New Study on Latino Attitudes is … Perplexing.

    By Chiqui Cartagena

Surprising results make me question the methodology of the survey

This week the Center for American Progress published results of a new study they conducted in conjunction with A Woman’s Nation, the Rockefeller Foundation and TIME magazine regarding public attitudes about women, society and the work place. The research was fielded (via telephone) in the Summer of 2009 and included a 10% “oversample of Latinos,” which were allowed to answer the survey in either English or Spanish. (They have yet to confirm how many surveys were actually conducted in Spanish).

What is perplexing to me, however, were the results. The study found that Latino attitudes were “basically in line with those of other groups” but that on some issues – like the rise of women in the workplace and balancing work and life issue, Latinos were actually more open-minded that their General Market counterparts – honestly, I started spitting my coffee out and asking myself, ¿qué, qué?

Now, I am as feminist as one can be and when I hang around my nieces and nephews I know their future is going to be less sexist than my past was for me….but I also know, or better said, my gut tells me that this report may not accurately portray the WHOLE Latino market and especially the attitudes of older, foreign-born Latino men and in some cases women, that I know to be true still in the Hispanic market. There are still pockets of conservative troglodytes out there…why just the other day I was deep in conversation with a woman in Texas who was telling me her husband wouldn’t let her sell cookware products for Princess House, because he didn’t like the idea of her leaving the home.

Just look at the results from this graph below. While the Center for American Progress highlights the fact that Latinos are more focused on their daughters finding interesting careers in life than General Market men and women, I’m flabbergasted by the fact that Latinos and Latinas seem significantly less interested in “having a happy marriage and children”. Whoa, when did this happen? Our catholic parents must be having a cow! Of course, this last point seems to be supported by the increasingly high percentage of Latina single mothers (According to the latest Pew Report on the Demography of American Motherhood, released last May, 32% of Latinas giving birth in 2008 were unmarried.)

Now here’s another doozie that if it is true, well hats off to today’s Latina moms. According to the Center for American Progress, “Latino men report much higher rates of primary responsibility for child care than men overall” According to this study, 32% of Latino men, vs. 13% of men say that they are responsible for taking care of their children.  That’s just downright dumbfounding to me…I mean even if they don’t work two jobs, which many do, you’re telling me over 30% of LATINOS are PRIMARY care-takers of kids….just doesn’t compute in my little old head! But who am I to challenge survey results.

On the brighter side of things, this study did confirm some findings from ethnographic research I conducted in 2008/9 as well, while at Meredith Hispanic Ventures, that showed that Latina women were taking control of family finances and decision making in every aspect of family life.

Others in the blogosphere are hailing this study as a Debunking of Latin Stereotypes, and while I agree with the arguments that Michelle points out about how immigration forces Latino men to leave behind many aspects of “machismo” from the homeland and allows Latina women to gracefully step up to the many challenges they need to face in order to achieve their American dream, I’m not sure we can say those old attitudes no longer exist.

So, I would like us all to take a deep breath and realize that these are the opinion of 383 people. And as the writers of the study say: “More extensive research would be needed to fully understand the range of opinions among Latino subgroups.” So let’s not get too excited….yet.

To download the study  CLICK HERE.

About the author: Chiqui Cartagena is the SVP of Multicultural Marketing at Story Worldwide. She is also the author of Latino Boom! Everything You Need to Know about the US Hispanic Market (Random House, 2005) Follow her on twitter @chiquicartagena or @storyworldwide