The idea of gender culture is unfamiliar and even counterintuitive to all of us at first. Most people are not aware of how the many differences in gender culture manifest themselves in everyday life. We think that because we grow up in the same neighborhoods, the same homes, as brother and sister, we basically have the same culture. We assume that a given action in a given context has pretty much the same meaning to all of us. But in reality, men and women have different cultures. And just as with many other cultures, one way of doing things isn’t “right or wrong” but simply different.
The concept of gender culture is very useful in helping people to divest themselves of some of the judgments we all start off with. In the United States, we take showers alone- most of the time- whereas in Japan, communal baths aren’t at all uncommon. In France, it’s common to kiss three times in greeting. We recognize these differences as the custom of other cultures, and we know not to interpret their meaning within the context of our own culture. Marketers especially need to learn the customs of the female gender culture, just as they would learn the Hindu culture before starting a venture in India.
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