Poster #187 - “One-Child” Chinese Female International Students' Womanist Identity and Gender Role Identity in the United States

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Sex, Gender

Integrative Statement

As the first generation and perhaps last generation born after China introduced its "one-child policy," Chinese female international students in the United States belong to a special population that is under the triple pressures of (a) parental expectations that they succeed in traditionally masculine sex role domains; (b) Chinese Confucian principles of women as obedient to men, dependent, and home-oriented; and (c) the necessity of self-defining their gender roles in a country different from their own. No studies have used theoretical models to explore how these women integrate their internalized gender-role socialization (i.e., womanist identity) and their gender-role attitudes and traits while studying in the US. Chinese female international students (N=192), enrolled in colleges or universities in the US, completed the Womanist Identity Attitude Scale (Helms, 1990), which assessed their manner of coping with traditional role expectations. Their own gender-role traits and stereotypical attitudes toward American women were examined by adaptations of the Bem (1974) Sex Role Inventory and Attitudes toward Women Scale Spence, Helmrich, & Stapp, 1978). Canonical correlation analyses were used to investigate relationships among womanist identity and gender-role orientation variables. Results indicated that self-defining one’s gender-role identity was associated with integrating traditional and non-traditional gender-role traits and attitudes, and traditional womanist attitudes were associated with higher levels of traditional gender-role traits and perceived dissimilarities between themselves and U.S. women.

Authors

• Qingyi Yu, State University of New York at Oneonta
  Presenting Author

• Jiang Tan, SUNY Oneonta
  Non-Presenting Author