Hi, everyone! Welcome to the cour of intercultural communication!
(PPT 1) Professor Geert Hofstede is a Dutch social psychologist. He conducted one of the most comprehensive studies on national values, introducing the dimension concept. Bad on his survey, he identified four dimensions that drive cultural differences.
(PPT2) They are individualism-collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity-femininity. We’ll focus on masculinity and femininity today.
In this part, we are going to 1. grasp the characteristics of masculinity and femininity in cultures.2. apply the relevant theories to analyze social phenomenon
(PPT 3)Now think about the question and answer.
Do you know something about the traditional gender roles in Japane culture?
(PPT 4)In Japan, men are suppod to work full time outside home.Each weekday in large urban areas, husbands have a long commute to workplaces, get home late, and rarely e t
heir children except on Sundays. They are expected to be ideal workers and make greater devotion to their companies.
(PPT 5)However, women are considered to be more suited to houhold work and child rearing. After they get married, they quit their jobs and stay at home,looking after their husbands and hous and raising children. They budget carefully and make decisions about children’s education. Many women take class in flower arranging, kimono wearing, tea ceremony, and cooking in order to be qualified houwives.
(PPT 6)This is the ranking of masculinity and femininity among some countries and regions. According to Hofstede’s survey, countries like Japan, Austria, Venezuela, Italy and Switzerland are considered to be cultures with high masculinityindex.Countries like Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Denmarkand Yugoslavia are among the cultures with high femininityindex. Now let’s analyze and compare theircultural traits in veral aspects.
(PPT 7)
a. In masculine cultures, both men and women are relatively tough, and their social gender roles are clearly distinct. Men are suppod to be asrtive, tough, and focus on material success, whereas women are suppod to be more modest, tender and concerned with family life.
In the ca of Japane society, the features are clearly prented to us.
In feminine cultures, social gender rolesoverlap. In the cultures, no one should fight or no one should be too ambitious. Everyone is concerned with maintaining good relationships with others. Both men and women are suppod to be modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life.
(PPT 8)
b. This is about their social values. In masculine cultures,people have stronger motivation for achievement and success.They view work as more important to their lives and have higher job stress. They pursue wealth and material things. They “live in order to work”.Ho
wever, in feminine cultures, people enjoy more flexible x roles and equality between xes. They appreciate affection, compassion and interpersonal relationships. Quality of life is valued over money. They work in order to live.
(PPT 9)
c. In the way of politics, in masculine cultures, people solve their conflicts through force and usually take some extreme measures. Concerning economics, they put higher priority on economic growth and their concern is to accumulate more wealth and improve living standards.
In feminine cultures, people solve their conflicts through some peaceful measures, like discussions and negotiations. Their priority is on environment protection. People have relatively comfortable living surroundings and harmonious relationships with nature.
(PPT 10)d. In the matter of work, in masculine cultures, people have larger gender wage gap. Men usually earn more than women. And fewer women take management work. Pe
ople prefer higher pay, in this n, they don’t care extra work.In feminine cultures, the gender wage gap is smaller. And more women are at management status. People would rather work for fewer hours to have more free time for themlves.
(PPT 11)e. From the point of family and school, in masculine cultures, people have traditional family structure. Grandparents, parents and children may live under the same roof. If people fail in work or study, it is a disaster to the family.
In feminine cultures, the family structure is more flexible. People have an undisturbed and easy life and maintain good relationships with family members. Failure is just a minor accident to them. They take it for granted and draw lessons from it.
(PPT 12)Since we have known so much about cultures of masculinity and femininity. Let’s watch a movie clip from“Pushing hands”. We try to u the cultural traits mentioned above to explain the respective behaviors of Martha and Lao Zhu.(pau)插播电影片段
(PPT 13)Martha, an American, is a freelance writer and she needs a quiet home environ
ment to write books. Lao Zhu is from China and gets to America after his retirement to live with his son’s family. In his spare time, Lao Zhudoes Taijiorwatches TV in the living room,surely he interferes with Martha’s work. Martha is very much annoyed by the. Later on, she offers headphones to her father-in-law, but he looks confud and unhappy.
