Hofstede’s Dimension of Masculinity as an Analytical Framework for Gender Equality and Sexual Difference

Bartulović, Marija. (2011). Hofstede’s Dimension of Masculinity as an Analytical Framework for Gender Equality and Sexual Difference. Pedagogijska istraživanja, 8(1). pp. 171-183. ISSN 1334-7888

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Abstract

Hofstede’s model of ‘national culture’ has in recent decades held an important place among cross-cultural research approaches aiming to contribute to our understanding of the relationship between culture and identity. Th e dimension of masculinity is used in this paper as an analytical framework for analysing sex/gender discrimination from a critical perspective, aiming at establishing gender awareness as a dimension of intercultural curriculum. After considering discrimination as a nonreciprocal relationship arising from the lack of awareness, sex/gender discrimination is related to masculinity of the national culture and questioned on the level of the gender structure of Croatian education workers, and of the reproduction of sex/gender stereotypes within the interaction-communication aspect of education. Th e second part of the paper deals with the problem of the Croatian education system’s insensitivity towards questions of gender differences. Hofstede’s fi ndings on the inter-relatedness between masculinity of a national culture, attitudes towards sexuality and cultural constructions of sexual behaviour have been used as a framework for the interpretation of a failed attempt to introduce sex education into the Croatian system of education. The final section of the paper makes a contribution towards understanding the systematic sex education as an integral segment of an intercultural curriculum and a necessary step in the process of implementing the gender perspective in education

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