Maya Adolescents’ Gender Ideologies Before and After the Advent of Digital Communication in their Indigenous Community in Mexico

• In Event: New risks to gender justice? Social media, masculinity and gender norms among adolescent boys and young men

Proposal

What are the global effects of mass adoption of digital communication technologies on cultural beliefs and practices for gender roles and relations? Much of the discussion on this broad topic has focused on changes in Western societies with social technologies affording new opportunities for personal expression, authenticity, and choice in gender and sexuality development while also amplifying regressive misogynistic and hierarchical ideologies (Author, 2024). A small but growing body of research on youth development with digital communication technologies in the Global South similarly suggests contradictory effects of social technologies on cultural beliefs and values related to gender (McKenzie, 2024), yet little is known about the specific ideologies at play and how young people are engaging with them in their identity development. To expand our understanding of the diversity of cultural changes in gender development arising with the global spread of digital communication, the current study assessed gender ideologies in two cohorts of adolescents in the Maya municipality of Zinacantán in southern Mexico: one before and one after the mass adoption of digital communication in their community. Our study was guided by two research questions: 1) Did Maya adolescents become more influenced by Western individualistic ideologies for gender roles and relations in their identity development after community adoption of digital communication? 2) Are there gender differences in how youth make meaning out of traditional and Western ideologies for gender in their identity development?

Maya adolescents were interviewed in 2009 (N = 80; 40 girls, Mage = 16.94) and in 2018 (N = 80; 44 girls, Mage = 15.91) using eight vignettes developed from ethnographic work in the community that were designed to elicit participants’ beliefs and values about gender roles and relations. In each vignette, one character articulates a traditional, more collectivistic perspective advocating for complementary and ascribed gender roles, gender hierarchy, and family management of romantic relations. The other character articulates a Western, more individualistic perspective advocating for gender equality, equivalent and chosen gender roles, and personal choice and fulfillment in romantic relations. Participants are asked who they agree with and why, and responses were analyzed quantitatively (pattern of character endorsements representing identity alignment with traditional versus individualistic worldviews) and qualitatively (meaning-making of traditional and individualistic worldviews).

ANCOVA analyses showed no differences in character endorsements across the two cohorts nor was gender a factor. However, schooling, not use of mobile devices or social media, predicted more individualistic identity alignment. Qualitative analyses revealed more nuanced dynamics in gender ideologies. In 2018, youth were engaging in greater integration of values for leisure, self-fulfillment, stimulation, and personal pleasure with values for family obligations but beliefs about female vulnerability and paternalism limited the application of personal fulfillment values to women and girls. These findings suggest benevolent sexism is more of a factor than hostile sexism hindering the evolution of gender equality in Zinacantán. Overall, the study illustrates the importance of qualitative, locally grounded mixed-methods for understanding the complex dynamics of changing gender ideologies and youth development in the Global South.

Author

• Adriana Manago, UC Santa Cruz