A world apart. Swedish and Australian gender equality policy

This article focuses on the process of gender-equality policy in Sweden and Australia, from 1960 to 1990. It is suggested that the comparative gender analysis must be more susceptible for civil rights issues. A second argument is that the in-depth achievements of the Swedish gender equality policy and the relative weaknesses in other respects are better understood if Swedish gender policy is analysed from an institutional perspective. Finally, the analysis provides an institutional explanation of why it is problematic to establish and maintain policies that do not build on the dominant political tradition of the welfare state in question.     

Gender Moderation of the Intergenerational Transmission and Stability of Depressive Symptoms from Early Adolescence to Early Adulthood

Factors that might exacerbate or mitigate the transmission of depressive symptoms from parents to adolescents and the continuity of depressive symptoms into early adulthood are poorly understood. This study tested the hypothesis that the intergenerational transmission and stability of depressive symptoms would be stronger for girls than boys over adolescence and into early adulthood, while considering the possibility that the pattern of gender moderation might vary depending on parent gender and developmental timing. The participants were 667 rural Midwestern adolescents (52 % female) and their parents. Survey data on maternal and paternal depressive symptoms (at youth age 11) and on adolescent and young adult depressive symptoms (at youth ages 11, 18, and 21) were analyzed via multiple group structural equation modeling. Maternal depressive symptoms predicted increased late adolescent depressive symptoms for girls but not boys, and adolescent depressive symptoms were more stable in girls. Paternal depressive symptoms predicted increased late adolescent depressive symptoms for all youth. The findings suggest the need for early, tailored interventions.     

"Transcending gynocentric space”: Spatial metaphorics in feminist theory and criticism

Many studies assert that there are new gender constructions among young Scandinavian girls, who seem to be more individualized than earlier generations. In this article questions are raised as to what effect these girls’ newly won status as subjects might have on their construction of bodily gender, especially the part referred to as generative femininity. A “loss” of the generative body is argued to be a general tendency in postmodern discourse, as well as a dilemma in the individual girl's striving for being both individual and gender. This dilemma and its tentative solution is illustrated through the analysis of an 18‐year‐old Norwegian girl, who was the subject of an in‐depth interview in a three‐generational study of gender in change.     

Gender and land rights in Murang'a district,Kenya

Conceptualising rights to land in a framework of legal pluralism, this article explores the historical nature of struggles over land by women and men in a situation of increasing land scarcity. It is argued that the manipulation of customary law and state law is instrumental in increasing gender and, more generally, social differentiation.     

Young women’s negotiations of gender,the body and the labour market in a post-feminist context

This article explores the ways the body and femininity is understood and negotiated in relation to employment. This article draws on interview data from an Australian study which aimed to explore what it meant to be a ‘young woman’ in neoliberal late modernity, and in relation to the paradoxes of post-feminism. Though there has been an unprecedented rise in youth post-secondary school participation in Australia and elsewhere, girls’ and young women’s increased investment and participation in education has not provided the same gains as for their male counterparts. All interview participants described being aware of gender inequalities and gender discrimination in the workplace, including the glass ceiling, the gender pay gap, and demands and pressures on women to balance career and motherhood, however many did not associate these issues with ‘feminism’. We explore the dynamics of notions of equality, difference and the body in participants’ discussions of work and their anticipation of motherhood and the logics by which gender inequalities are sustained.     

All those nasty womanly things: Women artists,technology and the monstrous-feminine

In the context of international women's studies, contemporary women's art theory and practice remain somewhat on the margins. Yet the issues raised in the work of women practitioners are of crucial importance to current debates surrounding gender, the body, and technology. This article seeks to address the complex interface between feminism, bodies, and technologies, and explores how this might relate to Barbara Creed's notion of the monstrous-feminine. For example, what happens when the slick technology becomes “contaminated” by monsters and “all those nasty womanly things”? Using processes such as digital imaging, interactive CD-ROM, and cosmetic surgery, women artists Orlan (France), Alexa Wright (UK), and Linda Dement (Australia) utilise the tools of modern technology to probe the limits of corporeality and question Western standards of female beauty. To read their work in the light of the monstrous-feminine opens up potentially liberating modes of knowing and experiencing the materiality of the female body.     

The European Union and gender mainstreaming: Constitutionally embedded or comprehensively marginalised?

