CONTENT OF FATHER AND MOTHER STEREOTYPES IN JAPAN, COMPARED TO OVERALL GENDER STEREOTYPES

Abstract

Suzuki (2017) reviewed the studies on gender inequality and concluded that gender stereotypes contribute to the persistence of gender discrimination in the workplace and at home. It has also been verified that the content of father (Troilo, 2013) and mother stereotypes (Ganong & Coleman, 1995) differed from the overall gender stereotypes in American society. This study investigated whether the content of the father and mother stereotypes was dissimilar to that of the overall gender stereotypes in Japan. That is, does the content of the father (versus men) and mother (versus women) stereotypes differ from the typically held gender stereotypes? A survey was conducted among undergraduates (N = 266; Men = 106, Women = 160), with a mean age of 19.05 years (SD = 1.02 years). The results imply that the idea that ‘fathers (rather than men) should work outside the home and mothers (rather than women) should keep the house’, is held in Japanese society. In the future, it would be helpful to examine not only explicit stereotypes but also implicit stereotypes about fathers and mothers. Further, it would be useful to study stereotypes held by older and/or less educated adults.