SOCIAL GENDER ROLES IN PERCEPTION OF FEMALE AND MALE POLISH STUDENTS

Abstract

The aim of the study was to reveal social gender roles in the perception of male and female Polish students. The social gender roles have been examined in the context of cultural consensus.

The Cultural Models Scenario has been used with 223 participants. The research method is based on series of brief scenarios that were created with an anthropological methodology. After in-depth interviews in Polish society, basic social roles were described in scenarios. In the first phase the group of respondents (N = 104) evaluated the gender social norms in the scenarios. In the second phase the following group with similar socioeconomical characteristic (N = 119) answered the questions while the opposite sex were introduced into the scenarios.

The results revealed that women were valued higher compared to men in, both stereotypical and non-stereotypical social roles. This confirms the consideration of Polish culture as female. Although women were assessed higher in the least valued social roles and most of the valued domains related to work – what prompts the masculinity of a culture. The masculine social role turned out to be perceived as clearly traditional – mostly limited to financial resources, particularly in the women’s perspective. The least recognized social role with strong negative social consensus was a 40-year old single man. A single man turned out to be the least socially approved which may explain the poor psychological functioning of single men in the context of social consonance.