ABSTRACT
Cultural psychological research on gender has traditionally focused on documenting sex role beliefs in various cultures (Best & Williams, 1997). However, such approaches often do not adequately address how issues of power and social marginality shape beliefs about gender among immigrants. Additionally, although there have been many qualitative accounts of the impact of immigration on traditional gender roles and the experience of gender among female immigrants to the United States (e.g., Espín, 1999; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1994), much of the existing psychological literature on gender socialization has often focused on the “universal” nature of sex role development in studies of White middle-class American children, many times failing to account for varieties of contextual and cultural processes (Schaffer, 1996). Cultural psychological research on immigration and gender, as well as more general theoretical models of gender socialization, would benefit greatly from combined approaches to these complex issues; however, very little such work exists. This focus on the process of socialization during and after immigration is a much-needed one, yet again is lacking from the existing literature.
