A Re-Examination of the Cross-Cultural Principles of Task Segregation and Sex Role Differentiation in the Family

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5249558
AutoresJoel Aronoff, William D Crano (0000-0003-3392-6937)
Año1975
Volumen40
Número1
Páginas12
Fecha de publicación1975-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAmerican Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0003-1224 • E-ISSN: 1939-8271
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2094443
OpenAlexW2334904424
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas30
Referencias citadas17

This study reexamined Parsons' and Bales' proposition that a universal feature of the social structure of the family is sex role specialization of tasks. Applying a newly developed data base (Murdock's Ethnographic Atlas) this research investigated the degree to which males, to the exclusion of females, assumed the role of task specialist in the subsistence economy. In 862 societies, examined over 5 critical subsistence variables, analyses revealed that women contribute appreciably to their respective subsistence economies. Over all societies women contributed an average of 44% of subsistence production, thus providing no support for this assumed universal characteristic of the family. A n important theme recapitulated throughout much of the literature concerned with the analysis of social institutions has been the attempt to delineate universal patterns of interdependence within the family. As in many other areas of scientific concern, the initial impetus for such study was provided by the need to develop common definitional features which would enable the identification and differentiation of the family, as a social unit, from other institutional subsystems. A larger theoretical purpose motivated such attempts as well, for by their very nature the presence of universal patterns of interdependence within the family would foster the generation of important postulates concerning the process of interaction between persons and between individuals and the larger social unit. Unfortunately, while the data necessary for the resolution of this issue were far from satisfactory, its theoretical importance was such that premature speculation concerning the existence of certain universals was sometimes accepted as established fact. It is a major aim of this report to reexamine some of these proposals in light of a newly available, comprehensive data set in order to determine with greater certainty the validity of these previous conceptualizations

Biology · Cross-cultural · Developmental psychology · Sexual differentiation · Sociology · Task (project management · Anthropology · Engineering · Gender Studies · Genetics · Human Behavior and Motivation · Psychology · Social Psychology