The largest minority in the United States are African Americans, who make up 15% of the total population and still face widespread discrimination today, although laws make it illegal. Overall, there is no correlation between the masculinity or femininity of a society`s culture and the distribution of employment between men and women. A direct relationship between a country`s position on this dimension and the role of men and women exists only within the House. Outside the home, men have historically dominated, and it is only in rich countries – and only recently in history – that women are sufficiently free from other constraints to be able to enter the world of work and politics on an equal footing. Lower-class women entered trade unions before, but only in low-paid jobs – not out of a need for personal fulfillment, but out of a need for the material survival of the family. Statistics therefore show no correlation between the proportion of women working outside the home and the degree of femininity in a country. Women in rich countries have more women in higher technical and vocational occupations (Hofstede et al., 2010, p. 168). Despite debates about the validity of national culture as a construct, interest in cultural differences seems to be growing rather than decreasing. Today`s businesses are likely to operate internationally, and multinational companies can face unexpected information management challenges. Different regulatory frameworks (e.g. Differences between copyright, privacy and freedom of information laws) will present a number of challenges, which in turn may reflect large differences in attitudes and opinions towards information. The regulatory environment is discussed in more detail in the next chapter.

Further evidence of the influence of Thai culture can be seen in the division of orders between firms, which is reciprocal and reflects the Thai concept of bunkhun or “indebted kindness” (Niffenegger et al., 2006), implying a commitment to return favors. Companies also share information about potential business partners, production techniques, problems and solutions, including “blacklists” of dishonest entrepreneurs. For example, the instability of the apparel market prevents individual companies from being efficient. As a result, businesses must collectively respond to fluctuations in demand. A collective reaction between firms tends to lead to a community of interests and solidarity between firms that would otherwise be considered competitors (Dulbeccoab & Vagneronab, 2001). Structures that minimize risk tend to prevail (Vincent, 2005), as may be the case here. We have argued that national culture is somewhat arbitrary, probably best understood as a myth, and does not particularly succeed in masking deep and global social divisions. Increasing globalization has made things even more complicated. Finally, we briefly discuss the consequences of globalization and the processes associated with it on national cultural identity. What could have been sedimented and stratified in the accepted truths of national cultural identity has been marked by processes linked to accelerated globalization.

The cultural hybridity of the modern nation-state, masked as a homogeneous entity by the myths of national culture, is intensifying almost to the point of displacing national culture through globalization processes. Three of these processes are of paramount importance in this regard: first, national cultural identities are even weaker than they already are; secondly, local and particular identities are strengthened by resistance to globalization processes; And third, these new hybrid identities are becoming increasingly visible at the expense of national cultural identities. Perhaps the most important conclusion that can be drawn from the discussion in this section is that the anthropological definition of culture seems methodologically suspect in all but the most homogeneous and isolated cultures, if any. It is perhaps more culturally and sociologically than anthropologically the understanding of culture in today`s society that scholars must turn to make a comparison of education across cultures.