More Than a Labor of Love: Gender Roles and Christmas Gift Shopping

Author(s): Eileen Fischer and Stephen J. Arnold

Source: The Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Dec., 1990), pp. 333-345
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2626799
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More than a Labor of
and Christmas Gift
EILEENFISCHER
STEPHEN J. ARNOLD*
C ulturalinfluenceson consumption are attracting
increasing attention. In particular, interest in the
rich phenomenon of Christmas consumption has
grown. Some studies have examined festive gift-giving
practices as a subset of general gift-giving behaviors
(Jolibert and Fernandez-Moreno 1983; Sherry and
McGrath 1989). Others have focused on the unique
values revealed in festive consumption (Belk 1987,
1989; Hirschman and LaBarbera 1989; Pollay 1987).
The nature and implications of links between gender
and Christmas shopping are explored here through a
conceptual discussion of the relationship, an analysis
of interviews with gift shoppers, and a field study of
gift-buying practices. The contributions of the research
are threefold. First, it sheds new light on the stereotype
of gift shopping in the Christmas context as "women's
work." Second, the research shows how individual dif-
ferences in gender-related variables have an effect on
the traditional meanings associated with Christmas
shopping. Previous research has considered only cat-
egorical male/female differences in gift-shopping be-
havior, but our research examines the link between
role, attitudinal, and trait variables in gift shopping.
Third, the implications of gender for general consumer
activities are developed-gender-related variables (sex,
gender-role attitudes, and gender identity) and their
influence on gender-typed consumer behavior are
clarified.
*Eileen Fischer is assistant professor, Faculty of Administrative
Studies, York University, North York, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3.
StephenJ. Arnold is associateprofessor,School of Business,Queen's
University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6. This work was
supportedin part by the Associates Programof the Queen's School
of Business and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada. The authors would like to thank the reviewers
for their many constructive suggestions.
Love: Gender Roles
Shopping
Through a field study of 299 men and women, the effect of gender-related variables
on Christmas-gift-shopping patterns was explored. Survey results suggest that
women are more involved than men in the activity. However, men are likely to be
more involved if they hold egalitarian gender-role attitudes. Overall, the study indicates
that, while Christmas shopping may be a "labor of love" to some, it is most widely
construed as "women's work."
CULTURAL MEANINGS IN
CHRISTMAS ACTIVITIES
Christmas reflects diverse themes, some of which
have a positive or negative value for consumers an(
some of which are considered sacred or seculai
(Hirschman and LaBarbera 1989). Both materialistic
and hedonic values (Belk 1989) and starkly contrasting
communal values (e.g., love, generosity, and charity'
are simultaneously reinforced in modern North2
American Christmas festivities (Barnett 1954; Chea]
1988; Samuelson 1983). Festive practices are lader
with meanings that derive from and contribute to the
culture, and the manner in which they are executed iP
culturally constituted and constitutive.
Christmas gifts are particularly value expressive
serving diverse social, economic, and personal pur.
poses (Belk 1979; Sherry 1983). One message primarily
conveyed by Christmas gifts is love, affection, and es.
teem for the recipient. The symbolism of the set oi
gifts presented communicates the giver's valuation of
each receiver (Caplow 1982, 1984). Gift shopping may,
therefore, entail intense effort to obtain gifts that reflecl
the nature of the relationship between giver and re-
ceiver. Evidence suggests that gift-purchasing strategies
vary according to the giver/receiver relationship (Belk
1982; Sherry 1983; Wagner, Ettenson, and Verriei
1990).
Recognizing the communal nature ascribed to gifi
shopping helps us interpret many observations regard-
ing the contemporary Christmas festival. Communal
values are often associated with women, and women
have been said to "dominate" Christmas. Barnett
(1954) claimed that women control the ritual since
they buy and wrap most of the gifts, prepare and serve
the meals, and decorate the home. Benney et al. (1959)
found that women were much more concerned than
men with buying "appropriate" gifts and cards. Cap-
333
?P1990by JOURNALOF CONSUMERRESEARCH, Inc.* Vol. 170 December1990
All rightsreserved.0093-5301/91/1703-007$02.00
334
low (1982, p. 388) studied festivities in what he called
"Middletown" (Muncie, Indiana) and found that
"Christmas gift giving in nearly every household cen-
ters around a woman who is the chief performer of the
ritual." Sherry and McGrath (1989) noted, in a study
of gift selling, that women are much more active
Christmas shoppers. Such findings suggest that the re-
lationship between gender and Christmas shopping
must be considered in more detail if the phenomenon
is to be fully understood.
GENDER DIFFERENCES IN
CHRISTMAS GIFT SHOPPING
Cheal ( 19 87, 198 8) discussed gender-related patterns
in gift giving, arguing that women are the primary gift
givers because of their greater concern with showing
love. He based this on the notion that "caring" is the
principal category through which women are differ-
entiated from men and that women's self-identities are
based on showing love to others (Chodorow 1978).
Since men are not as conditioned to need to perceive
themselves as loving or caring, Cheal reasoned, gift
giving will not offer them the same reinforcement of
a desirable self-image. If this is so, Christmas gift giving
in particular should be of much greater importance to
individuals who hold strong communal values since
Christmas rituals underscore such values.
While not incorrect, Cheal's perspective seems in-
complete. Gift giving is not simply a communally mo-
tivated labor of love. The activity may or may not be
gratifyingly expressive but is, in any event, compul-
sory. An analysis of 16 extended interviews (10 with
women, six with men), conducted as part of the present
research, indicated the obligatory quality of the task,
particularly for women. Several described their shop-
ping in terms that indicated that, in their minds, it was
real work that had to be carried out efficiently and
effectively. One woman said she shops year-round.
"Because I'm in retail [works as a sales clerk] I know
the cost of things and when they're on sale. You pick
things up when you see them . . . if it's a good price.
