How Do Gender Values and Household Practices Cohere? Value–Practice Configurations in a Gender-egalitarian Context

Previous research has revealed a paradoxical simultaneity of egalitarian gender values and inegalitarian practices in Europe. The social-democratic welfare states, i.e. the Nordic countries, however, stand out collectively as having the most consistent relationship between egalitarian values and practices. The present article examines the consistencies and inconsistencies between gender values and practices among Norwegian married and cohabiting women and men, focusing particularly on the division of housework and childcare. Drawing on data from the Norwegian Generations and Gender Survey, we identify four distinct types of value–practice relationships in families. Analysis of predicted class membership probabilities reveals that half of our sample belongs to a family type with consistent gender values and household practices, of whom the majority has consistent egalitarian values and egalitarian practices. The other half belongs to a family type with inconsistent value–practice relationships. These are significantly gendered, leading us to recast the so-called paradoxical simultaneity of egalitarian values and inegalitarian practices into a female paradox and the simultaneity of inegalitarian values and egalitarian practices into a male paradox. We attribute the gendered nature of the inconsistencies between values and practices mainly to women's and men's dissimilar perceptions of how everyday household work is apportioned between partners.     

Gender, familism and housing: matrimonial property rights in Ireland

This article explores the gender structure of housing rights, and specifically matrimonial property law, in the Republic of Ireland as a basis for examining the means by which women gain access to and control over economic resources, or capital. Taking the Family Home Protection Act (1976) and the ill-fated Matrimonial Home Bill (1993) as examples of legislation to strengthen women's matrimonial property rights, it is argued that these have been formulated using gendered, familist, categories of reform. The State's attempts to strengthen women's entitlements have been mediated by its constitutional commitment to maintain a preference for the marital family as well as its failure to recognise the economic value of women's unpaid domestic work. This article argues that in this context, the Irish State's strategy of gender equality, which is based on the equitable treatment of different household types, is divisive, ineffective. and inequitable.     

Gender models: changing representations and intersecting roles in Dutch and Italian fashion magazines, 1982–2011

This article presents a comparative content analysis of gender representation in fashion magazines in Italy and the Netherlands. Updating Goffman’s classic study of Gender Advertisements, we study the intersections of gender, professional role, country and time in media representation. Thus, we combine and confront quantitative content analysis with insights from critical gender studies on polysemy and intersectionality. Analyzing a sample of 5840 images from mainstream, commercial and high fashion magazines published in 1982, 1996 and 2011, we find that gender representation strongly intersects with time, place, and notably: professional role. Models, who represent the specific ‘aesthetic capital’ of the fashion field, are portrayed in highly specific ways. Over time, gender differences in representation become stronger in Italy, while in the Netherlands male and female representation converges towards conventionally ‘feminine’ styles. In both countries, we find increasing prominence of (North-American) Goffmanian gender conventions and a new ‘withdrawn’ gendered style emerging in the early 2000s. This new style employs new signs and conventions to denote gender and professional status: it separates men from women, and models from non-models. Our analysis shows, first, that gender representation does not directly reflect gender inequality. Second, it demonstrates the impact of globalization on gender representation. Third, it highlights the polysemy and cultural specificity of visual signs: gender difference can be ‘ritualized’ and ‘stylized’ in various ways. These diverse gendered conventions intersect with other characteristics, and may convey diverse, and changing messages about the relation between gender and sexuality, power, aesthetics and (visual) pleasure.     

Vagina equals woman? On genitals and gendered identity

Gendered identity is often assumed to be predicated on the prior existence of dichotomously sexed bodies: penis equating to maleness and vagina (or the absence of a penis) equating to femaleness. But is it experienced in this way? We analyse talk about the vagina and female gendered identity in focus group (and interview) data collected from 55 women that explores this very issue. Women talked about genitals and identity in four ways: they affirmed a link between having a vagina and being a woman; they explored this link though associated functions (heterosex and reproduction); they questioned the inevitability of the link; and they attempted disruption of the link (although this frequently served only to reinstate the normativity of it). The implications of this analysis for theory and practice are discussed.     

Life Cycle,Labour Remuneration,and Gender Inequality in a Chinese Agrarian Collective

Conventional wisdom about gender inequality and labour remuneration on agrarian collectives in rural China has emphasized various discriminatory practices against women. Using a life cycle approach, this article examines instead the way in which men and women possess changing patterns of and opportunities for work at different stages of their lives. Drawing on economic and demographic data from an agrarian collective in East China, gender differentiation is scrutinized in terms of how work assignment, labour remuneration and work attendance rates were transformed over time. A number of other factors – the persistence of pre-revolutionary patriarchal ideology, as well as government policies on population control and work incentives – that influenced the way in which peasant households deployed labour on the agrarian collective during the 1970s also had a gendered impact on work remuneration.     

