Showing papers in "Journal of Gender Studies in 2016"
TL;DR: It is argued that part of the problem is related to the static nature of the research deployed around the problem of ‘women in computing’, primarily, the research constructed around the ‘leaky pipeline’ metaphor.
Abstract: The pessimistic scenario for ‘women in information communications technology’ and for ‘women in technology’ generally is even more paradoxical and insidious with respect to ‘women in computing’. Studies within this field not only report insignificant improvement in the proportion of women in Western countries’ computing fields but also alert us of a declining trend. Moreover, that decline has been accompanied – or even preceded – by years of research and programs that have specifically focused on increasing women’s participation in computing; however, they have not had the expected effect. More surprisingly, there has been a significant increase in the representation of women in all other science-related fields and professions. Our aim is to provide some clues to fight the feeling of inexorability that may be entailed by the research on women in computing. We will argue that part of the problem is related to the static nature of the research deployed around the problem of ‘women in computing’, pri...
98 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors make a contribution to current knowledge through evaluating the social constructions, stigma and phenomenological realities associated with male rape, arguing that there has been neglect in this area that functions to support, maintain and reinforce patriarchal power relations and hegemoni...
Abstract: Feminist research has played a pivotal role in uncovering the extent and nature of male violence against women and suggests that the main motivations for rape are the need for power, control and domination. This paper argues that, although feminist explanations of rape are robust and comprehensive, male victims of rape have largely been excluded from this field of research. While feminism has enabled the victimisation of women to be recognised, further understanding of the victimisation of men is required. Some feminist writers (such as hooks, 2000) have argued that men's emancipation is an essential part of feminism since men are equally harmed by gender role expectations and sexism. This paper makes a contribution to current knowledge through evaluating the social constructions, stigma and phenomenological realities associated with male rape (by both men and women), arguing that there has been neglect in this area that functions to support, maintain and reinforce patriarchal power relations and hegemoni...
68 citations
TL;DR: Ecofeminism is a captivating survey of some of the liveliest and most unusual debates in modern ecofeminism, drawing in non-specialist academics and engaged laypersons, and reminding us all that ec...
Abstract: Ecofeminism is a captivating survey of some of the liveliest and most unusual debates in modern ecofeminism, drawing in non-specialist academics and engaged laypersons, and reminding us all that ec...
49 citations
TL;DR: For instance, this paper found that exposure to feminism, both through education and personal role models, has also led to women self-identifying as feminists, and that a general desire for equality, empowerment, and the freedom to make choices are instrumental factors in the decision-making process.
Abstract: Feminisms work to correct the social gender imbalance, necessitating women's continued self-identification as feminist. There are several reasons noted for women choosing to identify: (1) exposure to feminist beliefs through education, (2) personal influences such as strong feminist role models, and (3) awareness of gender discrimination. The current research literature on feminism has largely omitted the dynamic and contextual factors that may influence this decision. This study sought to fill this gap by utilizing qualitative methodology to evaluate reasons why contemporary women choose to self-identify as feminist. Overall, the data indicate that a general desire for equality, empowerment, and the freedom to make choices are instrumental in the decision-making process. Further, exposure to feminism, both through education and personal role models, has also led to their self-identification. The implications of these findings, as well as suggestions for the continuation of the feminist movement are discu...
44 citations
TL;DR: Li et al. as discussed by the authors assessed the impact of body surveillance and body shame as well as features of other sociocultural models (i.e. perceived appearance pressure, appearance comparisons, general negative affect) on disordered eating, fatness concerns, and body dissatisfaction among young Chinese adults.
Abstract: Body surveillance and body shame are features of objectified body consciousness that have utility in predicting body image and eating disturbances but evidence is based largely on samples in developed Western nations and it is not clear whether these factors predict disturbances independent of conceptually-related factors emphasized in alternate sociocultural accounts. To address these issues, we assessed the impact of body surveillance and body shame as well as features of other sociocultural models (i.e. perceived appearance pressure, appearance comparisons, general negative affect) on disordered eating, fatness concerns, and body dissatisfaction among young Chinese adults. University-age women (n = 466) and men (n = 230) from Chongqing, China completed validated self-report measures of demographics and the above constructs. For women, objectified body consciousness measures explained significant variance in each measure of disturbances, beyond effects of other factors; body surveillance had a u...
36 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw on findings from an auto/biographical study about relationships with food to demonstrate how everyday foodways continue to be influenced by the intersectionalities of gender and class.
Abstract: This article draws on findings from an auto/biographical study about relationships with food to demonstrate how everyday foodways continue to be influenced by the intersectionalities of gender and class. Following Bourdieu [1984. Distinction, a social critique of the judgement of taste. London: Routledge] how ‘foodies’ use food and foodways (the production, preparation, serving and eating of food) as a material and cultural display of capital (Johnston, J., & Baumann, S. 2010. Foodies, democracy and distinction in the gourmet kitchen. London: Routledge) or even ‘culinary capital’ (Naccarato, P., & LeBesco, K. 2012. Culinary capital. London: Berg) has been demonstrated. There has been less work exploring how mothers use ‘feeding the family’ (DeVault, M. I. 1991. Feeding the family. London: University of Chicago Press) as a source of cultural capital for themselves. Three-quarters of the 75 respondents in my UK study were parents and all mothers with dependant children fed their family ‘healthy’ food as a m...
35 citations
TL;DR: The gender roles of masculinity and femininity are considered not only to be descriptive of behaviour, but also to prescribe how men and women should behave as discussed by the authors, and previous results still apply to contemporary prescriptions of masculine and feminine traits of men in different occupational roles.
Abstract: The gender roles of masculinity and femininity are considered not only to be descriptive of behaviour, but also to prescribe how men and women should behave. To assess the prescriptive nature of gender roles, previous research asked participants to assign masculine (agentic) and feminine (communal) traits to men and women of differing occupational roles. The current study, conducted in Australia, sought to establish whether previous results still apply to contemporary prescriptions of masculine and feminine traits of men and women in different occupational roles (specifically, employee and homemaker roles). Participants (N = 327) completed an online questionnaire, where masculine and feminine traits (as identified by the Bem Sex Role Inventory short-form) were ascribed to men and women of different occupational roles (that is, employee and homemaker). Compared to previous results, those of this current differ in fundamental ways that we posit reflect the social changes of women. Results are discus...
30 citations
TL;DR: Jeannine Gailey's book has been published at a time when the western world seems universally concerned with bodily appearance and we cannot go a day without an advert for a miracle weight-loss solutio...
Abstract: Jeannine Gailey’s book has been published at a time when the western world seems universally concerned with bodily appearance. We cannot go a day without an advert for a miracle weight-loss solutio...
29 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors trace the transformation of sexual space in Iran during the past 200 years; a process which culminated in the emergence of Iranian gays at the beginning of this century.
Abstract: This paper traces the transformation of sexual space in Iran during the past 200 years; a process which culminated in the emergence of Iranian gays at the beginning of this century. We reconcile the work of Najmabadi [2005. Women with mustaches and men without beards: gender and sexual anxieties of Iranian modernity, Berkley: University of California Press], Foucault [1990. The history of sexuality, Vol. 1: an introduction, New York: Vintage Books], and Massad [2002. Re-orienting desire: the gay international and the arab world. Public Culture 14(2), 361–385; 2007. Desiring arabs, Chicago: University of Chicago Press] and describe distinct moments of modern subject construction. We claim that gays are constituted in Iran through a process of heteronormalization of social space, followed by the ‘fixing’ of deviant types in law and medicine and then the availability of a positive frame of reference which makes its appearance in the mid-1990s when the discourse of identity and human rights enters Iran. We co...
25 citations
TL;DR: This article found that mothers' consumption is a unidimensional depiction of control and caring for others, presented as self-evidently gratifying and fulfilling, in the absence of competing consumption goals.
Abstract: What can representations of women's ‘caring consumption’ (Thompson 1996) reveal about broad cultural understandings of the nature of motherhood? We study Canadian television advertisements to gain insight into the production of cultural schemas and the reproduction of beliefs about gender and motherhood. Employing an inductive qualitative analysis of portrayals of mothers and women who are not depicted as mothers, we find that the defining feature of mothers' consumption is a unidimensional depiction of control and caring for others, presented as self-evidently gratifying and fulfilling, in the absence of competing consumption goals. Mothers' identity emerges solely from successful consumer choices that benefit others. Such unidimensional representations of consumption stand in contrast to the consumption of women who are not depicted as mothers, who are found to engage in hyperbolic and indulgent consumption targeted towards self-gratification. We thus provide novel empirical data which show that depicti...