This paper examines the extent to which gender mainstreaming is constitutionally embedded in the legal framework of the European Union. Within the framework of that broad question it examines three sub-questions concerning the robustness and constitutionalised nature of the E.U.'s `equality regime', the extent of adaptation to mainstreaming methodologies by supranational institutions such as the Court of Justice, and the extent of the gender dimension in the debates which are shaping the future of the European Union, especially the 2002–3Convention on the Future of the Union and the Commission's Governance White Paper of 2001.The E.U. is analysed in this article as an emergent, non-state, postnational constitutionalised polity. The first section presents this perspective, and the succeeding three sections engage with the three` sub-questions' outlined above. The conclusion suggests that as yet, while gender concerns maybe constitutionally embedded in the Treatyframe work, they are less prominent in the constitutional politics of the Convention and the Governance White Paper.     

A world in which women move freely without fear of men: An anthropological perspective on rape

In western scholarly debate, there is nearly universal acceptance of rape as a male trait typical of all time periods and cultures. However, cross-cultural data provide insight into societies where rape is rare or unknown and can therefore be helpful to develop strategies for prevention. The paper focuses on the question why men do not rape in these societies with rape being understood as a crime that reflects male dominance and entitlement.An earlier finding by Sanday [J. Soc. Issues 37 (1981) 5] that such “rape-free” societies attach importance to the “contributions women make to social continuity” is further analyzed by taking an in-depth look at matrilineal societies. The category “matrilineal” is chosen because these cultures recognize women's contributions to social continuity, and absence or rareness of rape has been repeatedly reported. Data from matrilineal cultures from the relevant literature including my own work in South America are compared with a select body of data discussing western rapists. As the discussion demonstrates, the specific gender dynamics in matrilineal cultures reduce the significance of man's sexual persona and thus male heterosexual authority which mitigates the potential of male dominance and rape.     

The European Union and gender mainstreaming: Constitutionally embedded or comprehensively marginalised?

This paper examines the extent to which gender mainstreaming is constitutionally embedded in the legal framework of the European Union. Within the framework of that broad question it examines three sub-questions concerning the robustness and constitutionalised nature of the E.U.'s `equality regime', the extent of adaptation to mainstreaming methodologies by supranational institutions such as the Court of Justice, and the extent of the gender dimension in the debates which are shaping the future of the European Union, especially the 2002–3Convention on the Future of the Union and the Commission's Governance White Paper of 2001.The E.U. is analysed in this article as an emergent, non-state, postnational constitutionalised polity. The first section presents this perspective, and the succeeding three sections engage with the three` sub-questions' outlined above. The conclusion suggests that as yet, while gender concerns maybe constitutionally embedded in the Treatyframe work, they are less prominent in the constitutional politics of the Convention and the Governance White Paper. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

At your service madam! the globalization of domestic service

This article deals with the question of new domestic servants. It sets out to describe a ‘new’ phenomenon manifesting itself all over Europe, that is the comeback of domestic workers and carers for children and the elderly in many households. It then proceeds to explain the establishment of an informal labour market in the private sector, which arises amid today's revolution of information technology.Research sources on the current situation are scarce compared to historical studies. This is particularly true for Germany and even more for the Netherlands. The present situation differs from its earlier appearance mainly in that domestic workers today are migrant women from Eastern Europe, from Asia or South America.The article aims to show how studying this phenomenon raises relevant questions both on an empirical and a theoretical level for gender studies as well as for migration studies. It pleads in favour of an intersectional analysis by taking into account class, gender and ethnic differences within the context of globalized labour markets and transnational migration movements.     

Continuity in Primary School Children’s Eating Problems and the Influence of Parental Feeding Strategies

Eating problems are highly prevalent and seem to show continuity in children. Nevertheless, the effect of different maternal and paternal feeding practices on changes in these problems is not fully understood yet. This study examines short-term continuity in primary school children’s overeating, loss of control (over eating), restraint and concerns (about eating, body shape and weight) and the predictive value of parental feeding strategies on change in these eating problems. Children (8–12 years, n = 613, 46.5 % girls) completed the Child Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (ChEDE-Q) twice with the second measurement (T2) taking place 6 months after the first (T1). Parents (n = 714, 57.7 % mothers) completed the Child Feeding Questionnaire (CFQ) at T1 to assess the level of controlling feeding strategies. More overeating, restraint and concerns at T1 predicted higher levels of the same eating problems 6 months later, whereas more of loss of control at T1 predicted lower levels of loss of control 6 months later. Additionally, the interaction between maternal pressure and the gender of the child was predictive for increases in overeating, whereas the interaction between paternal monitoring and gender of the child was a marginally significant predictor for decreases in overeating. These findings point to the possible negative and positive effects of parental feeding practices as well as to the possible larger influence of mothers on their daughters’ and of fathers on their sons’ eating behaviors. The importance of studying mothers and fathers, as well as daughters and sons, and of including different feeding strategies and eating problems is discussed.     

History,texts and feminism: An interview with Genevieve Lloyd

In 1993, the Social Democratic Party in Sweden adopted the zipper system, a gender quota system whereby women and men are placed alternately on all party lists. The National Federation of Social Democratic Women had, however, as early as in 1928 proposed that the Social Democratic Party introduce gender quotas so that women would be placed in safe positions on the party lists. In this article, the struggle of The National Federation of Social Democratic Women for an increased parliamentary representation of women and its demand for gender quotas during the period 1970–1993 is analysed. Its strategies to put the issue of women's under‐representation on the political agenda are outlined as well as the major discursive frames that the debate was embedded within. The article suggests that the discursive controversies over gender quotas can best be understood in the context of competing conceptions regarding historical development, equal opportunity, local autonomy and cooperation between women and men. One main point is that the zipper system, despite its radical institutional effect, can be seen as a discursive solution to the norm of cooperation.     

Who Needs [Sex] When You Can Have [Gender]? Conflicting Discourses on Gender at Beijing

‘Gender’, understood as the social construction of sex, is a key concept for feminists working at the interface of theory and policy. This article examines challenges to the concept which emerged from different groups at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, September 1995, an important arena for struggles over feminist public policies. The first half of the article explores contradictory uses of the concept in the field of gender and development. Viewpoints from some southern activist women at the NGO Forum of the Beijing Conference are presented. Some of them argued that the way ‘gender’ has been deployed in development institutions has led to a depoliticization of the term, where feminist policy ambitions are sacrificed to the imperative of ease of institutionalization. ‘Gender’ becomes a synonym for ‘women’, rather than a form of shorthand for gender difference and conflict and the project of transformation in gender relations. ‘Gender sensitivity’ can be interpreted by non-feminists as encouragement to use gender-disaggregated statistics for development planning, but without consideration of relational aspects of gender, of power and ideology, and of how patterns of subordination are reproduced. A completely different attack on ‘gender’ came from right-wing groups and was battled out over the text of the Platform for Action agreed at the official conference. Six months prior to the conference, conservative groups had tried to bracket for possible removal the term ‘gender’ in this document, out of opposition to the notion of socially constructed, and hence mutable, gender identity. Conservative views on gender as the ‘deconstruction of woman’ are discussed here. The article points out certain contradictions and inconsistencies in feminist thinking on gender which are raised by the conservative backlash attack on feminism and the term ‘gender’.     

“This is a Book about Choices”: Gender,Genre and (Auto)Biographical Prison Narratives

The article discusses equal rights to equal participation and public policies for gender balance in different societal arenas. Although gender balance is a central aim of official Norwegian gender equality politics, male hegemony is the dominant feature in most institutional settings of leadership, power and influence. This inconsistency is rhetorically handled through travel metaphors of gender equality and utility arguments about women's contributions to public life. Gender equality then becomes a question of time, and of how society would profit from “more” gender equality. The rights perspective is distorted. In the final part of the article, we discuss alternative, normative, approaches: gender balance in relation to parity in participation, a distributive norm of simple equality, and principles of non‐discrimination.     

Diversity in gender and visual representation: a commentary

Visual images deserve our critical attention more than ever. In this commentary, I draw together the papers in this Special Issue on Diversity in gender and visual representation. The collection here is ‘diverse’ in terms of the breadth of visual representations, and through the methodological interdisciplinary approach of its contributions. I consider the overlaps within this diversity, and identify the contribution that these articles make in opening up discussion of activism, the body, history and emotions. I conclude with particular attention to how this Special Issue highlights the importance of returning to the politics of visibility, and how collectively these articles ask us to question the costs, limitations and possibilities of being represented in today's visually mediated societies.     