I'd never buy at full retail because I couldn't afford it.
[I buy for] parents, brothers, sisters, and then
nieces and nephews-all kinds of people and all age
groups.. . . I found it sort of a chore this year trying
to get everything done" (f, 25).'
Female informants often stressed the view that
Christmas shopping is a responsibility to be executed.
They might enjoy it and find it somewhat rewarding,
but they definitely feel compelled to do the "work."
Males' perspectives differ markedly. They feel
obliged to purchase gifts for spouses and sometimes
children, but not for other family or friends. Rather
I Parenthetical notations with quoted material indicate gender
and age.
JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
than the feeling of obligation, male informants tend
to associate mixed pleasure with Christmas shopping.
The following offers an example of how this contrasting
view was expressed. "As a generalization, I don't get
my jollies out of shopping. But Christmas is a little bit
different. The shopping does have something to do with
getting in the Christmas spirit. I do enjoy buying the
gifts. As long as it isn't too prolonged or too painful"
(m, 41).
In their gift store ethnography, Sherry and McGrath
(1989) observed a self-indulgent quality in the shop-
ping of both men and women. In our study, male in-
formants who purchased few Christmas gifts were more
likely to describe their reasons for purchasing a gift in
terms of materialistic, hedonic values rather than
communal ones. They also more frequently reported
buying "self-gifts" (Mick and DeMoss 1990) and gifts
that they would enjoy as much as or more than the
nominal recipients would. Typical of this was one 28-
year-old who delighted in finding a store that "wasn't
a run of the mill kind of store"; he felt "like a kid in
a candy shop" and did all of his gift shopping for his
wife there. His wife felt the purchases he made there
were really for him rather than for her. Furthermore,
a 30-year-old said he loved to shop extensively for toys
for his preschoolers "because of the little kid in me."
These individuals appear to derive their gratification
mostly from immediate hedonic pleasure. Their re-
current references to childhood in association with
Christmas shopping suggest that they view it implicitly
as an indulgent, playful, and relatively trivial pursuit.
Recognizing that Christmas shopping maintains and
reinforces social bonds offers some insight into the
contrast between attitudes held by men and women
about it. Caplow (1982) notes that the set of gifts given
reflects and reinforces familial and social relationships.
"Kin keeping," the work of maintaining social ties,
particularly within kin networks, has come to be ste-
reotypically regarded as "women's work" in contem-
porary Western society (Rosenthal 1985). Because the
family members most venerated at Christmastime are
children (Barnett 1954; Belk 1987; Caplow 1982), there
is a tendency for the work involved to be stereotyped
as women's work. Women are traditionally considered
to have primary responsibility for all duties related to
children (Bernard 1981; Chodorow 1978). This ste-
reotyping is likely to support gender differences in
Christmas shopping because activities classified as
women's work tend to be seen as compulsory for
women and undesirable for men. Work allocated pri-
marily to women is typically lower in status than work
allocated primarily to men and tends to be regarded
as less desirable than men's work; moreover, men who
perform women's work may be regarded as weak and
effeminate (Bernard 1981). If men view an activity as
something other than "real work," they are particularly
likely to place a low value on it (Campbell 1987) and
unlikely to invest effort in it. Some evidence suggests
GENDER ROLES AND CHRISTMAS GIFT SHOPPING
men do not view women's work as real work (Valadez
and Clignet 1984).
We expect women to be much more involved than
men in Christmas shopping. However, variation
among women and among men is likely. To the extent
that gift shopping is regarded as women's work, women
and men may differ in their involvement, depending
on their attitudes toward traditional gender roles. To
the extent that gift shopping is regarded as a labor of
love, individuals (male or female) who perceive them-
selves as more caring may be more involved. Concepts
that illuminate the effect of gender on Christmas shop-
ping and the individual differences in gift-shopping
behavior are discussed next.
Sex
Individuals' behaviors are influenced by the social-
ization they receive based on their sex. Although peo-
ple may not identify with gender-typed traits or may
reject traditional role definitions, they still learn be-
haviors expected of them as men or women (Spence
and Helmreich 1978). For instance, young girls may
observe or assist in their mother's gift shopping. In so
doing, they may learn to view gift shopping as work
women do and thus learn relevant skills. Conversely,
boys may observe that gift shopping in particular and
household shopping in general is not work men tend
to do and are thus less likely to learn such skills.
Buss and Schaninger (1987) used the term "gender
defined behaviors" to refer to skills and activities cul-
turally allocated only to persons of one sex. Davis and
Rigaux (1974) documented numerous products asso-
ciated with certain tasks typically done largely by either
men or women. The pervasiveness of gender-defined
consumer behaviors suggests that, while biological sex
per se does not predetermine behavior, it profoundly
affects the socialization experiences a person is likely
to have and thus the consumer activities that an in-
dividual will be involved in and learn.
Gender-Role Attitudes
Gender-role attitude refers to an individual's level
of agreement with traditional views regarding the roles
and behaviors stereotypically allocated to each sex.
People with more traditional attitudes tend to conform
to norms that prescribe involvement in gender-tradi-
tional activities and prohibit involvement in less tra-
ditional activities (Scanzoni and Szinovacz 1980).
Conversely, people with more egalitarian views are
more likely to be involved in nontraditional activities
for persons of their sex. Note that similar gender-role
attitudes, be they traditional or more egalitarian, will
have different behavioral implications for women
and men.
The effect of gender-role attitudes on certain house-
hold and individual behaviors has been examined. Buss
335
and Schaninger (1987) reviewed evidence that suggests
that individuals' and couples' gender-role attitudes are
related to patterns of decision making, finance han-
dling, task allocation, consumption, and marital sat-
isfaction outcomes. Advertising research indicates that
gender-role attitudes also affect responses to stereo-
typed ads (see, e.g., Coughlin and O'Connor 1985;
Heslop, Newman, and Gauthier 1989).
