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Women in Brazil

There is no one role that all women in Brazil are expected to conform to. Instead, there is a multiplicity of roles and these are shaped by both race and class. Still, there are gender expectations in this country as there are throughout the world. This paper explores both the multiple situations of women in Brazil and the general gender role expectations for women.

One of the best explorations of gender role expectations actually focused on the attitudes of boys and young men. This study, a qualitative research study involving 127 young men and women in Rio de Janeiro, looked at the formation of gender roles and attitudes about masculinity, femininity, fatherhood, child care, and domestic violence (Barker and Loewenstein, 1997).

The researchers in this study found that most men believed in strict, traditional gender roles based on machista values. Men believed that certain qualities and behaviors defined their masculinity, and that women had to conform to their expectations or risk violence. The men felt justified in taking their anger out on the women, while the women simply endured this. However, there was also a minority of the men who the researchers termed progressive males who questioned traditional attitudes and were open to more expansive gender roles for women. However, these progressive males were criticized by machista males. The researchers discovered that the ability to challenge machista values was directly related to the progressive males' exposure to nontraditional gender roles. They were then able to open up to different roles for both men and women (Barker and Loewenstein, 1997).

Sexuality is a particularly charged issue in terms of gender role expectations in many countries and this is certainly true in Brazil. The roles are not as clearly defined as they used to be, when women were expected to be virgins when they married. Still, men are expected to be sexual and experienced, and irresponsib...

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Women in Brazil. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 20:06, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1691287.html