Tracking the Latino Gender Gap: Gender Attitudes across Sex, Borders, and Generations (original) (raw)
Related papers
Social Science Quarterly, 2010
Objective. This study assesses the pace of cultural assimilation of Mexican Americans by comparing changes in their gender-role attitudes over generations to the European-origin U.S. mainstream.Methods. Using cumulative data from the 1972–2004 General Social Survey, we examine the rate at which progressive generations of Mexican Americans approach the mainstream gender-role attitudes. We also employ a set of logistic regressions to assess the differences in gender-role attitudes between Mexican and European Americans.Results. For five out of the eight gender-role-related questions considered in the study, Mexican Americans of the third or later generations show more liberal or egalitarian gender-role attitudes than those of the first or second generations. A comparison between Mexican and European Americans suggests that Mexican Americans in the sample have more conservative gender-role attitudes than European Americans in terms of division of labor at home and women's participation in politics.Conclusion. Mexican Americans become more likely to adopt egalitarian gender-role attitudes as generation progresses. The differences between Mexican and European Americans in terms of gender-role attitudes are sensitive to the particular domains of attitudes under consideration.
The values individuals hold are what define and mold their development and identity. These values can stem from a sense of cultural identity, ethnic identity, and gender identity, among others. Present research regarding the values of the Latino/a community show a prominent focus on the male perspective of machismo, defined as the gender role describing expectations for Latino men (Sanchez, D., Whittaker, T. A., Hamilton, E., & Arango, 2017). There are gaps in literature studying the role of the female in the Latino/a culture, and in the ways her female values create a sense of strength or empowerment. The present paper attempts to review Latina female values and the social impacts associated with such values. The following review will also provide brief definitions for the following themes commonly occurring in this area of study: cultural values, gender ideologies, and acculturation. It is hypothesized that cultural values and gender ideologies in Latina women impact social norms and the succession of these themes in the next generations of women. The following literature reviews attempts to testify to and promote the hypothesis.
2010
Objective. This study assesses the pace of cultural assimilation of Mexican Americans by comparing changes in their gender-role attitudes over generations to the European-origin U.S. mainstream.Methods. Using cumulative data from the 1972–2004 General Social Survey, we examine the rate at which progressive generations of Mexican Americans approach the mainstream gender-role attitudes. We also employ a set of logistic regressions to assess the differences in gender-role attitudes between Mexican and European Americans.Results. For five out of the eight gender-role-related questions considered in the study, Mexican Americans of the third or later generations show more liberal or egalitarian gender-role attitudes than those of the first or second generations. A comparison between Mexican and European Americans suggests that Mexican Americans in the sample have more conservative gender-role attitudes than European Americans in terms of division of labor at home and women's participation in politics.Conclusion. Mexican Americans become more likely to adopt egalitarian gender-role attitudes as generation progresses. The differences between Mexican and European Americans in terms of gender-role attitudes are sensitive to the particular domains of attitudes under consideration.
Living in Two Worlds: Torn Identities and Gender Expectations of Latinas in the United States
Latino immigrants in the United States are currently living in a bicultural sphere that pulls them in two different directions. Their success in this affluent country is challenged by the dual expectations of Latino culture on one hand and Western culture on the other. These expectations create a tear in the identities of newer generation immigrant Latinos, as they must wrestle between their culture of origin and acculturation to life in the United States. Latinas face additional identity tears as a result of being women in both the Latino and Western world. They must adhere to the Latino cultural expectations of the "female role," while simultaneously living up to contradictory expectations in the Western world. Thus, new generations of Latinas in the United States have additional strains placed on their already torn identities.
Gender and Its Discontinuities in Male/Female Domestic Relations: Mexicans in Cross-Cultural Context
University of Arizona Press eBooks, 1996
Traditionally, Mexican gender ideology is given ideal expression as male and female role patterning even when behavior at the local level suggests a broader, more permissible range of gender performativity in both Mexican and Mexican American (Chicana/o) cultural contexts. In particular, contemporary studies of Chicano families have stressed conjugal decision-making indicating a growing egalitarianism associated with the entry of women into the labor force. Mexican family studies have similarly sought to articulate changing male/female gendered behavior although social scientists in the field have long observed and documented female dominant patterns of gendered behavior in Mexico for more than half a century. In part, this gender flexibility is the outcome of women's resolve to address the immediate needs of daily survival which renders patriarchal absolutes impractical. Though both Mexican and Chicano literatures may suggest the growing domestic empowerment of women, still the invocation of patriarchal gendered norms may be given expression by Mexican and Chicana women even if they no longer subscribe to or practice these norms. This work looks at gender as relational and sensitive to context to explain some of the complexities involved in the performance of gender among Mexicans cross-culturally.
A Second Look: Is There a Latina/o Gender Gap?
This research builds upon and updates Montoya’s 1996 study of the Latina/o gender gap through the use of the 1999 Harvard Kennedy School/Kaiser Family Foundation/Washington Post Latino Survey. Not only do we find a gender gap across six questions related to the use of force, social compassion, and women’s social roles, we also find that the size and significance of the gap varies across Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban origin respondents. Our findings challenge past research that found limited evidence of a gender gap in public opinion among Latinos and Latinas nationally, and suggest that more research is needed in order to understand how gendered experiences help to frame public opinion within different racial/ethnic groups in the United States.
Constructions of Difference Among Latino/Latina Immigrant and Non-Hispanic White Couples
Riding on a train, I [RLQ] overhear a middle-aged Spanish speaking woman telling another sitting next to her that she should discourage her son from dating an American woman. “They have another culture. They don’t believe in family like we do.” What differences are implied in this statement? What is the prevailing discourse about these differences and what dynamics result from them? Given the persistent trend of high rates of intermarriage among Latinos, are there alternative discourses of resiliency that can be learned from those who dare to go contra la corriente, against the current (Andrews, 2003; Bacigalupe, 2003)? In this chapter, we explore emergent themes in Latino–Anglo intermarriage regarding perceived intercultural dierences. Intercultural differences are explored by looking at specific factors such as courtship patterns; ideas about family, language, and communications styles; and how couples make meaning about their dierences. The values attributed to intercultural differences are often negotiated against the backdrop of the dominant culture and the current social and political contexts from which these differences emerge.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . This article examines how gender shapes the migration and settlement experiences of Mexican immigrant women and men. The article compares the experiences of families in which the husbands departed prior to 1965 to those in which the husbands departed after 1965 and argues that the lengthy spousal separations altered (albeit differentially for each group) patterns of patriarchal authority and the traditional gendered household division of labor. This induced a trend toward more egalitarian conjugal relations upon settlement in the United States. Examinmg the changing contexts of migration illuminates the fluid character of patriarchy's control in Mexican immigrant families. Patrarchy is a fluid and shifting set of social relations in which men oppress women, in which different men exercise varying degrees of power and control, and in which women resist in diverse ways (Collins 1990; hooks 1984; Kandiyoti 1988; Baca Zinn et al. 1986). Given these variations, patriarchy is perhaps best understood contextually. This article examines family stage migration from Mexico to the United States, whereby husbands precede the migra-AUTHOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this article was presented at the 1991 American SociologicalAssociation meetings m Cincinnati OH. I would like to thankNazli Kibria, Michael Messner, Barrie Thorne, Maxme Baca Zinn, and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article, and I would like to acknowledge the Business and Professional Women's Foundation and the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California at San Diego for partially supporting the research and writing on which this article is based. REPRINT REQUESTS: