School context,gender, and delinquency

This study compares two high schools serving the same community and compares student bodies with similar background characteristics. The purpose is to examine how control/strain variables predict delinquency in two distinct school contexts. It was found that minor delinquency occurred more often in the environment dominated by competitive academic achievement, routine handling of discipline, and unpredictable supervision. Examination of the model paths suggest that this environment is also conservative and unlikely to offer legitimate opportunities to girls with gender-egalitarian orientation. The school context characterized by a broader definition of success, more specialized discipline, and predictable supervision promotes stronger bonds with its students and lower levels of delinquency for both genders.The research reported here was funded by Grant 79-JN-AX-0030 from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, U.S. Department of Justice. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1984 meeting of the American Society of Criminology in Cincinnati, Ohio.Received Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Work from the University of Michigan. Research interests include deviance and control, and gender issues.     

Bridging the gender gap in agricultural development through gender responsive extension and rural advisory services delivery in Ghana

Despite the critical role women play in agricultural development their access to extension and rural advisory services delivery is limited. To improve this situation, an in-depth understanding of the importance of gender-responsive extension delivery is required. A case study of the Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement Program that put in extra efforts to reach more female farmers with extension delivery and other rural advisory services was conducted. The study investigates how gender dynamics interact with the agricultural extension delivery with particular reference to the adoption of improved technologies. A total sample of 592 smallholder farmers were interviewed in selected communities in Northern Ghana. In addition to one-on-one interviews, 18 focus group discussions were also conducted in the surveyed districts. Study findings confirmed that male farmers had more access to agricultural extension delivery than their female counterparts because of their relatively better financial standing, large farm sizes, mobility to access extension and rural advisory service providers outside their communities. The study identified gendered associations with some crop types across all the study districts. However, the gendered extension delivery led to a new sociocultural order that seems to break down the gendered associations with the adoption of improved technologies.     

(Re)creating gender hierarchies within northern landscapes: a study of stories about nature and gender

This article examines how gender hierarchies are (re)created within the context of northern landscapes. We analyse data from fieldwork and interviews with middle-class female Russians having settled in a small town in northernmost Norway, most of them as marriage migrants. Inspired by the phenomenology of the body, feminist phenomenology and gender theory, the analysis shows how the participants talk about nature as ‘recreation’ and ‘poetry’, but also as a venue that is vital for (re)shaping their gendered identities. In particular, the Russian women talk about their strong, skilful outdoors Norwegian husbands as ‘experts’ in nature, and about themselves as ‘novices’. This ‘expert–novice’ relationship creates a hierarchical distinction between the Norwegian man and the Russian woman, but also attributes additional value to the equality-oriented, but in several cases neither highly educated nor highly paid, Norwegian husband. Through this ‘re-masculinisation’ of their Norwegian partners, the Russian women create a complementary, but subordinate space for themselves. The analysis reveals that our participants situate themselves in contrast to the Norwegian equality ideal while creating a room of their own where they can form a separate and unique Russian femininity. This illustrates how constructions of gender are interwoven in translocal ‘minoritising’ and ‘majoritising’ processes.     

The cultural construction of gender

Bronwyn Davies, Frogs and Snails and Feminist Tales. Preschool Children and Gender (Allen and Unwin) Sydney, 1989; E. Deidre Pribram (ed.), Female Spectators. Looking at Film and Television (Verso) London/New York, 1988; Derek Longhurst (ed.), Gender, Genre and Narrative Pleasure (Unwin Hyman) London, 1989.     

Mojave mirages: gender and performance in Las Vegas

The article explores the permeable boundaries between image, perception, experience, and realities through a series of personal observations on gender and performance in Las Vegas. The author'observations on this resort destination in the middle of the Mojave Desert are mingled with the narratives of women who came to the area during and after World War II. Lucrative jobs in wartime industries followed by the post-war tourist economy gave women opportunities to earn more money than they could ‘back home.’ A work in progress, the article explores why women came to Las Vegas and stayed and how they, like many visitors to the city, play out their fantasies in its public theater.