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.     

Body Size Estimations,Body Dissatisfaction,and Ideal Size Preferences in Children Six Through Thirteen

Results of the second year of a 3-year longitudinal study on children's body size estimations are reported. Participants were 216 male and female children age 6 through 13. Body size estimations were measured using a TV-video methodology. Three psychophysical procedures measured perceived body size, idealized size, and body dissatisfaction. Self-esteem, body esteem, birth order, number of siblings, and parents' socioeconomic status (SES) were measured. Children were accurate in estimating body size, with no gender, age, or ethnic differences. Individual estimations varied greatly over the 1-year test-retest interval. Children had a slight bias to report that their body size was distorted too wide. Both genders wanted to be thinner, with females wanting to be increasingly thinner as they became older. Females were also more dissatisfied with their body size. Taller and heavier children with high SES fathers wanted a thinner idealized body size. Taller, thinner children had less body size dissatisfaction. Children with a larger number of siblings who were one of the first born were more dissatisfied with their body size. Children who gained weight during the previous year without a concomitant growth in height were also more dissatisfied with their body and wanted to be thinner. Body size estimation is viewed as an important aspect of one's body image and is mediated by many different variables, each of which individually explains only a small part of the variance.     

(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.     

Beyond nature versus nurture: Process and biology in the development of gender

The origins of gender, like the origins of human nature, are sometimes said to lie in biological determination, sometimes in social construction. Feminist theory began with criticising biological determinism and its portrayal of women, and inevitably emphasised the social construction of gender. However, seeing gender or human nature as wholly or mainly socially constructed seems to deny the biological processes which comprise our physical experiences of ourselves, and it is this omission which has recently led some writers (both feminist and antifeminist) to lay stress on the significance of biology in human behaviour and its development.These two opposing views of the origin of behaviour are still dominant, despite various attempts to emphasise how biology and social context might interact to produce, say, gender differences: this continued dominance of the nature/nurture duality has considerable political relevance to feminism, and has contributed to the rise of the New Right ideology concerning, for example, the natural role of women and the family.In this paper, we stress the relevance of the nature/nurture duality for this political shift, and attempt to formulate a way out of the impasse. Attempts have sometimes been made to avoid the duality by emphasising the interaction of nature and nurture. However, in most academic writing, the “interaction” proposed fails to avoid the dichotomy completely, and relies on a view of individual development as unfolding towards a goal or plan. The latter is how gender development is typically portrayed, emerging from an unfolding of biological potential (giving rise to “sex” differences), and subsequently from socialisation.It is important for feminism to emphasise the alternative view of biological development, which lays stress on developmental process, of which “biology” is but a part, rather than viewing individuals as maturing or unfolding towards some “goal.” By this change of emphasis, feminist theory may begin to avoid the double pitfall of biological determinism on the one hand; and of constructing “gender” in a world devoid of human bodies, and biological processes, on the other.     

The Peer Appearance Culture During Adolescence: Gender and Body Mass Variations

The purpose of this research was to examine gender and body mass, as factors linked to perceived experiences within the peer appearance culture. The sample included 215 girls and 200 boys who were either in 7th grade or 10th grade. Students provided self-reports on experiences in three domains: appearance culture among friends (appearance conversations and diet/muscle talk), peer evaluations (peer appearance pressure, appearance teasing, and vicarious peer teasing), and peer acceptance concerns (appearance-based acceptance, peer appearance comparison). The results indicated that although girls reported more appearance conversations, boys perceived more appearance pressure and teasing. Boys also admitted that they talked with friends about muscle building at a rate greater than girls talked about dieting. BMI showed distinct gender patterns. BMI was a key attribute that unified the experiences within the appearance culture for overweight girls. Among the boys, BMI was associated with differentiated experiences for underweight and overweight participants.Associate Professor in Educational Psychology at the University of Washington. She is a developmental psychologist specializing in the contributions of peers to body image and social-emotional well-being during adolescence. Research interests include body image during adolescence and gender differences.Doctoral student at the University of Washington in Human Development and Cognition. Her research focuses on the social-emotional development of adolescents, academic and appearance social comparisons, and issues related to gender and science. Research interests include body image during adolescence, gender differences, social comparison, and academic competence.