If Christmas shopping is regarded as women's work,
it seems likely that women with traditional gender-
role attitudes will be more involved and women with
more egalitarian attitudes may be less involved.
Among men, those with more egalitarian attitudes are
likely to be more involved.
Gender Identity
Considerable variation has been detected between
and among women and men in the degree to which
they identify with communally oriented feminine traits
and agentially oriented masculine traits. A person who
identifies primarily with feminine traits is "feminine,"
with masculine traits is "masculine," and with both
sets of traits is "androgynous" (Bem 1974; Spence and
Helmreich 1978).
To the extent that Christmas shopping is a labor of
love, it seems likely that those who strongly identify
with communally oriented feminine traits may be
more involved in the activity, regardless of the degree
to which they identify with masculine traits. Lower
levels of involvement are expected among those who
do not identify with feminine traits. However, the
strength of this relationship is likely to be modest. Trait
differences alone have rarely been found to account
for a major portion of the variance in behaviors (Kas-
sarjian 1971; Pervin 1985). Previous consumer re-
search examining gender identity shows little evidence
that it has an effect on consumer behaviors (see, e.g.,
Gentry and Doering 1977; Kahle and Homer 1985;
Schmitt, LeClerc, and Dube-Rioux 1988).
The differences between sex, gender identity, and
gender-role attitudes must be emphasized. Biological
sex influences the socialization a person is likely to
receive and experience. Gender identity reflects a per-
son's degree of identification with "feminine" traits
such as compassion and "masculine" traits such as
aggression. Gender-role attitudes reflect the extent to
which a person agrees or disagrees with norms regard-
ing appropriate behaviors for men and women (Spence
and Helmreich 1978).
Given the meanings attached to Christmas gift
shopping, and the individual differences that seem
likely to affect gift-shopping behaviors, a field study
was undertaken. In the study, we explored the effect
of culturally held meanings toward gift-purchasing
patterns and whether consumers' gift-shopping be-
haviors vary according to their sex, gender-role atti-
tudes, and gender identities. A range of other demo-
336
graphic variables were included as moderating vari-
ables.
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
We investigated the effect of several variables on a
number of aspects of Christmas-shopping behavior.
These included number of gift recipients, month when
Christmas shopping begins, amount of time spent
shopping per recipient, amount of money spent per
recipient, and giver-reported success of purchases. Re-
cent work suggests that multiple behavioral measures
are necessary for the detection of trait-behavior rela-
tionships (Lastovicka and Joachimsthaler 1988). We
therefore explored several variables reflecting Christ-
mas-shopping behavior to assess effects of the trait
considered. Research hypotheses for each of the gen-
der-related variables are as follows.
Hi: Women will be more involved in Christmas
shopping than will men.
H2: In particular, women with more traditional
gender-role attitudes will be more involved
in gift giving than will women with egalitar-
ian attitudes.
H3: Conversely, men with egalitarian gender-role
attitudes will be more involved in gift giving
than will men with more traditional atti-
tudes.
H4: Furthermore, individuals with more femi-
nine gender identities will be more involved
in gift giving than will those with less femi-
nine gender identities.
Specifically, those who are more involved will
a: give Christmas gifts to more recipients;
b: start Christmas gift shopping earlier in the cal-
endar year;
c: spend more time, on average, shopping for each
recipient;
d: spend less per gift recipient; and
e: report greater success in gift selection than will
those who are less involved.
Sex Hypotheses
If women are socialized to be more involved in gift
giving, observing it in more detail and learning to con-
sider it necessary, they are apt to give more gifts.
Women may also give more because they have more
friends (Chodorow 1978) and may be expected to rec-
ognize close friendships through gifts.
Women are likely to start shopping earlier if they
view Christmas shopping as an important task requir-
ing extended effort. For instance, an early start ensures
that products are not out of stock. One retail sales clerk
stressed this. "Christmas shopping is a little more hec-
JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
tic [than regular shopping]. You really do have to shop
earlier than with anything else because items are picked
over quickly" (f, 25). Starting earlier also allows time
for an extended search, if necessary. This was empha-
sized by the same informant when she described how
she shopped for her husband. "It takes me a while to
figure out what he'd really like. Then I watch for it, to
see what market trends are, what goes on sale." If gift
shopping is more salient for women, they are likely to
pick up gifts while doing other shopping during the
year, as did the 70-year-old female informant who
stated, "I shop Christmas all year round." In contrast,
her son labeled himself a "last-minute shopper." It is
logical to expect that the more gifts an individual pur-
chases, the longer it will take to do the gift shopping.
Starting gift shopping early, then, should be influenced
by the number of recipients for whom gifts need to be
purchased. However, we hypothesized that, even if the
number of gift recipients is controlled for, women will
be found to start their Christmas shopping earlier
than men.
Women, who may learn to regard gift shopping as
an important task, are likely to spend more time shop-
ping per recipient because of a greater effort to seek or
deliberate over alternatives. Men, who may have
learned to invest relatively little effort, are likely to
spend less time per gift recipient. "There is a sex dif-
ference in Christmas shopping. Women are trained to
shop-to shop around a lot. [Men find the] browsing
aspect of buying boring" (m, 42).
It is also likely that women purchase gifts for friends,
neighbors, and more distant relatives to a greater extent
than men do. Since people tend to buy less expensive
gifts for less closely related individuals (Belk 1979;
Caplow 1982, 1984), women's average expenditures
per gift should be lower. Women may also spend less
because they have greater familiarity with the tastes,
wants, and needs of recipients. They may learn to be
more attentive to a recipient's expressed wishes or ev-
ident wants and needs, which enables them to identify
a greater number of possible appropriate gifts and to
buy less expensive items if they so choose. Further, if
women have learned more gift-shopping skills, they
may also be able to get better value for their money.
