Jane Ritchie

Gender Differences in Friendship Patterns

The same-sex and opposite-sex friendship patterns of men and women students from two first-year psychology classes at the University of Waikato in New Zealand were examined. A friendship questionnaire previously used in the United States of America was administered to compare results of the two cultures. Findings from this study support American research suggesting that women are more intimate and emotional in their same-sex friendships than men, and tend to place a higher value on these friendships than men do. In accordance with findings of the American sample, New Zealand women emphasized talking, emotional sharing, and discussing personal problems with their same-sex friends, and men showed an emphasis on sharing activities and doing things with their men friends. Differences between the American and New Zealand samples were shown for men in the number of friends and the intimacy levels of these friendships. New Zealand men preferred numerous but less intimate same-sex friends, while women (as in the United States) showed a preference for a few, close, intimate same-sex friends. Men, in contrast to women, derived emotional support and therapeutic value more from their opposite-sex relationships than their same-sex friendships. Finally, more men than women stated they would not cancel an engagement with an opposite-sex friend in order to go out with a same-sex friend. Results are interpreted as suggesting a need for changes in the current socialization process of males who are taught to repress their emotions and form rather less intimate and possibly less beneficial same-sex friendships than women.

Women's Experience of Emotional Abuse in Intimate Relationships: A Qualitative Study

ABSTRACT A qualitative study was conducted to examine womens experience of emotional abuse within the context of heterosexual relationships from a feminist perspective. Memory-work was used to collect and analyse data from seven women and findings indicate that being routinely subordinated by men has long-term and negative consequences for womens emotional health. Furthermore, results suggest that these women often perceived their partners to expect to be in positions of authority and to set the rules and standards in the relationship, as is commonly associated with the male gendered role. Similarly, such men are perceived as expecting special privileges, such as being seen to be right, and are often seen as behaving in a self-righteous manner. How ever, such expectations were not always described as being made overt. Similarities and differences in the way mens perceived behaviour impacted the women will be considered. Finally, the process of how the women regained their power, either prior to or after leaving the relationship, will be discussed.

Child-rearing practices and attitudes of working and full-time mothers

Abstract Mothers who wish to work are faced with the double burden of paid employment and childcare. They also have to confront the widely held view that ‘a womans place is in the home’ and the prevailing popular opinion that a mother who also works outside the home is somehow harming her child. Previous research has shown little evidence that maternal employment disadvantages children. The present study, a comparison of the child-rearing practices and attitudes of a group of working (both full- and part-time) and a group of full-time mothers of 4 year olds, reveals few significant differences between the two groups. Mothers in paid employment differ in only one child-rearing practice: they place greater stress on table manners. However, a number of significant attitudinal differences emerged between the two groups of mothers: working mothers found their child rearing more pleasurable, their relationship with the child was better and the child was more likely to be described as happy and contented. Working mothers were rated warmer, higher in self-esteem and less anxious about their child rearing. Husbands of working mothers were more likely and more willing to participate in childcare and were rated as having a more affectionate relationship with the child. Overall, the results of the study are strongly supportive of the aspirations of the growing number of women who wish to combine work and motherhood.

Women and smoking: A lethal deception

Women, particularly young women between the ages of 15 and 24, continue to smoke in increasing numbers. Public health programmes rarely highlight the particular consequences smoking can have for womens bodies, so in spite of greater public awareness of the dangers of smoking, women continue to remain ignorant of the effects smoking can have on their health. The funds available for smoking education programmes can scarcely compete with the advertising dollar. Magazines, particularly womens magazines, continue to target young women and portray smoking as a healthy, outdoors fun-filled activity, nearly always in a heterosexual context. Feminist magazines continue to accept smoking advertisements and New Zealands own feminist magazine, Broadsheet, which has never accepted smoking advertisements, only published three antismoking articles in the first 15 years of its existence. Women whose lifestyles are particularly stressful are more likely to smoke. In New Zealand, Maori women, women from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and committed feminists are more likely to smoke and, therefore, to suffer from smoking-related illnesses.

Sex Role Differentiation in Children: A Preliminary Investigation

1. Since the Children and Young Person’s Act (1974), this term no longer applies. The data was generated before the Act was passed. 2. The inclusion of a higher proportion of Polynesian males in the achieved sample should not unduly influence the findings reported here, since there was no relationship between race and sentence or arrest in either of the male or female subsamples. The sample was originally taken for a different purpose. 3. This complaint has now been replaced by similar provisions in the Children and Young Person’s Act (1974), which do not essentially change the procedure in relation to these complaints.