Cultural influences on Gender

Culture

Similarities to UK

Difference to UK

Other interesting points

Mosuo people of China

Women responsible for housework (cleaning, cooking, spinning, weaving) 

Political power in hands of men 

Men in charge of livestock & fishing & building houses 

women = heads of household 

make business decisions & run household 

men bring up children of sisters & female cousins (due to fathers being busy during day) 

open relationships normalised to the point where most women don’t know the father of their children 

Men slaughter livestock & women never participate 

Believe in walking marriages 

Funerals = only time men prepare the food  

Tchambuli of Papua New Guinea 

Distinct gender roles – similar but reversed.

Men still have form of dominance – just minimised.  

Margaret Mead (1935) - Women were dominant, impersonal and managerial and the males less responsible and more emotionally dependent. 

Men wore frilly clothes and makeup 

Mead’s study was criticised for reporting findings that seemed custom-made for her theory, possibly downplaying or ignoring info that may have made her theory untenable, thus might not be accurate of gender roles in their tribes (not valid).   

Ede of Vietnam 

Men do farming and agricultural work eg. planting rice - stereotypical male job across all cultures. 

Similar system but flipped – e.g. the head of the family is always a woman, children have their mother’s surname, etc. 

Nowadays, village chief or administration can be male or female (used to be only female chiefs). 

Matriarchal society, Matrilineal system. 

Men move in with their wives when married and have little influence on decisions made by inlaws. 

Separate male and female staircases. 

Women initiate the marriage 

Separate living spaces for unmarried men, women, married men and women. 

Indian Khasi Tribe 

Only mothers or mothers in law look after children, women look after the home while men find means to support the family 

One of the last existing matrilineal societies in the world. 

The youngest daughter inherits the family's things, children take their mother’s surname, and once married men live in their mother in laws home.  

Nature- women still look after the children and take on the more nurturing role while men support the family even though they have more power in terms of property and names.

Maori of New Zealand 

Historically, both cultures had men in dominant leadership roles, though women have also held significant positions (e.g., queens in England, female rangatira in Māori culture). 

Gender roles have developed – traditionally men held roles such as chiefs while women often led in spiritual and family matters, now both men and women can be chiefs  

Maori traditions have recognised diverse gender identities for longer while the UK has only recently begun to embrace non binary/transgender identities 

Gender roles are closely tied to their place within the community whereas gender roles in the UK are more individualistic and less community oriented 

Cooking is often a communal activity and has always been, whereas in England historically domestic duties like cooking were stereotypically for women. 

Women couldn’t fight in war, perform the war dance, or have full facial tattoos, but they were considered sacred because of their childbearing abilities and this assistance to the future tribe 

Men traditionally handled physical tasks like warfare, hunting, and public ceremonies, while women handled nurturing, caregiving, and food preparation 

Thought it was waste of time to educate daughters at first 

Boys and girls may receive moko kauae (chin tattoos for women) and mataora (facial tattoos for men) as symbols of identity, heritage, and status. - part of gender identity 

Only men typically speak during formal ceremonies on the marae (tribal meeting grounds), but women hold key supportive and spiritual roles 

The contemporary te reo Māori word for transgender people is 'irawhiti'. Ira kore' is the term used by those who don't identify with any gender.