Men, if they do not know their recipients as well, may
tend to buy more expensive gifts so as to demonstrate
love via money rather than via familiarity. This is typ-
ified by the 42-year-old male informant who enjoyed
impulsively buying expensive gifts that would "blow
someone's mind" and felt it less important that gifts
be "just the right thing" for someone. There may also
be a greater social acceptance and expectation that men
will expend financial resources to establish and main-
tain social relationships (Harrison and Saeed 1977;
Hirschman 1987). Caplow's (1982, 1984) findings that
men's gifts to their spouses were more expensive than
women's would support this proposition.
GENDER ROLES AND CHRISTMAS GIFT SHOPPING
Women's social learning is expected to increase their
ability to select gifts that recipients like. Women may
acquire social skills conducive to greater awareness of
the preferences of those around them. Since "success"
here means that recipients do not (to the giver's
knowledge) return or exchange the gifts given to them,
two caveats must be noted. First, some gifts may be
returned without the knowledge of the giver, so only
giver-reported success can be assessed. Second, success
is only partially determined by the giver since recipi-
ents may vary in their propensity to return gifts or to
communicate the inappropriateness of them.
Gender-Role-AttitudesHypotheses
Relative to women with more egalitarian attitudes,
women with more traditional gender-role attitudes
may do more to fulfill their role-related expectations.
If women are expected to give gifts to an extended
social network of friends and relatives, they should
give to a greater number of recipients. Given the ex-
pectation that women will be active in caring work,
women with traditional role attitudes may also start
shopping earlier. Furthermore, they may put more
time and effort into the task than would those with
more egalitarian attitudes.
Women with traditional attitudes will be more in-
clined to shop in a conventional manner; that is, they
may invest more time than money. Further, since
women with traditional attitudes are less likely to have
careers in high-paying fields, their incomes may be
more constrained and therefore their gift expenditures
limited. They may also report more success in gift se-
lection since greater involvement in other women's
work (like caring for children) may increase their fa-
miliarity with recipients. More egalitarian women may
have fewer interactions and thus less insight into what
gifts will please recipients.
Relative to men with traditional attitudes, men with
more egalitarian role attitudes are likely to view be-
havior typically considered appropriate for women as
acceptable for themselves. Thus, such men may give
gifts to more recipients, believing they should partic-
ipate in such women's work as kin keeping. Traditional
men will tend to hold the view expressed by a 75-year-
old male informant who observed, "Christmas shop-
ping-that's my wife's department."
If the more egalitarian men regard gift shopping both
as work they should do and as work requiring extended
effort, they may start their Christmas shopping earlier.
For the same reasons, egalitarian men may also take
more time choosing gifts for recipients. A 30-year-old
informant, who was quite involved in caring for his
children and in other work usually done by women,
said that he started early and shopped extensively for
his children's gifts. He said there is a "high return on
getting the right gift" for them and a "high risk of
disappointment" otherwise.
337
More egalitarian men may also spend less money
on average per recipient. They are likely to purchase
more token gifts for those more distantly related and
may invest time and energy rather than money in gifts
they select. Finally, egalitarian men should be more
successful with gift selection. Men with traditional
gender-role attitudes are less likely to know recipients'
tastes if they perform only men's work (such as working
outside the home) and have fewer opportunities for
interaction with recipients. Men with egalitarian at-
titudes may take on a number of aspects of women's
roles that give them more opportunities for interac-
tions with recipients and thus a greater likelihood of
knowing what gifts will please recipients.
Gender-IdentityHypotheses
Individuals who identify more strongly with com-
munally oriented traits may shop for gifts for a greater
number of recipients since they care more about rein-
forcing social bonds. Given their concern for pleasing
others, they are also likely to start shopping earlier to
ensure a better selection of appropriate gifts for recip-
ients. They may also spend more time shopping per
recipient in order to choose more appropriate gifts.
Such individuals may spend less money per gift since
they are purchasing gifts for less closely related indi-
viduals. Finally, they may have higher self-reported
success in gift selections since they are more com-
munally oriented and attuned to recipients' tastes.
No hypotheses concerning the effect of demographic
variables were developed since they were included
simply as moderating variables.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Method
A field study was designed to test the research hy-
potheses. The data were collected through the admin-
istration of a structured questionnaire during in-home
personal interviews conducted during evenings and
weekends of the four weeks immediately following
Christmas 1987. The population studied included men
and women, ages 18 and above, living in the metro-
politan area of the city where the study was conducted.
Surveys were completed by a field force who were
trained and supervised by E. Fischer. Interviewers were
briefed on the purpose of the survey, the rights of re-
spondents, the procedure for posing each question, and
the time and manner in which to contact households,
select respondents, and perform callbacks. Supervision
included postinterview checks with a randomly se-
lected subset of respondents.
A multistage cluster sampling technique was used.
First, the 131 census areas in the metropolitan area
were listed, and 40 were drawn randomly. Second, an
intersection in each chosen area was selected randomly
with an overlay grid. Households nearest to these in-
338
tersections were slated as starting points from which
every second household was selected, proceeding
clockwise. The proportion of sample households from
each area matched the proportion of population
households in that area. We selected respondents ran-
domly from adults residing in the 929 designated
households, using Trodahl and Carter's (1964) pro-
cedure. This procedure ensured sample eligibility of
all adults in the household, regardless of which one
greeted the interviewer.
By making up to two return visits to households, 70
percent of the 929 designated respondents were
reached. Respondents received a $1 lottery ticket for
fully or partially completing the survey, which took
30-45 minutes. Forty-six percent (299 people) of those
reached completed the survey.
Measuresof Independent Variables
The interviewer recorded the sex of each respondent.
