Meanings of Basic Values for Women and Men: A Cross-cultural Analysis
Author(s)
Struch, Naomi; Schwartz, Shalom H.; Van der Kloot, Willem A.
Abstract
Do men and women construe basic values in the same way? The authors investigate possible gender differences in value meaning at three levels: 2 dimensions that organize value systems, 10 motivationally distinct values, and 45 value items. They assess differences across and within diverse cultures and perform multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS) and Procrustes analyses on responses to a value survey by 11,244 respondents in eight cultural regions (Chinese East Asia, Eastern Europe, Finland, France, Israel, Japan, Latin America, and the United States). Statistical fit indices and inspection of graphic representations reveal neither cross-culturally consistent gender effects on value meaning nor Gender x Culture interactions. The implications of these findings for theories of gender effects and for the cross-cultural study of gender differences in value importance are discussed.