24 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated whether men are remaining within traditional masculine jobs or crossing traditional boundaries into more emotional, and personal care work in the long-term care (LTC) sector.
Abstract: Labor market changes, including growing opportunities to work in the long-term care (LTC) sector, may attract more men to this traditionally female-dominated occupation. Analyzing an English national workforce data-set we investigate whether men are remaining within traditional masculine jobs or crossing traditional boundaries into more emotional, and personal care work. We examine organization, local area effect, and service provision on the probability of attracting more men to the workforce. The analysis utilizes multivariate statistics and mixed-effect models. The findings highlight both horizontal and vertical segregation in the types of jobs undertaken by men in the LTC sector. A research agenda is identified.
TL;DR: This article examined how men's teamsport participation reproduces men's advantage in sport-related occupations during hiring for sport employment positions and found that men's privilege of "teamsport hegemony" occurs at the moment of social reproduction through expectations of social role congruity in leadership as well as how patterns of gender segregation within sport contribute to occupational segregation impeding women's equality.
Abstract: This research uses 30 interviews with sport-based employers in the United Kingdom to examine how men’s teamsport participation reproduces men’s advantage in sport-related occupations during hiring for sport employment positions. Not only does formalized gender segregation in sport provide men with vital social networks less attainable to women, but teamsport competition experience, through gendered notions of what counts as ‘teamwork’, being a ‘team player’, and ‘leadership qualities’, also provides an illusory image of employment competency implicitly gendered as masculine. Results illustrate how men’s privilege of ‘teamsport hegemony’ occurs at the moment of social reproduction through expectations of social role congruity in leadership as well as how patterns of gender segregation within sport contribute to occupational segregation impeding women’s equality. We offer policy prescriptions to address the problem.
TL;DR: The authors explored how the concepts of gender and risk entwine in two films on the financial crisis, The Other Guys and Margin Call, and explored how understandings of high-risk behaviour are gendered, and the implications this has in the context of finance.
Abstract: From the outset, analyses of the 2008 financial crisis, in mainstream as well as feminist discussions, have been gendered. In particular, rampant risk taking in an unregulated environment, widely deemed to be a principle cause of the crash, has been associated with masculine characteristics. In this article, I explore how the concepts of gender and risk entwine in two films on the financial crisis – The Other Guys and Margin Call. By looking at how gender is used to dramatise financial risk, I explore how understandings of high-risk behaviour are gendered, and the implications this has in the context of finance. Fictional representations mediate public understanding of this notoriously complex field as the number of films and documentaries on the crisis demonstrates. Exploring how gender is used to communicate risk reminds us that risk taking is part of a performance of masculinity that needs to be established by constructing a feminine, risk-averse other. The contention of this paper is that, to address ...
TL;DR: Dina Afrianty as mentioned in this paper examines the lived experiences of women in Aceh, Indonesia's only province where the legal code is based on Islamic law and shows that the adoption and implementation of Islam...
Abstract: Dina Afrianty’s book examines the lived experiences of women in Aceh, Indonesia’s only province where the legal code is based on Islamic law. She shows that the adoption and implementation of Islam...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used a list of Italian keywords relating to drunkenness to identify the most frequently viewed videos on YouTube and analyzed them through a multilayer visual ethnography method.
Abstract: Female alcohol consumption has long been judged more harshly than male behaviour of the same nature. Scholars have shown that traditional mass media contribute to strengthening these stereotypes. The hypothesis of the present study is that new media, especially Web 2.0 environments, provide room for rewriting gender roles in relation to alcohol. To test this hypothesis, 2000 videos were retrieved on YouTube using a list of Italian keywords relating to drunkenness. The 142 most frequently viewed clips were then analysed through a multilayer visual ethnography method. It was found that representations of drinking practices on YouTube seem to reflect the conventional double standard. Female drinking is mainly interpreted as a sign of sexual willingness, and is strongly stigmatised. In most cases, moreover, women themselves actively contributed to creating the sexual meaning, both as video protagonists and as commenters. Analysed materials seem to show that even in a user-generated content medium such as YouT...
TL;DR: In this article, the collective of these social problems was conceptualized as "bisexual burden" and examined for it through the lived experiences of 15 openly bisexual girls (aged 16-17) from sixth form colleges throughout the UK.