Gender-role attitudes were measured with items de-
veloped by Scanzoni (1975; Scanzoni and Szinovacz
1980). These items form subscales assessing attitudes
toward traditional wives' roles, traditional husbands'
roles, institutionalized equality, alterations in hus-
bands' roles, and self-actualization for women. Re-
sponses to each item were indicated on five-point Lik-
ert-type scales. On the basis of the sum of their ratings,
respondents received scores reflecting how egalitarian
their overall gender-role attitudes were. The reliability
for scales from Scanzoni's work has been assessed pre-
viously (see, e.g., Qualls 1987; Schaninger and Buss
1985; Schaninger, Buss, and Grover 1982). The 17-
item scale used in this study was assessed by Qualls
(1987) as having a Cronbach's alpha of .88. A satis-
factory alpha of .83 was obtained here.
Gender identity was measured with the Bem Sex
Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem 1974). This measure con-
tains 60 items describing abstract traits with which the
respondent indicates degree of identification on a five-
point Likert-type scale, which includes three subscales
of 20 items each. The neutral (N) scale contains socially
desirable traits not associated with either sex, the mas-
culinity (M) scale contains socially desirable traits
more characteristic of males than females, and the
femininity (F) scale contains socially desirable traits
more characteristic of females than males. Since the
theory underlying this study suggests that identification
with feminine traits predicts gift-shopping involve-
ment, only the F-scale score for each respondent was
used in the analysis. For the M, F, and N scales, Bem
(1974) reported Cronbach's alphas of .86, .80, and .75
and of .86, .82, and .70 in separate samples. In this
study, the alphas for the M, F, and N scales were .84,
.76, and .60.
Marital status and number of children were also
measured since they reflect the size of the individual's
kin network, which has been shown to have an im-
JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
portant moderating influence on the number of gift
recipients (Caplow 1982). Other demographic variables
included as moderating variables were type of em-
ployment, income, and education. Employment was
categorized as managerial/professional, clerical/man-
ual, other, or no job. We assessed income by asking
people to indicate which of eight categories, ranging
from less than $10,000 to $80,000 or more, corre-
sponded to their personal income. We measured ed-
ucation by asking people to indicate which of six levels
of education they had completed.
Additional demographic information was collected
to facilitate comparisons between the sample and the
population. This included age, ages of children,
household income, religion, and ethnicity.
Measures of Christmas-ShoppingBehavior
We measured number of recipients by asking, "Who
did you give Christmas gifts to this year?" and sum-
ming the number of recipients mentioned. Note that
number of gift recipients is both a dependent variable
in its own right and a moderating variable for the other
four dependent variables because number of recipients
is likely to have some effect on them.
We measured earliness of starting relative to Christ-
mas by asking, "In what month did you start shopping
for Christmas gifts in stores?" Although a search for
gifts may start before in-store shopping, it seemed more
likely that respondents would be able to recall the
month in which they physically began shopping for
gifts than the month during which they first thought
about gifts. For this variable, a higher score reflects
starting in an earlier month.
We measured time spent shopping by asking re-
spondents to indicate, for each month during which
some shopping was done, how many hours were spent
gift shopping. Ideally, the time spent on specific recip-
ients would have been asked. However, pretesting re-
vealed that respondents could not break down their
time in this way since shopping was often done for
many recipients at the same time. We created the vari-
able "hours spent shopping per recipient" by summing
the hours spent shopping each month and dividing by
the number of recipients.
We measured total amount spent by asking, "In to-
tal, how much did you spend on gifts this year?" We
divided the total by the number of recipients to deter-
mine "dollars spent per recipient." Respondents who
had trouble with this question were asked how much
was spent on each recipient mentioned.
To measure reported success, we asked respondents,
"To your knowledge, did any of the gifts you gave have
to be returned or exchanged?" If so, they were asked
which recipients had returned gifts. We totaled the
number of returns or exchanges and divided by the
number of gift recipients to obtain the variable "re-
ported success." A lower score represents greater suc-
GENDER ROLES AND CHRISTMAS GIFT SHOPPING
CORRELATIONSAMONG MEASURES OF CHRISTMAS SHOPPING BEHAVIOR
Number of gift
recipients
Dependent variables Males Females
Month shopping started:
Males .09
Females .32
Hours spent shopping per
recipient:
Males .29**
Females .25*
Dollars spent per recipient:
Males -.22**
Females -.22**
Reported success ratio:
Males -.13+
Females -.13+
NOTE.-"Reported success ratio" is an inverse measure.
+P <.10.
*p <.05.
p < .01.
***p <.001.
cess. Note that being more successful was defined as
having a smaller proportion of the people to whom
one gives gifts return or exchange them, to one's
knowledge.
Correlations among the five measures of Christmas
gift shopping appear in Table 1. Since the dependent
variables are multiple indicators of involvement in
Christmas shopping, significant correlations among
these variables are expected. In particular, we expected
(1) positive correlations between number of gift recip-
ients and both month shopping started and hours spent
shopping per recipient; (2) a negative correlation be-
tween number of gift recipients and dollars spent per
recipient, since it is believed that those who are more
involved buy for more people but spend less per in-
dividual; (3) a negative correlation between number
of gift recipients and the reported success ratio, an in-
verse measure in which a higher score reflects a lower
proportion of gifts are successfully selected; (4) a pos-
itive correlation between month shopping started and
hours spent shopping per recipient, since starting ear-
lier means more time is available; (5) negative corre-
lations between both month shopping started and
hours spent shopping per recipient and the dollars-
spent-per-recipient variable, since spending money can
be an alternative to spending time; (6) negative cor-
relations between both month shopping started and
hours spent shopping per recipient and the reported-
success-ratio variable, since spending greater time
should lead to a lower proportion of returns or ex-
changes; and (7) a positive correlation between dollars
spent per recipient and reported success ratio, since
both are associated with having put less effort into gift
339
TABLE1
Month shopping Hours spent shopping Dollars spent per
started per recipient recipient
Males Females Males Females Males Females
.09
.19**
.08 -.44***
.10 -.43*
.07 .04 .18*
.04 -.14+ .17*
selection. Most expected correlations are found for
both men and women.
