How gender roles have evolved in different cultures is largely tied to the core values of those cultures. Having lived in Europe, Asia, North America and South America, this writer has seen the evolution of gender roles across cultures first hand. What dominates gender roles can be linked directly back to the expressed values of the home culture, regardless of official religious or political statements about culture.

In Asia, gender roles have evolved as a result of both economic and political factors. The communist party in China, for example, put out the idea that “women hold up half the sky” as a maxim for absolute gender equality. This was a sharp change from past gender role definitions, where women were encouraged to be housebound, domestically-talented and decorative creatures. The effects of this evolution of gender roles has been seen across the region, where women are fully engaged in the economic process and strong female personalities thrive alongside a culture that endorses strong male personalities as well.

In North America and Europe, the main representatives of “Western” culture, the official line is that men and women are equal. However, it is clear that gender roles have evolved in a way that undercuts this official line. Women continue to earn 77 cents for each dollar of comparable male salaries in America, while in Europe an obsession with political correctness and equality through mandates and regulation undercuts women’s efforts to achieve based on merits throughout the Eurozone. 

Add in a uniquely Western opposition to the household help for career women that is widely accepted in Asia and South America, and one finds a gender role for women that includes highly traditional household responsibilities doubled over with the expectation of career success that is still somehow best only when subservient to a male leader. That Western women come across as more angry and frustrated than their global counterparts should not really be a surprise.

In South America, gender roles have evolved through a blend of native Incan and invading Spanish influences with a strong family focus. Women’s status as items of beauty continues to be a major part of women’s roles in society, but women are welcomed in all industries as contributors.

Men’s “macho” ideal is a more nuanced gender role than is commonly expressed in the media, with many super-macho’s proving to be sensitive family men who are considerate caregivers without any hesitation about being perceived as unmacho just because they are holding a baby in public. Though chauvinism is a real factor toward women as abstract beings, the strong personalities of South American women make it clear that as individuals, they do not accept gender roles as second class citizens.

Gender roles have evolved in different cultures in different ways around the world, but they can be tied back to core values of their societies. In no part of the world are gender roles fixed in place, and the continuing ways that gender roles evolve will be highly interesting to men and women alike.