Abstract: Much of the literature concerning sexual minorities describes various forms of social mistreatment, alongside the psychological ill effects of minority stress. However, bisexual individuals are often described as having additional burdens compared with other sexual minorities. We conceptualise the collective of these social problems as ‘bisexual burden’, and examine for it through the lived experiences of 15 openly bisexual girls (aged 16–17) from sixth form colleges throughout the UK. We show that, among this cohort, decreasing cultural stigma attached to sexual minorities results in participants being more accepted by their heterosexual and gay peers, compared to previous literature, mostly without the negative components of bisexual burden. We find that when mistreatment does occur, it does so immediately after she comes out; however, this diminishes quickly due to the cultural unacceptability of homo/biphobia in these settings.
TL;DR: This article analyses the areas of overlap between cosmetic surgery and reconstructive surgery, using the examples of both female and male breast surgery, and shows that these Areas of overlap are sites of the construction of gendered bodies.
Abstract: This article analyses the areas of overlap between cosmetic surgery and reconstructive surgery, using the examples of both female and male breast surgery, and shows that these areas of overlap are sites of the construction of gendered bodies. The data are drawn from two pieces of research: the first based on 17 in-depth interviews with Italian cosmetic surgeons and the second based on 99 interviews with breast cancer patients and medical oncological professionals conducted in France and Italy. The primary data are supplemented by an analysis of the medical literature. ‘Too small’ female breasts (micromastia) and male gynecomastia (male fatty breast tissue) are pathologised by the surgeons and the medical literature, and a surgical intervention is presented as a way to heal this pathology. The pathologisation of healthy breasts goes along with the aestheticisation of oncological breast surgery. The interventions performed during a post-mastectomy breast reconstruction are guided by normative ideas of how a...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that much of the debate surrounding sex change has assumed a model of the self as authentic and/or atomistic, as demonstrated by both contemporary medical discourses and the recent work of Rubin (2003).
Abstract: This paper examines how specific concepts of the self shape discussions about the ethics of changing sex. Specifically, it argues that much of the debate surrounding sex change has assumed a model of the self as authentic and/or atomistic, as demonstrated by both contemporary medical discourses and the recent work of Rubin (2003). This leads to a problematic account of important ethical issues that arise from the desire and decision to change sex. It is suggested that by shifting to a properly intersubjective and performative model of the self, we can better understand (1) the diagnosis of transsexuality; and (2) issues of success, failure and regret with regard to changing sex. The paper also reveals the important implications this shift has for how the relationship between medical practitioners and transindividuals is understood. The paper concludes by showing how the model of the self as authentic can individualise identity and thus downplay or overlook the tight intertwinement between self and other. ...
TL;DR: Examination of women's body practices, including exercise, makeup, clothing and diet, and ongoing construction of gendered subjectivity suggests that the women in this study are motivated to do particular body practices because of their concern with having a healthy and youthful ‘looking’ body.
Abstract: Health norms have changed over the past three decades, imposing more responsibility for health onto the individual. There are gendered implications of these changes which, when combined with increasing anti-aging pressures, have the potential to intensify the disciplinary relationship women have with their bodies. This paper, based upon interviews with 14 women, examines the impact of dominant health and anti-aging discourses on women's body practices, including exercise, makeup, clothing and diet, and ongoing construction of gendered subjectivity. Findings suggest that the women in this study are motivated to do particular body practices because of their concern with having a healthy and youthful ‘looking’ body. The women's stories reveal that anti-aging and health discourses function to reinforce normative bodily demands of femininity and consequently to intensify disciplinary control of their bodies. While the pressure to fight the appearance of aging is not new, the increasing association of aging wit...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that women reveal more roll call votes to constituents than their male counterparts and significant differences exist between male and female incumbents in the frequency of vote revelation despite the fact that both genders use these communication techniques at the same rates and call attention to similar bills.
Abstract: Legislators approach each election as if they might lose. Electoral insecurity coupled with gender stereotypes held by voters and lawmakers alike may lead female legislators to communicate more voting decisions to voters as a signal of their policy-driven efforts. Using an original data-set of over 40,000 official e-newsletters and Real Simple Syndication feeds sent by members of Congress, I show that women reveal more roll call votes to constituents than their male counterparts. Significant differences exist between male and female incumbents in the frequency of vote revelation despite the fact that male and female legislators use these communication techniques to reach constituents at the same rates and call attention to similar bills. These differences persist after accounting for the effects of party, seniority, district fit, and other potential confounds. Women highlight their ability to fulfill the roles expected of lawmakers by explicitly signaling involvement in lawmaking activities more f...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw on qualitative data collected with five married women from the Netherlands, who spoke to us about their wedding day and their experience of being/becoming brides.
