Definition
Gender role attitudes pertain to peoples’ expectations of the appropriate “place” of the sexes (men and women) in the human society. Indigenous or adapted, such attitudes are shaped through a variety of cultural, religious, and normative lenses specific to each locale and transmitted to the cohorts from generation to generation through socialization and indoctrination, broadly defined (Kelly, 1986). Gender role attitudes are not benign. They codify behavioral norms and shape life’s chances and outcomes (Mayer & Schmidt, 2004). For women especially, these enduring gender orientations remain a perpetual game changer, particularly in traditional societies where women’s ascribed status remains decidedly more “inferior” than men’s and change is fiercely resisted (Haque, 2003). But gender role attitudes are not immutable. They vary with population diversity, industrialization, level of democratization, greater social density, and increased levels of division of labor (Khalid &...
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Manganaro, L.L., Alozie, N.O. (2014). Gender Role Attitudes in Afghanistan. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_4136
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