Intrafamiliar congruence in gender role attitudes and ethnic stereotypes: The Israeli case

The article deals with intergenerational transmission of gender role attitudes and ethnic stereotypes among 107 mothers, 107 fathers, and 107 adolescent children (n=51 sons and n=56 daughters) in Israeli society. The findings reveal that intergenerational transmission is influenced by the type of attitude, and by congruence between the sex of the child and parent. A relationship was found between the gender role attitudes of mothers and their children regardless of sex, while no such relationship was found between fathers and children of either sex. High father-son correlations were found for stereotypes about Jews of Asian-African and European-American background (Ashkenazim and Mizrahim). Daughters were found to have more liberal gender role attitudes and less schematic ethnic stereotypes than the other family members. Moreover, mothers and adolescents of Asian-African origin expressed more traditional attitudes toward gender roles than did their European-American counterparts. Finally, correlations between gender role attitudes and ethnic stereotypes were similar for parents and children.