Abstract: Despite renewed media attention on the wedding, and the emphasis that this pays to bridal performance, feminist analysis of wedding culture has made few inroads. Accounts are needed that understand women's experience of the wedding day, the narrative of becoming the bride, and the way this takes place against a backdrop of postfeminist ambivalence, where traditional wedding practices are re-fashioned through discourses of (consumer) choice and empowerment. In this article, we draw on qualitative data collected with five married women from the Netherlands, who spoke to us about their wedding day and their experience of being/becoming brides. We show how retraditionalisation shapes a new romaticisation of wedding day storytelling, constructed through transformation and the experience of beauty. In analysing these narratives, we show how postfeminist bridal perfection comes to anchor the subjective and affective power of ‘the wedding’ in contemporary culture.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated whether manipulating the gender normativity of empathy and emotional intelligence would ameliorate typically observed differences in self-reported self-report measures of emotion and intelligence, with females typically scoring higher than males on these dimensions.
Abstract: Self-report measures of empathy and emotional intelligence have frequently revealed significant gender differences, with females typically scoring higher than males on these dimensions. In this study, we investigated whether, in line with a social identity approach, manipulating the gender normativity of empathy and emotional intelligence would ameliorate typically observed differences. Male and female participants (N = 330) were randomly assigned to read one of three narratives comprising fictitious neurological research evidence which claimed that males (Condition 1) or females (Condition 2) or neither males nor females (Condition 3) scored higher on measures of empathy and emotional intelligence. Results indicated that, in Conditions 2 and 3, females scored significantly higher than males on self-reported empathy. However, when information suggested that males were superior to females (Condition 1), no significant gender differences in self-reported empathy were observed. A similar pattern was found fo...
TL;DR: The authors explored how gender and sex identity is socially taught in the public and private space, and found that gender identity was socially influenced when determining our social identities based on social influence, and how powerful our social heteronromative gender guidelines are.
Abstract: Heteronormativity within our society has a significant impact on how we come to view and understand gender identity. Drag queens allow a break in the heteronormative gender guideline while also reinforcing the social image of what it means to look like a woman. Although drag queens merely reflect the preexisting image of a woman, they still present an image of both gender bending and the ways that gender is socially taught. This ethnographic research explores how gender and sex identity is socially taught in the public and private space. Ultimately, gender identity is socially influenced when determining our social identities based on social influence. My personal experience in deconstructing my own gender identity has allowed me to explore my social self-identity and how powerful our social heteronromative gender guidelines are. By dressing in male clothing for the first time in a public space, I challenged the daily heteronormative idea of gender while shattering my own self-identity. The gender...
TL;DR: The authors argue that gendered characteristics of cinematic horror are crucial to the disturbing impact of these films and point out that films such as Philippe Grandrieux's Sombre (1998), Lars von Trier's Antichrist (2009) and Claire Denis's Trouble Every Day (2001) directly reference gendered tropes and conventions of horror cinema in their explorations of desire, sexual difference and violence.
Abstract: Known for graphic gore and formal experimentation, films of European new extremism stand out for the way in which they combine sex with violence, stressing the body in extreme modes of being and rendering its materiality emphatic, uncanny and profoundly disturbing. While this emphasis on sex and violence has been widely recognized in scholarly literature on new extremism, its connections to gendered conventions of genre cinema have not. In this article, we contend that films such as Philippe Grandrieux's Sombre (1998), Lars von Trier's Antichrist (2009) and Claire Denis's Trouble Every Day (2001) directly reference gendered tropes and conventions of horror cinema in their explorations of desire, sexual difference and violence. Far from being inconsequential or secondary concerns, we argue that emphatically gendered characteristics of cinematic horror are crucial to the disturbing impact of these films. By appropriating tropes from the horror film, but refusing them the closure and recuperation customary t...
TL;DR: The OED first reference to twerking dates from 2012; the term quickly became global vernacular when Miley Cyrus transformed from innocent Disney girl to highly sexualised, on-stage wild child a...
Abstract: The OED’s first reference to ‘twerking’ dates from 2012; the term quickly became global vernacular when Miley Cyrus transformed from innocent Disney girl to highly sexualised, on-stage wild child a...