Although casual observation of the return counters
in department stores after Christmas suggests that
many gifts are returned, few respondents reported gifts
being returned or exchanged. This, together with the
low correlations between success and the other mea-
sures, could raise questions about the success mea-
sure's validity. Respondents may have underreported
returns or exchanges because they did not wish to re-
veal that some gifts they had selected were not appro-
priate. However, since reported success is not purely
a function of the giver's involvement, but also of the
recipient's characteristics, it is possible that the mea-
sure is valid despite the low correlations between it
and the other dependent variables. Reported success
was therefore retained for further analysis, but results
relating to this variable should be interpreted cau-
tiously, given the potential limitations of the measure.
Sample Characteristics
Whereas the population contained 45 percent males,
the sample had only 39 percent males. Although in-
terviewers assured potential respondents that their an-
swers were of interest regardless of the extent of their
Christmas shopping, many men stated they had too
little experience to be able to answer. Some suggested
that interviewers speak to their wives instead. The
lower participation rate of males may indicate tentative
support for the general pattern of the hypotheses under
consideration: fewer males felt the subject of Christmas
shopping sufficiently relevant personally to warrant
340
participation. If the males who refused to participate
were those least involved in gift giving, their absence
from the sample would tend to diminish the magnitude
of relationships found between the independent and
dependent variables. That is, if variance in dependent
variables is attenuated in the sample data, the test of
the hypotheses is a conservative one.
Other differences between the population and the
sample exist. The sample is somewhat more educated
than the population: 60 percent of the sample versus
49 percent of the population had some education be-
yond high school. Because the population data were
collected six years before the sample data, comparisons
between the income of the population and that of the
sample are difficult. The modal household income cat-
egory for the population in 1981 was $10,001-$20,000;
the modal category for the sample in 1987 was
$30,001-$40,000. It seems likely the income in the
sample was truly somewhat higher, even when we ac-
count for inflation. This tendency of the sample to be
more ''upscale" than the population could affect the
tests of the hypotheses since there is evidence that
younger, more educated, more affluent individuals
have more egalitarian gender-role attitudes (Scanzoni
and Szinovacz 1980). If Christmas-shopping patterns
do vary with level of agreement with traditional atti-
tudes, some attenuation of variance in dependent
variables is likely. This leads again to a conservative
test of the hypotheses.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Overview of Data Analyses
In order to test the hypotheses that suggest that men
and women differ with respect to the dependent vari-
ables, we initially estimated two regression models for
each dependent variable using all of the sample. In the
first, no interaction terms between the sex variable (0
= male, 1 = female) and the other predictor variables
were included; in the second, interaction terms be-
tween sex and each of the continuous variables were
included. We then compared these equations to de-
termine whether the models that included interaction
terms explained significantly more variance and
whether the intercepts and/or slopes of the regressions
for men and women differed significantly. This com-
parison was based on an F-test, which compares the
sum of the squared residuals for the two equations
(Hanushek and Jackson 1977). A significant F-test in
this case indicates that men and women actually con-
stitute separate populations, for which separate
regression models must be created (Pedhazur 1982).
Since these tests indicated that men and women dif-
fered significantly for each dependent variable, we
performed subsequent analyses by creating separate
regression equations for men and women. All inde-
pendent variables were included in each equation; we
JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
then performed separate variance estimate t-tests to
compare the coefficients obtained for each independent
variable in each equation for men and women. Results
of these regressions and coefficient comparisons are
reported in Table 2.
Two additional facts should be noted. First, when
residual plots of the regressions were examined, the
residuals for the models for number of gifts given,
month shopping began, time spent per recipient, and
dollars spent per recipient were somewhat associated
with the level of these variables. Since assumptions
regarding heteroskedasticity of the error term were in
danger of being violated, logarithmic transformations
were performed for these variables (Steward and Wallis
198 1). The natural log of each was thereafter predicted,
which eliminated the association between the variables
and their residuals.
Second, two-stage least squares regressions were
performed for each of the latter four dependent vari-
ables. Two-stage least squares regression is required
when a dependent variable is correlated with the error
term associated with a predictor variable (Johnston
1984). The raw scores for the latter four dependent
variables were each significantly correlated with the
residual in the equation for number of gift recipients,
which is one variable used to predict them. This oc-
curred because number of gift recipients and the latter
four dependent variables are predicted by several of
the same variables. Using the two-stage least squares
regression, we used the predicted value rather than the
raw value of number of gift recipients in the regressions
for the latter four dependent variables; this predicted
value is purged of the stochastic element assumed to
be absent from independent variables. Ordinary least
squares regression using this predicted value and the
raw values of the other independent variables was then
performed. One-tailed t-tests were performed for all
variables except when there was no a priori expectation
about the sign of the coefficient.
Hypothesis regarding Sex
Comparisons between models with and without in-
teraction terms between sex and the continuous in-
dependent variables indicate that men and women dif-
fer significantly with respect to number of gifts given
(F = 2.67, p < .05), month shopping begins (F = 4.46,
p < .005), hours spent shopping per gift (F = 2.68, p
< .05), month shopping started (F = 2.43, p < .05),
and reported success (F = 2.01, p < .10). These dif-
ferences were all in the predicted direction. On average,
women gave to 12.5 recipients while men gave to eight;
women started shopping in October, and men started
shopping in November; women spent 2.4 hours per
recipient while men spent 2.1; women spent $62.13
per recipient and men spent $91.25; and 10 percent
of women's gifts versus 16 percent of men's were re-
turned or exchanged.
