Question

Do you think traditional Latino gender roles might have some effect on this child and family’s experience with the health care system? Detailed.

Answer 1

An overview of the traditional Hispanic family and male-female relationships is presented, with an emphasis on issues relevant to providing health care to Hispanic populations. Aspects of the family presented include visitation, decision making, self-care, and emotional problems. Male-female relationships stem from traditional gender roles. Machismo and patriarchal authority characterize the male role; the roles of a traditional woman are housewife and mother. Women are expected to defer to the authority of their husbands. The negative aspects of machismo can result in heavy drinking and the pursuit of high-risk activities, leading to domestic violence and HIV/AIDS. These health risks are exacerbated by such cultural factors as male dominance, female modesty, and the practice of keeping problems within the family. The importance of personalism in patient-provider encounters is emphasized.Estimates based on national representative samples from 30 countries (including the US) indicate that married women are responsible for about two thirds of all household tasks in the family (Greenstein, 2009). Researchers have long tried to understand why housework is divided in gender-biased ways and, to a lesser extent, how such arrangements may affect youth gender development (see Lachance-Grzela & Bouchard, 2010 and McHale, Crouter, & Whiteman, 2003 for reviews of studies conducted mainly with European American samples in the US on the division of housework and youth gender development, respectively). Most of this work, however, is based on European American families in the US. Although Mexican Americans constitute the largest and fastest-growing ethnic minority group in the US (US Census Bureau, 2010), their everyday family experiences, including how they assign household tasks, remain under-explored (Lachance-Grzela & Bouchard, 2010). Spouses’ routine involvement in housework could be conceptualized as behavioral enactment of their attitudes about marital roles (Thompson & Walker, 1989). However, a growing body of research shows that gender is complex and multidimensional, and that different facets of gender are not necessarily tightly related to one another (see Ruble, Martin, & Berenbaum, 2006 for a review of related studies conducted mainly with European American samples in the US).

Indeed, in a study based on national representative samples from five European countries, Cromption and Lyonette (2006) were able to classify married couples into distinct groups defined by spouses’ housework allocation and gender ideologies (see Figure 1), including congruent traditional, congruent egalitarian, and incongruent labor (i.e., traditional divisions of household labor but egalitarian gender role attitudes). Possibly because many household tasks are perceived by Anglo individuals to be tedious and boring (Coltrane, 2000) and favorable attitudes, on a conceptual level, are particularly important in motivating voluntary involvement in undesirable tasks (Ajzen, 2001), an insufficient number of families in Cromption and Lyonette's study fell under the incongruent attitudes category (i.e., egalitarian divisions of household labor but traditional gender role attitudes) to form a distinct group. Building on this classification framework, we drew on questionnaire and phone diary data collected from mothers, fathers, and youths from Mexican American families in the southwestern US and used cluster analysis as a preliminary step to classify these families into congruent traditional, congruent egalitarian, and incongruent labor groups. Our study goals were to identify the conditions under which these congruent and incongruent patterns of parents’ gendered practices and beliefs emerged and to assess the implications of these patterns for youth gender development, using MANOVAs and a series of follow-up, mixed- and between-group ANOVAs. In developing our arguments, we only relied on empirical studies that were US-based to make sure that they were contextually relevant in understanding our sample. We also noted the ethnic background of the samples when the studies were conducted with a particular ethnic group, as cultural orientations, as we describe below, play an important role in shaping spouses’ division of household labor.Our first goal was to identify the conditions under which parents’ patterns of gendered behaviors and attitudes emerged. An ecological perspective suggests that family roles, socioeconomic factors, and enculturation and acculturation processes are closely linked to family dynamics among ethnic minorities (García Coll et al., 1996). In a parallel fashion, the literature on the division of household labor points to the importance of time constraints, socioeconomic resources, and cultural orientations in understanding mothers’ and fathers’ gendered practices and beliefs (Lachance-Grzela & Bouchard, 2010).

First, time constraints theory posits that couples make rational decisions to assign more household tasks to the spouse with more free time (Coverman, 1985). Previous studies based on European American (e.g., Blair & Lichter, 1991; Ishii-Kuntz & Coltrane, 1992) and Mexican American (Golding, 1990; Pinto & Coltrane, 2009) families in the US have shown that husbands with wives who work more hours outside homes contribute more to household responsibilities. Little is known about how work hours are related to gender role attitudes, but employed immigrant women, as compared to their non-employed counterparts, are more exposed to the dominant US culture and better able to build social networks in the workplace (Vega, 1990), both of which may empower women and lead to the liberalization of their gender ideologies (Kroska & Elman, 2009). Therefore, we expected that mothers in congruent traditional families would work fewer hours as compared to mothers in congruent egalitarian families. However, the behavioral expression of attitudes is often limited by environmental constraints (Ajzen, 2001). Even when both parents prefer an egalitarian division of household labor, when the mother has more free time than does the father, it may be rational for her to take on more household tasks. Therefore, we also expected that mothers in incongruent labor families would work fewer hours as compared to mothers in congruent egalitarian families, and that inter-parental differences in work hours (with fathers working more) would be greater in incongruent labor than in congruent egalitarian families.

Second, social exchange theory assumes that household tasks are undesirable and that the spouse with more socioeconomic resources has more power to buy her- or himself out of these chores (Huston & Burgess, 1979). Several studies based on European American (e.g., Blair & Lichter, 1991; Ishii-Kuntz & Coltrane, 1992) and Mexican American (Coltrane & Valdez, 1993; Pinto & Coltrane, 2009) families in the US found that couples had a more balanced division of housework when the wives were more educated and had higher incomes. Modern educational systems expose students to democratic ideals and female role models, and not surprisingly, more educated individuals have more egalitarian attitudes about marital roles (see Chatard & Selimbegovic, 2007 for a review of related studies conducted with samples from both individualistic and collectivistic countries). Higher education also leads to better paying jobs. A longitudinal study based on a national representative sample from the US indicated that wives who contributed more to the household income had more egalitarian gender role attitudes (Raley, Matting, & Bianchi, 2006). Therefore, we expected that mothers in congruent traditional families would be less educated and earn lower income as compared to mothers in congruent egalitarian families. However, household tasks, especially core ones that have to be done on a daily or regular basis, are commonly seen to be tedious and boring (Coltrane, 2000). Even when both parents consider doing housework as a gender-neutral responsibility, if the father brings more resources to the family than does the mother, he may have more power to avoid these undesirable tasks. Therefore, we expected that mothers in incongruent labor families would be less educated and earn lower incomes as compared to mothers in congruent egalitarian families, and that inter-parental differences in incomes (with fathers earning more) would be greater in incongruent labor than in congruent egalitarian families.