TL;DR: The authors explored how 89 eleven-and twelve-year-olds understood and explained men's violence against women, and found that young people examined the motivations of individual male perpetrators though the context of heterosexuality.
Abstract: This article is based upon research that explored how 89 eleven- and twelve-year-olds understood and explained men's violence against women. The research found that young people examined the motivations of individual male perpetrators though the context of heterosexuality. For the young people, adulthood appeared to generate a more rigid framework of heterosexuality, where the gender differences begin to exemplify inequality upon which justifications can be based. Young people's justifications can be collated into the themes of: heteronormativity, the endorsement of marriage, restrictive gender roles and blaming women for the violence. Violence is justified because inequality is not questioned – it is endorsed and taken for granted as being part of an adult heterosexual relationship. This has implications for young people's own existing and anticipated relationships.
TL;DR: In this article, the intersectional complications of gender, race, age and class, as they have come to bear on the visual arts, as well as the historical power structures that have determined the classification of crime, and of art, are offered as possible rationales for present-day handling of deviance in the form of urban art.
Abstract: Examining the urban arts in the UK, in their paint and fibre-based alternatives, this article aims to account for the differences in contemporary dealings with graffiti and yarn-bombing (kniffiti). The intersectional complications of gender, race, age and class, as they have come to bear on the visual arts, as well as the historical power structures that have determined the classification of crime, and of art, are offered as possible rationales for present-day handling of ‘deviance’ in the form of urban art. It seems that urban knitting has blind-sighted both social conventions and legal principles in a way that exposes the arbitrary nature of both.
TL;DR: The authors discuss how a selection of eighth-grade students (13-14-year-olds) responded when they were asked to publicly challenge the gender binary for a critical media literacy school assignment in the USA.
Abstract: In this paper, we discuss how a selection of eighth-grade students (13–14-year-olds) responded when they were asked to publicly challenge the gender binary for a critical media literacy school assignment in the USA. We describe the ways in which students negotiated the dual projects of complying with the assignment to create video ads that challenged gender stereotypes and maintaining their gendered sense of self. While the videos had virtually all students disrupting gender in some way, many did so even as they reinforced the notion of gender as a binary. We apply the idea of ontological bubble, as well as concepts from post-structural theories, to help us make sense of the different methods students used to maintain the gender binary.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The authors provide a contextual theoretical framework of feminist debates and movements through the lens of the Journal of Gender Studies over the course of the past quarter of a century, and review the ways in which the Journal has and continues to make critically important contributions to this ongoing project.
Abstract: In this introductory article we provide a contextual theoretical framework of feminist debates and movements through the lens of the Journal of Gender Studies over the course of the past quarter of a century. Attention to the processes by which we become gendered, and the mechanisms and meanings within society whereby it maintains structures of gender inequality, requires attention to the lives of women and men. It also requires that we pay attention to the lives of people who cross such categories or fit uneasily within them. All this can and should be done while retaining a feminist sensibility and sensitivity to the workings of power and privilege in the individual and social articulations of gendered difference, and the putting of knowledge to work to achieve positive change. Here we review the ways in which the Journal has and continues to make critically important contributions to this ongoing project.
TL;DR: This article investigated the fatherhood constructions of fathers and adolescent daughters in a South African low-income community using Charmaz' social constructionist grounded theory method and identified five conceptual categories: (i) Predominance of fathers' provider role; (ii) Fathers and daughters having an understanding in which daughters apparently complied with fathers authoritarian positions; (iii) explicit expressions of affection were mostly limited to special occasions; (iv) Fathers wished a better future for their daughters and attempted to keep them on track to such a future and (v) lastly, Fathers' expected daugh
Abstract: Knowledge about father–adolescent daughter relationships is mostly based on research in North-American and European contexts. Furthermore, it tends to rely on either fathers' or daughters' perspectives, and not on dyadic data. Informed by a social constructionist perspective, this study investigated the fatherhood constructions of fathers and adolescent daughters in a South African low-income community. We used Charmaz' social constructionist grounded theory method. Forty-two interviews were conducted separately with fourteen fathers and their adolescent daughters. Five conceptual categories were identified: (i) Predominance of fathers' provider role; (ii) Fathers and daughters having an ‘understanding’ in which daughters apparently complied with fathers authoritarian positions; (iii) explicit expressions of affection were mostly limited to special occasions; (iv) Fathers wished a better future for their daughters and attempted to keep them on track to such a future and (v) lastly, Fathers' expected daugh...