Frequency of Parental Violence Against Children in Chinese Families: Impact of Age and Gender

The present study examines the impact of child and parent gender on parental violence across age span of children and their parents in Hong Kong Chinese families. A randomly selected community sample of 1,019 households was surveyed. Results indicate that, in general, boys experience more frequent parental violence than girls and mothers engage in more violent behaviors against their children than fathers. Parental violence shows a curvilinear pattern with age of children, peaking at age 8 for boys and age 3 for girls. There is a pattern of declining frequency of parental violence as parental age increases across child gender. Fathers exhibit an inverted U pattern of violent behavior against their children, with a peak around age 31–40, while mothers have a steadily declining trend until age 46. Separate parental violence indices are constructed for boys and girls.     

Ridicule,gender hegemony,and the disciplinary function of mainstream gender humour

ABSTRACT

This paper foregrounds the disciplinary power of ridicule, as a form or aspect of humour, vis-à-vis gender norms. While much theoretical and empirical research in gender studies recognizes the punitive function of gendered humour and/or ridicule, this function is given no theoretical significance. To resolve this tension, I integrate social psychologist Michael Billig's theory of ridicule as a universal reinforcer of the social order, along with the notion of gender order (as a particular type of social order) as outlined in masculinities theorist Raewyn Connell's gender hierarchy model. I contend that as a form of mainstream gender humour, ridicule serves as a tool for policing the gender order and creating self-regulating gendered subjects. The argument enables a rereading of mainstream gender humour, especially when it deploys ridicule to target non-hegemonic gendered subjectivities, practices, and performances. Such apparently banal humour, as I illustrate with examples of contemporary Anglo-American mainstream gender humour, speaks to and protects the fundamental elements of the gender order of the society and culture in which the humour circulates. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the implications of the main argument for pro-gender democracy research and activism.     

“A Mom First and a Candidate Second”: Gender Differences in Candidates' Self-Presentation of Family

Parenthood carries different consequences for men and women in politics. While the conventional wisdom is that motherhood is a liability for women candidates and fatherhood an asset for men, recent elections have called this idea into question. Specifically, Sarah Palin's candidacy and her cadre of “Mama Grizzlies” suggest that there may be times when motherhood can be an asset. We analyze how men and women present their families to voters by examining the campaign websites of congressional contenders in 2008 and 2010. The results indicate that despite the proliferation of mother candidates, women still tend to de-emphasize their children compared to their male colleagues, who are more likely to showcase their families, most notably in pictures. Moreover, we find that other factors like parental status, age of children, party, chamber, incumbency, and opponent gender also affect differences in candidates' propensity to use their families in campaigns.     

“女性发展与性别平等--中德比较研究”研讨会综述

对“女性发展和性别平等”理论与实践进行中德之间的比较研究,既能增进彼此了解,又可促进相互学习。回顾历史,中德两国妇女运动的产生有着各自的时代背景以及不同的发展路径。当代女性形象未能摆脱刻板僵化的性别角色模式,并常常受到媒体和商业化误导的影响。在女性就业方面,德方专家强调了“贯穿整个生命周期的性别平等”理念,中方专家则提出了提高女性就业质量、女性平等获取资源、为家庭工作平衡提供政策支持等建议。全球女性主义起源于上世纪80年代,旨在拓宽女性主义思想的范围;而社会性别主流化作为联合国促进性别平等的全球战略,20多年来在中国取得了诸多方面的成就,同时也面临着挑战。     

大学生就业性别刻板印象的Logistic回归研究

以青岛3所高校的毕业生为研究对象进行样本抽取与问卷调研,对获得的264份有效问卷进行数据处理,通过因子分析得到刻板印象的5个构面：女性职业刻板印象、男性职业刻板印象、女性特质刻板印象、男性特质刻板印象与行为刻板印象。在此基础上运用Logistic回归分析的方法研究刻板印象与毕业生就业情况之间的关系的结果表明：女性职业刻板印象对毕业生就业情况有显著性负向影响,且毕业生在该构面的测量值上每增加1分,“毕业生签订就业协议比未签订就业协议”的概率将减少7．96％;男性特质刻板印象构面对毕业生就业情况有显著性正向影响,且毕业生在男性特质刻板印象的测量值上每增加1分,“毕业生签订就业协议比未签订就业协议”的概率将增加15．36％。     

Gender Equality as a General Interest of a Pluralistic Society: An Analysis of Constitutional Precedent in Colombia

The article explores the relationship between the legal principles of general interest and gender equality, both consecrated in Colombia's 1991 Constitution. Through an analysis of the precedents set by the Constitutional Court, the article provides a hermeneutical approximation of the behaviour of jurisprudence concerning the general interest. It demonstrates how this principle could be used to foster a more encompassing definition of gender equality. The precedents set by the Constitutional Court have opened up the spectrum of women's rights so as to grasp their relation to the principle of general interest as well as their basis as fundamental rights.     