GENDER ROLES AND CHRISTMAS GIFT SHOPPING 341

TABLE 2
STANDARD REGRESSION COEFFICIENTSFOR MODELS FOR MEN AND WOMEN

Dependent variables

Number of Month shopping Hours shopped/ Dollars spent/ Reported

Independent variables gift recipients began recipient recipient success ratio

Egalitariangender-role attitudes:
Men .21 .00 .16+ -.03 -.02
Women -.04 -.02 -.29** .18* .06
Difference 2.08* .13 2.77* 1.82* .57
Femininityof gender identity:
Men .05 .17+ .13+ .05 .08
Women .05 .15* .19 .02 -.23**
Difference .11 .11 1.19 .30 3.68*
Clericaljob or manual labor:
Men .05 .03 .09 -.07 -.04
Women .16* .01 -.05 -.14+ -.12
Difference .11 .28 .65 .37 .41
Managerial or professional job:
Men -.12 .04 -.03 -.05 .18
Women .11 .15 -.04 -.05 -.12
Difference 1.76* .96 .88 .35 2.07*
No job:
Men .00 -.17 .06 .03 -.06
Women .03 -.09 -.05 -.04 .13
Difference 1.19 .03 .85 .50 1.43+
Personal income:
Men -.14 -.22+ -.05 .27 -.08
Women .17* -.01 -.20+ .43* .12
Difference 2.07* .87 .75 1.00 1.067
Education level:
Men .19+ .23 .13 -.04 .07
Women .22* .16 -.15 -.25 -.24
Difference .14 .32 1.51+ 1.15 1 .66*
Number of children:
Men -.07 .24+ .13 -.02 .16
Women .39* .12 .05 .12 .11
Difference 2.55* .67 .81 .66 .54
Maritalstatus (0 = single):
Men .13 .29* .11 .31 -.03
Women -.02 .22* .15 .23* -.01
Difference 1.02 .29 .25 .77 .15
Number of gift recipients:
Men -.23 -.61 -.84* .27
Women .20 -.02 -.27 .36
Difference 1.34+ 1.07 .95 .37
R2 for equations:
Men .14** .24* .27 .1 9 .04 *
Women .24 *** .13** .05 .26 .08 *

NOTE.-"Reported success ratio" is an inverse measure. T-tests indicating the significance levels of the differences between coefficients in the regressions for men
and women are provided in Difference rows.
+p < .10.
*p < .05.
p < .01.
***p < .001.

The equations for men versus women provide fur-
ther insights into gender Christmas-gift-shopping
behaviors. For each dependent variable, differences
between men and women are attributable to the in-
dependent variables on which t-tests for differences in
coefficients are significant. All evidence indicates, then,
that women are much more involved in Christmas
shopping than are men.
Gender-Role-Attitudes Hypothesis
Gender-role attitudes seem to moderate involve-
ment in Christmas shopping for both men and women,
as the results displayed in Table 2 indicate. Although
attitudes do not affect earliness of starting or reported
success for either men or women, more egalitarian men
are more involved in that they buy gifts for more re-
342
cipients and spend more time shopping per recipient
than either traditional men or equally egalitarian
women. Egalitarian women are somewhat less involved
in that they spend significantly less time shopping per
recipient and significantly more money per gift than
do either more traditional women or equally egalitar-
ian men. As predicted, then, similar gender-role atti-
tudes have different implications for men and women.
More egalitarian men are slightly more involved than
traditional men, while more egalitarian women are
slightly less involved than traditional women.
Gender-Identity Hypothesis
Gender identity did have some of the predicted ef-
fects on involvement. More communally oriented men
and women do start shopping significantly earlier than
less communally oriented men and women. Moreover,
men with more communal orientations spend signif-
icantly more time shopping per recipient than do other
men, and women with more communal orientations
report that significantly fewer recipients return or ex-
change gifts. Perhaps such individuals express their
communal traits not by giving more gifts and spending
more money, but by investing more time and thought
in the gifts they give. Overall, it appears that those
with more feminine gender identities are somewhat
more involved in Christmas gift shopping.
Moderating Variables Related to Christmas-
Shopping Behavior
In addition to the gender-related variables, several
demographic variables had significant relationships to
involvement in Christmas shopping. Women em-
ployed in clerical jobs or manual labor are more in-
volved than women in "other" jobs to the degree that
they give more gifts and spend less money per recipient.
However, women who do not work outside their homes
are not significantly more involved than women who
do. Job type does not have any relationship to Christ-
mas-shopping involvement for men. It appears, then,
that, while women are generally more involved than
men, their level of involvement is moderated by the
demands of their careers and families.
Income and education are also related to involve-
ment in Christmas shopping for both men and women.
Men with higher personal incomes begin shopping later
and spend more per recipient, while women with
higher incomes shop fewer hours and spend more per
recipient. However, such women also buy gifts for
more recipients. These findings suggest that those with
higher-paying, more demanding jobs may be substi-
tuting money for time. They also indicate that those
with greater resources spend more.
More educated people appear somewhat more in-
volved in that they buy gifts for more recipients. More
educated women spend less money per recipient and
JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
report fewer returns or exchanges. These results may
suggest that social class has some relationship to
Christmas-shopping involvement, with those in higher
classes being more involved. This conclusion is ten-
tative, however, since education is but one indicator
of social class.
Size of kin network, as reflected by number of chil-
dren, has a positive relationship to number of gift re-
cipients for women; for men, this variable is associated
with starting shopping earlier. Having a spouse or
equivalent partner is associated with starting shopping
earlier and with spending more money per recipient
for both men and women. This latter finding is pre-
dictable since it is common for gifts to spouses to be
more expensive than those to any other recipient. For
men, number of gift recipients is negatively associated
with starting earlier, hours spent shopping, and dollars
spent per recipient.
