultural definitions of female and male. In this article, we identify two traditions of research on gender identity that capture different aspects of masculine and feminine gender roles. The classic personality approach to gender identity differentiates communal from agentic traits and interests. The gender self-categorization approach comprises identification with the social category of women or men. Based on the compatibility principle, each approach should predict behaviors within the relevant content domain. Thus, personality measures likely predict communal and agentic behaviors, whereas gender self-categorization measures likely predict group-level reactions such as ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation. Researchers have the option of using one or the other conception of gender identity, depending on their particular question of interest. Relying primarily on research conducted in the U.S., we show that both traditions provide insight into the ways that gendered self concepts link the social roles of women and men with their individual cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how spouses' cultural backgrounds mediate the role of intra-household bargaining in the labor supply decisions of foreign-born and US-born couples, in a collective-household framework. Using data from the 2000 US Census, I show that the hours worked by US-born couples, and by those foreign-born coming from countries with gender roles similar to the US, are significantly related to common bargaining power forces such as differences between spouses in age and non-labor income, controlling for both spouses' demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Households whose culture of origin supports strict and unequal gender roles do not exhibit any association of these power factors with their labor supply decisions. This cultural asymmetry suggests that spousal attributes are assessed differently across couples within the US, and that how spouses make use of their outside opportunities and economic and institutional environment may depend on their ethnicities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This content analysis of 15 Arabic and 3 Turkish drama serials on transnational Arab television examined the gender portrayals of characters. The analysis of 743 characters found that women were underrepresented, less likely to have recognizable jobs, and more likely than men to be portrayed in sex-typed occupations, activities, and settings. The analysis also revealed that programs with female writers were significantly less gender stereotypical. Moreover, differences were found among the producing Arab countries in terms of the portrayals of women; conservative countries had more sex-typed portrayals than the more liberal Arab countries, whereas Turkish programs had similar portrayals to Arabic programs produced in the liberal Arab states. The general findings are discussed in comparison to U.S. programming, and in relation to selective exposure, identification with characters, and potential effects on Arab viewers’ gender role beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What role does the international diffusion of gender norms play in determining recent increases in women's political representation? We argue that norm diffusion has larger positive effects on women's cabinet representation than on women's legislative representation. We also show that within cabinets, norm diffusion affects low-prestige appointments more than high-prestige appointments. We test these arguments using an original database of ministers from 1979 to 2009 and find that the association of women's representation with three separate indicators of international diffusion-levels of women's representation among neighboring states, levels of women's representation among intergovernmental organization partners, and time since ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women-is consistent with our arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article presents a reprint of the article "Aptitud de la mujer para ejercer todas las profesiones," by Soledad Acosta de Samper, presented at the Congreso Pedagógico Hispano-Lusitano-Americano in Madrid, Spain in 1892. Acosta discusses women's roles in 19th-century society, particularly in Latin America, and examines the intense academic and social debate surrounding this topic. She also analyzes the schooling women receive in educational systems and compares women's roles in various countries in Latin America and Europe.

This essay examines the lives of four Arapahos whose experiences are broadly representative of the life-career patterns of their cohorts during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It argues that in the American encounter, individuals and groups challenged both American and Arapaho ideas and practices associated with age and gender. Comparison of experiences between and within cohorts shows age- and gender-based strategies, including the "partnering" dimension of gender relations most evident in the wife-husband relation. These multiple strategies shaped Arapaho history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study follows the thread of gender divisions in dairying in Denmark and the American Midwest in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Gender organization of dairying shifted at this time in diverse European and North American contexts. As agriculture mechanized and production scale increased, access to advanced education and international markets became critical. Women, who had been in the forefront of the development of dairying, ceded their leadership to men as these changes occurred. While some scholars see this shift as a strategic loss for women, this study finds that variables of class, marital status, rural demographics, and alternative occupations mediated the rural women's experience of change. Not all women experienced the change as a loss. The question of which women were invested in dairying is critical to understanding the course of change. Increasingly, middle-class farm women were turning away from the hard work of dairying and investing themselves in new ways in the upward mobility of their family farms. Rural life shaped distinct gender patterns in European and American history, and the rural experience shaped the larger trajectory of women's economic and political evolution, even though few rural women were involved in the organized women's movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents research into the role of housekeeping work in the division of hours of labor between married men and women. The author considers whether or not the hours of domestic labor increase for men who become unemployed. This data is used to determine whether women contribute more to housekeeping in dual-career families. Data from the Harmonized European Time Use Survey is used to determine the allocation of housework in dual-career families. A comparison between male-breadwinner families, dual-career families where the husband is unemployed, and families with both spouses employed is considered. The relatively equal workloads in Finnish, British, and German households are contrasted with the greater hours of housekeeping done by women in Spain.

We use comparative and multilevel methods to examine attitudes toward the distribution of household labor in 32 countries. We test hypotheses derived from Baxter and Kane's (1995) gender dependence theory, which suggests complex relationships between societal-level gender dependence, individual-level gender dependence, and gender attitudes. Countrylevel data are from the United Nations and survey data are from the International Social Survey Programme's 2002 Family and Changing Gender Roles III module. Our analysis is among the first to combine societal and individual indicators of gender dependence using multilevel modeling and to test for cross-level interactions between societal and individual gender dependence. Results provide mixed support for gender dependence theory and suggest several revisions — especially pertaining to men's attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper discusses the social construction and reconstruction of gender roles in relation to agricultural knowledge claims in a land resettlement area. Many women were politically active in the war of liberation where the land question dominated the agenda. However, at independence this question was framed in terms of race, and gender issues were sidelined. Despite the fact that women were not resettled in their own right, they are not simply victims of the system but manoeuvre within the system to gain advantages. This paper discusses strategies that women use to challenge the males in their families and the resultant conflicts and contradictions. It also discusses decision-making, investments and poverty as concepts and practices that can illuminate the gendering and gendered nature of knowledge in resettlement schemes. Claims of knowledge by both men and women are in the final analysis claims to the ownership of household and family resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the distinction between refusing to discuss an openly lived homosexuality and silence must be taken seriously. The research was based on a larger study of Dominican gay and bisexual male immigrants residing in New York City. The author demonstrates how an exchange of information about a person's sexual identity will showcase the knowledge and complicity that helps to build and maintain hierarchical social relationships. Also discussed are the various dynamics associated with coming out to loved ones and friends.