Gender,resistance and land: interlinked struggles over resources and meanings in South Asia

This article examines the nature of women's resistance to gender inequities in resource distribution and ideological representation. It argues that to understand how women perceive these inequities it is necessary to take into account not only their overt protests but also the many covert forms their resistance might take. At the same time, to significantly alter gendered structures of property and power it appears necessary to move beyond 'individual-covert' to 'group-overt' (organized collective) resistance. These issues are examined here especially in the context of women's struggles for land rights and gender equality in South Asia. Although historically South Asian women have been important participants in peasant movements, these movements have not been typified by women demanding independent land rights or contesting iniquitous gender relations within the movements and within their families. Some recent challenges in this direction indicate that attaining gender equality in the distribution of productive resources will require a simultaneous struggle against constraining ideological constructions of gender, including (in many regions) associated social practices such as purdah. And in both types of struggle (namely concerning resources and gender ideologies), group-overt resistance is likely to be of critical importance.     

Gender,ethnicity and feminism: an intersectional analysis of the lived experiences feminist academic women in UK higher education

Studies have begun to explore how those women academics committed to social justice, namely feminist academics, are navigating the increasingly managerial Academy. To understand how these multiple social identities, including gender and ethnicity, interact and intersect, this paper adopts an intersectional approach to understanding the heterogeneity of women’s experiences in academia. Five focus groups with feminist academics (n = 6–10 in each focus group) reveal concerns of hampered career progression as a consequence of being female and openly feminist. Some ethnic minority academics felt that they were forced to choose between a feminist identity or that of their ethnic background. For some women, their feminist identity provided opportunities for challenging dominant practices. The paper concludes that the heterogeneity of feminist academics’ experiences within academia is under-researched and that the lens of intersectionality helps to illuminate this. This paper advances understanding of multiple identities at work, though demonstrating that intersectionality can lead to the accumulation of advantage as well as disadvantage in relation to social identities such as gender and ethnicity, and a political identity such as feminist.     

Nationalist inclusion or emancipatory identity? north korean women in japan

—This article considers the structure in which women’s gendered identity is subsumed under nationalist identity formed around the notion of patriotic-patriarchy. By focusing on the case of Korean women in Japan, who regard themselves as North Korea’s overseas nationals, this article examines how women’s emancipatory identity was connected to their positive redefinition of “patriotic motherhood” within the limits of nationalist discourse. Especially in the process of decolonization and self-identification as North Korea’s nationals overseas, which was done largely by way of learning the public language given by the North Korean organization in Japan, women secured their position in joining the public life of nationalist cause. By taking an historical perspective, the article considers how language of emancipation shifts from the process of decolonization, with a potentially serious gap between the demise of “patriotic motherhood” and the rise of a new form of gendered identity, to a more decentered terrain of postcolonial everyday life found among the younger generation.     

Migrating Within “the Gender-equal Nordic Region”: Icelandic Migrants in Norway and the Gendered Division of Work and Care

Migration is a gendered process that shapes the lives of men and women differently, because they generally occupy dissimilar positions within the household, the labour market, and society. This article examines gender and migration within a Nordic context, between two countries that are often presented as gender-equal in cross-national comparisons. The focus is on how the gendered division of labour is manifested in the experiences of Icelanders who migrated to Norway in the wake of the Icelandic financial crisis of October 2008. The results are based on interviews with people who migrated to Norway both with and without their families. In our analysis, we show how the gender-segregated labour market and gender norms lead to different positions and opportunities for men and women at times of economic crisis and migration. For study participants who migrated with their families, the relocation was often organized around the labour-market position and opportunities of men. Those who migrated without their families emphasized their roles as providers for their families. However, only the women described how their absence was perceived as a failure to fulfil childcare responsibilities. The findings highlight the resilience of the notions of men as providers and women as primary parents within “the gender-equal Nordic region”, and indicate how these roles may facilitate or discourage the migration of men and women.     

Shattering the illusion of development: the changing status of women and challenges for the feminist movement in Puerto Rico.