Summary
The emergent perspective on the nature and impli-
cations of the cultural meanings of Christmas shopping
is reinforced and summarized by comments drawn
from the interviews, which complemented the survey.
The following comment seems to reflect the experience
of many women.
I'm the one who does most of the shopping. In fact,
there's a family joke that daddy does his shopping on
the 24th [of December] with a little help from [their
eldest daughter]. . . . I tend to shop all through the
year for Christmas. If I see something, I buy it and put
it on the present shelf because I hate shopping at Christ-
mas with all the crowds and confusion and the multi-
plicity of choices. . . . I don't really find it all that dif-
ficult to come up with ideas. Often I make notes for
myself and keep lists from year to year. . . . I think the
physical going out looking for things I don't particularly
enjoy . . . and yet that's not really fair either. In a sit-
uation where you come across something and you just
know somebody's going to like it, there's a lot of pleasure
in that. [f, 39]
The remarks of the informant's husband may be
more reflective of experiences of traditionally minded
men.
[I shop only] for my wife. She handles just about ev-
erything else. She has more patience than I. [I usually
start] the week before Christmas. This year I sort of
broke ranks and bought a family gift a month before
Christmas. I went out and bought . . . something I
thought the whole family and myself would enjoy. As
far as my wife's gifts, which were the only other ones I
had to buy, I asked her for any suggestions-you know,
give me a list of your likes. Then I went through the
list, tracked down different things. . .. I generally de-
spise shopping malls [but I] do enjoy buying the gifts.
Shopping does have something to do with . . . gearing
up . . . emotionally [for the Christmas season]. [m, 41 ]
GENDER ROLES AND CHRISTMAS GIFT SHOPPING
The following informant's comment expresses the
mixture of emotions and experiences of men who have
more egalitarian gender-role attitudes.
I start shopping [for my children] in October, and I plan
on the basis of what's hot and what's not . . . and I
make lists based on what [the children] say they want.
I want to see the kids happy. . . . It's easy to buy for
the kids. Buying for [my wife] is completely different.
I walk into the store and a sales woman pegs me as des-
perate. . The way Christmas has evolved, shopping
is a big part of the experience. You'd feel left out if you
didn't do any. [m, 30]
CONCLUSIONS
Christmas gift shopping in contemporary North
American celebrations appears to have multiple
meanings that affect consumers' performances. There
is some support for Cheal's (1987, 1988) argument that
Christmas gift shopping is a "labor of love." It was
concluded that people with more feminine gender
identities are somewhat more involved in the activity.
Communally oriented men start shopping earlier and
spend more time shopping per recipient, whereas
communally oriented women also start shopping ear-
lier but report more success in their choices, which
suggests that their personalities lead them to be more
involved in and more effective at pleasing others.
However, traits influencing people to be involved in
communally oriented work are not the sole determi-
nant of Christmas shopping behavior; the activity is
not exclusively a labor of love.
It appears that the activity is also, and perhaps even
more strongly, classified as women's work. This is ap-
parent in part because individuals (male or female)
who believe that it is appropriate for them to do
women's work tend to be more involved. Specifically,
more egalitarian men give gifts to more recipients and
spend more time shopping per recipient, while women
with more traditional attitudes spend fewer dollars and
more time shopping per recipient than do women with
egalitarian attitudes.
Perhaps the strongest evidence that Christmas
shopping is classified as women's work emerges from
the finding that-even when attitudinal, role-demand,
and trait-based explanations have been taken into ac-
count-it still appears that women are more involved
than men. Women give gifts to more recipients, start
shopping earlier, spend more time shopping per recip-
ient, spend less per recipient, and report greater success
than men. Whereas men may take Christmas shopping
rather lightly, or even regard it as "play," women ap-
pear to be socialized to take it quite seriously as real
and important work.
Beyond these basic findings, this study has dem-
onstrated the value of an approach that is sensitive to
both the cultural symbolism of a consumer phenom-
enon and the individual differences that moderate in-
343
volvement in it. By exploring the effect of gender iden-
tity, gender-role attitudes, and sex on gift shopping,
we found that it was possible to refine and enhance
previous interpretations of consumer participation in
Christmas gift shopping.
The implications of this study for gender as a theo-
retical variable in consumer research should also be
noted. Past consumer studies on gender tended to ex-
amine the impact of sex, of gender-role attitudes, or
of identification with gender-related traits on variables
of interest. This study demonstrated that considering
the distinct role of each of these and recognizing the
implications of gender-role attitudes for men and
women enriches our understanding of a phenomenon.
It is particularly important to appreciate these dis-
tinctions when examining relationships between gen-
der and behaviors that are culturally conditioned as
women's work (but that are not necessarily "caring
work" and thus not associated with femininity).
Research prompted by this study includes investi-
gations of the consumer practices associated with other
festivities, such as weddings, birthdays, bar mitzvahs,
or Hanukkah. Consumer activities in these events also
have deep symbolic significance. Investigating these
symbolic meanings and the moderating role of indi-
vidual difference variables can increase our under-
standing of the complex relationship between culture
and consumer behavior. In particular, developing in-
sights into patterns of participation by gender in con-
sumer rituals will help us understand more fully the
social construction of consumption. This is important,
given the emerging evidence of distinctive male and
female cultures of consumption (e.g., Benson 1986;
Campbell 1987; Firat and Lewis 1985).
Further insights would be gained by cross-cultural
research on Christmas gift giving and related rituals.
Gift giving appears to have different meanings, to relate
to gender in a distinctive manner, and to be executed
differently in other cultures (Green and Alden 1988;
Jolibert and Fernandez-Moreno 1983; Strathern 1988).
Understanding differences and similarities will en-
hance our appreciation of the complex links between
gender, consumption, and culture.
[Received July 1989. Revised August 1990.]
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