‘A second wife is not really a wife’: polygyny,gender relations and economic realities in Tajikistan

While polygyny in Tajikistan existed before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and has been a phenomenon of growing importance since Independence, it is still forbidden by law. To understand this renewal, I do not look at polygyny as a sign of religiousness, but as a form of patriarchal bargain in which women (who often experienced former matrimonial disjuncture) may have a greater power of decision in the spousal relations. I will explore women's points of view, from which polygyny is a strategy to accessing the symbolic and material resources they lack. I then explore the conditions to which becoming a second wife is possible: women's own resources, be they material, symbolic, familial, appear as of crucial importance in this accession to the status of being married anew.     

A marriage made in heaven: the functioning of patriarchy and nostalgia in Boer soek ’n vrou

This article explores the functioning of patriarchy and nostalgia in a South African reality television series, Boer soek ’n vrou. A hermeneutical analysis is used to unpack visual and verbal narratives that depict romantic relationships and an idealised future. Concepts such as nostalgic appropriation, benevolent patriarchy and the courtship narrative are explored to illustrate the latent patriarchal agenda which is conveyed to the audience. Interactions between the two genders not only naturalise but also reaffirm gender stereotypes. Throughout the series, female contestants are relegated to the sphere of domesticity whereas male farmers are shown as active social agents. Footage that sentimentalises the farmers’ feelings is also used to regenerate Afrikaner masculinity, arguably as a direct result of the perceived loss of male authority. This ‘renegotiated’ image of a white, heterosexual man is indistinguishable from the historical, patriarchal portrayal of men. In the series, patriarchy and nostalgia collaborate to create a cultural product that can be commercially marketed. The colonial gaze is employed to depict farms as picturesque spaces where benevolent patriarchal power relations are enforced. selective erasure, however, distorts reality and exploitative power relations remain hidden from the audience.     

Psychiatric Medication Intake in Suicide Victims: Gender Disparities and Implications for Suicide Prevention

Frequency and gender differences of psychiatric medication intake in a sample of suicide victims from the Athens Greater Area were investigated with a particular focus on the implications for suicide prevention. Data were collected from the toxicological analyses of the suicide cases of the period November 2007–October 2009. Information was available for 262 individuals, 196 men (74.8%) and 66 women (25.2%); 109 of these (41.6%) were receiving psychiatric medication(s). Women were statistically more frequently under treatment: antidepressants (32.8% vs. 11.3%, p < 0.001), antiepileptics (9.1% vs. 0.5%, p = 0.001), antipsychotics (24.2% vs. 9.2%, p = 0.003), and benzodiazepines (16.7% vs. 6.6%, p = 0.024). Campaigns aiming to bring men with psychological difficulties in contact with mental health services and to lessen the stigma of mental illness, together with better training of nonpsychiatrists into “suspecting” “male” depression, could be particularly helpful for decreasing male suicides. More thoughtful choice of psychiatric medication could possibly already prevent a number of female suicides.     

The patriarchy index: a comparative study of power relations across historical Europe

This article stands at the confluence of three streams of historical social science analysis: the sociological study of power relations within the family, the regional demography of historical Europe, and the study of spatial patterning of historical family forms in Europe. It is a first exercise in the design and application of a new ‘master variable’ for cross-cultural studies of family organization and relations. This indexed composite measure, which the authors call the Index of Patriarchy, incorporates a range of variables related to familial behaviour, including nuptiality and age at marriage, living arrangements, post-marital residence, power relations within domestic groups, the position of the aged, and the sex of the offspring. The index combines all these items, with each being given equal weight in the calculation of the final score, which represents the varying degrees of sex- and age-related social inequality (‘patriarchal bias’) in different societal and familial settings. In order to explore the comparative advantages of the index, the authors use information from census and census-like microdata for 91 regions of historical Europe covering more than 700,000 individuals living in 143,000 domestic groups, from the Atlantic to the Urals. The index allows the authors to identify regions with different degrees of patriarchy within a single country, across the regions of a single country, or across and within many broader zones of historical Europe. The unprecedented patterning of the many elements of power relations and agency contained in the index generates new ways of accounting for both the geographies and the histories of family organization across the European landmass.