The introduction of this article on the impact of the colonialization of Puerto Rico by the US on gender relations and women's status notes that development strategies facilitated women's integration in the formal sector but recreated gender inequity and inequality by positioning women in low-paying jobs. The next section provides an historical overview of "Operation Bootstrap," an early example of the creation of export processing zones and of initial legislation to improve the status of women in the labor force. Next, the current situation is described as a period characterized by contradictions and industrial restructuring as the economy has moved from labor-intensive manufacturing to provision of high-tech financial services, and the impact of these changes on gender relations is sketched. The population control policies of Operation Bootstrap are then described as seeking to regulate women's reproductive behavior rather than to improve reproductive health or redefine gender relations. The article continues with a look at the still pervasive constraints to the redefinition of gender roles in politics, where male dominance places women in competition with each other for the same positions. After tracing the second wave of feminist organizing and the responses of the state to feminist mobilization, the article concludes by reviewing the challenges feminists face in demanding equal employment opportunities, healthy working conditions for women, child care, and adequate public health in a system that rewards privatization and reductions in social services.     

‘it was better during the war’: narratives of everyday violence in a Palestinian refugee camp

The distinction between what is commonly regarded as the routine of impoverishment and what is acknowledged and remarked upon as violence is increasingly being questioned in scholarship and public policy circles. Interrogating the distinction between routine and remarkable not only reveals the habits and relationships constituting everyday life as the site of violence, but also foregrounds questions of gender. Given that the everyday is shaped by a given community's norms regarding the gendered division of labour that produces and reproduces the conditions of the everyday, in what ways is violence as well as its experience gendered? This article examines this question in the particular context of Palestinian camp refugees’ lived experience of forced displacement in Lebanon. It explores the ways in which the violence used against Palestinian camp refugees draws on norms regarding masculinity and femininity shared by the refugees as well as their Lebanese oppressors. It also examines the ways in which Palestinian camp refugees’ everyday experience of impoverishment as well as the acknowledged violence of forced displacement, subjection to Lebanese military intelligence control, and participation in the armed struggle for national liberation are constituted by and constitutive of unequal subject positions of gender, class and citizenship.     

Gender and International Relations: A Global Perspective and Issues for the Caribbean

In this paper we discuss the relatively recent integration of feminist thinking in the discipline of International Relations. We argue that the theoretical foundations of International Relations are still primarily based on traditional male-female dichotomies, particularly that of separate public and private spheres. By extension, women are largely excluded from state power and decision making. The state is itself gendered. The growing recognition of the links between the global economy and gender forces us to engage with International Relations in foreign and international policy. In this article we look at feminist interpretations of three main International Relations areas: international security, human rights, and international political economy and their implications for gender policies in the Caribbean. We also look at the contributions of Caribbean women to the international feminist agenda and suggest a research agenda for ongoing feminist theorizing in the discipline of International Relations.     

The Transitional Justice Gap: Exploring ‘Everyday’ Gendered Harms and Customary Justice in South Kivu,DR Congo

Feminist transitional justice (TJ) has greatly contributed to the study of justice in the ruins of war, notably around prosecuting wartime rape. At the same time, scholars have observed limitations to this research agenda such as externally-driven definitions gendered harms and how to address them. This paper explores two novel areas for feminist TJ research: ‘everyday gendered harms’ and customary justice. Based on a three month field study of baraza, a customary justice mechanism in parts of South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, I explore three cases of ‘everyday’ harms against women: domestic violence, polygynous relationships and witchcraft. Through a substantive examination of these baraza cases, I highlight how studying the contextualised functioning of customary justice mechanisms provides new insights into different areas of feminist TJ scholarship, including women’s participation in the transition, justice for harms against women, and advancing gender equality. Additionally, this paper adds to the broader TJ literature by engaging with local TJ needs as they pertain to people’s everyday life in transition.     

Gender-Typed Personality Qualities and African American Youth’s School Functioning

Numerous studies document sex differences in African American girls’ and boys’ academic achievement and motivation, but little is known about how the enactment of gender, such as in the forms of gendered behaviors, attitudes, or personal-social qualities, is related to school functioning. To advance understanding of African American adolescents’ academic experiences, this study examined the longitudinal linkages between stereotypically feminine (i.e., expressive) and stereotypically masculine (i.e., instrumental) personality characteristics and school adjustment. The moderating effects of youth’s ethnic identity and school racial composition also were tested. Participants were 352 African American youth (50.1% girls; mean age at Time 1?=?12.04 years; SD=?2.03) who participated in annual home interviews. Net of biological sex, expressive traits (kind, sensitive) were positively related to school self-esteem and school bonding for both girls and boys, but youth with higher levels of instrumentality (independent, competitive) exhibited sharper declines in academic achievement across adolescence. School racial composition moderated the effects of instrumentality at the between-person level, such that instrumentality was positively related to school self-esteem only for youth who attended schools with fewer African American students. These results highlight the importance of incorporating gendered personality traits, rather than biological sex alone, into theoretical accounts of African American youth’s school functioning.

