Social psychological studies of gender have generally referred to two levels of explanations (Doise, 1982): the individual and the interindividual (Deaux & La France, 1998). The analysis of gender as a shared system of knowledge makes the research plan shift to the collective dimension and to the processes by which social meanings are built and expressed (Moscovici, 1984). Using social representations theory as an analytic framework, this research aims at exploring whether changes in the status of women and the opportunities available to them in the last decades challenged the “hegemonic” social representation (Moscovici, 1988) based on the bipolar opposition of the masculine and feminine (Duveen & Loyd, 1993) and on the persistence of symbolic asymmetry in social thinking about sex differences (Amancio, 2000). This research starts from the hypothesis that, being gender roles partially changed over the last decades, social representations regarding gender-specific professions should be changed as well. We analysed gender representations of male and female students from two different university faculties, one traditionally more feminine (Education) and the other more masculine (Engineering). Six focus groups were conducted, of which one with men, one with women and one “mixed” for each faculty. Focus group were chosen over individual interviews in that they are often more appropriate for studying social representations. The results mainly focus on Cluster Analysis and Analysis of Lexical Correspondence performed through the software for textual analysis (T-LAB; Lancia, 2004), where gender and faculty are seen as extra-textual variables. Results show the presence of elements of stability and change within the social representations of gender: besides the persistence of traditional ideas about occupational roles shared by both men and women, we can see that a change is emerging in the shared representations of women’s role.
Camussi, E., Montali, L., Colombo, C., Pirovano, A., GROSSO GONCALVES, V. (2009). Masculinity and Femininity in gender-specific professions: a social representation perspective study. In P. Gaborit (a cura di), Les stéréotypes de genre. Paris : L'Harmattan.
Masculinity and Femininity in gender-specific professions: a social representation perspective study
CAMUSSI, ELISABETTA;MONTALI, LORENZO;COLOMBO, CHIARA;PIROVANO, ANITA;GROSSO GONCALVES, VALENTINA ELISA SANTINA
2009
Abstract
Social psychological studies of gender have generally referred to two levels of explanations (Doise, 1982): the individual and the interindividual (Deaux & La France, 1998). The analysis of gender as a shared system of knowledge makes the research plan shift to the collective dimension and to the processes by which social meanings are built and expressed (Moscovici, 1984). Using social representations theory as an analytic framework, this research aims at exploring whether changes in the status of women and the opportunities available to them in the last decades challenged the “hegemonic” social representation (Moscovici, 1988) based on the bipolar opposition of the masculine and feminine (Duveen & Loyd, 1993) and on the persistence of symbolic asymmetry in social thinking about sex differences (Amancio, 2000). This research starts from the hypothesis that, being gender roles partially changed over the last decades, social representations regarding gender-specific professions should be changed as well. We analysed gender representations of male and female students from two different university faculties, one traditionally more feminine (Education) and the other more masculine (Engineering). Six focus groups were conducted, of which one with men, one with women and one “mixed” for each faculty. Focus group were chosen over individual interviews in that they are often more appropriate for studying social representations. The results mainly focus on Cluster Analysis and Analysis of Lexical Correspondence performed through the software for textual analysis (T-LAB; Lancia, 2004), where gender and faculty are seen as extra-textual variables. Results show the presence of elements of stability and change within the social representations of gender: besides the persistence of traditional ideas about occupational roles shared by both men and women, we can see that a change is emerging in the shared representations of women’s role.
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