     

State Facilitated Economic Abuse: A Structural Analysis of Men Deliberately Withholding Child Support

Economic abuse is well established as a widespread and damaging element of intimate partner violence. However research largely addresses cohabiting couples, with few detailed explorations of women’s longer-term experiences after separation. Further, researchers have not developed a gendered analysis of child support related economic abuse. Such an analysis requires understanding gender as a framework that organises institutions and relationships in ways that build and reproduce hierarchical relations of difference. In this paper, I present data from in-depth interviews with 37 single mothers to pursue a structural analysis of how men’s deliberate withholding of child support (termed child maintenance in some countries) can be a form of economic abuse that is facilitated through gendered state processes and institutions that order child support transfers. I argue that masculine financial discretion structures policy and organizational practices in ways that legitimate men’s financial agency at the expense of women’s financial autonomy. On-going compliance issues are not the result of a failure of Australia’s Child Support Program, but suggest that the state’s role can be one of regulation, not prevention, of economic abuse. Thus, Australia’s Child Support Program normalises the potential for post-separation economic abuse.     

At Home with the Women's Guild of Arts: gender and professional identity in London studios,c.1880–1925

This article explores a recently discovered archive, pertaining to the Women's Guild of Arts, in order to deepen understanding of the ways middle-class women, working in the fine and applied arts, constructed artistic identity in London, c.1880–1925. The Women's Guild of Arts was formed as women artists were not allowed to join the Arts and Crafts male-only Art Workers' Guild. Analysis of the Women's Guild of Arts archive, alongside the personal memoirs of members of the Guild, show the importance women artists placed on the acquisition of studios, and the significance of studios in building a professional network of female sociability and artistic contacts. Analysis of a sample of studios belonging to Guild members develops knowledge about how professional identity was achieved, and mediated, by women artists. The archive provides the opportunity to consider how both singular, and collective, studio activity was gendered. It reveals the persistent concerns members had about the appropriate use of space in their quest for professional status and examines their views on drawing rooms, exhibitions, male-only spaces, and their adapted use of At Homes in their studios.     

Constructing the self in mental health practice: identity,individualism and the feminization of deficiency

The discursive production of the ‘self’ in the context of mental health care has potential implications for how the subjects of intervention come to understand and experience themselves. Eating disorders provide an illustrative example of the ways in which conceptualizations of the self that structure mental health practices can be gendered, because they are mainly diagnosed in women and dominant explanations of their origins are feminized. This discourse analytic study examines the gendered nature of mental health workers' constructions of the eating-disordered self through the psychological construct of ‘identity’, examining the dominant discourses implicated in the feminization of deficient identity, and addressing the implications of this construction for mental health practice.     

Gender, Judging and Job Satisfaction

Though the overall numbers of women judges remain small, higher proportions of women have been appointed to many lower courts in common law, and particularly in civil law, countries. This paper investigates whether the experiences of judging and judicial work differ among women and men magistrates in Australia’s lower courts. The particular focus is satisfaction with their work as judges. In so doing, it helps build up a picture of the extent of the gendered nature of the judiciary as an occupation. Measures of overall job satisfaction identify few gender differences; more refined measures highlight areas of divergence between men and women magistrates, suggesting gendered experiences of judicial work which result from particular characteristics of the occupation, as presently constituted, rather than the nature of judging itself.

Gendered testimonies: autobiographies, diaries, and letters by women as sources for Caribbean history.

This analysis of memoirs, diaries, and letters written by English-speaking women living in the Caribbean region since the early 1800s pays particular attention to testimony on their gendered life experiences. The analysis draws examples from five autobiographical writings, three memoirs, three diaries, and the letters of three women in its consideration of various aspects of the women's lives. The essay opens with an acknowledgement of the recent efforts of historians to incorporate women's experiences into the concept of "history" and a discussion of the ways that women's voices can be recaptured that notes the paucity of primary sources. The topics covered in the examined documents reveal information about motherhood and marriage, health and sexuality, domestic life and household management, the conditions and suffering of female slaves, the rearing and education of girls, the influence of Christian missionaries, and the general status of women.