Showing papers on "Gender history published in 2007"

The Intersection of Age and Gender Reworking Gender Theory and Social Gerontology

Abstract: This article discusses the position of older women in gender theory and in social gerontology. It shows how older women are made invisible in gender theory through the selection of arenas and themes, by model monopoly and by a lack of problematization of age. In the social gerontological field, older women have frequently been objects of research. However, double jeopardy assumptions have resulted in a perspective that foregrounds misery. Results from focus group interviews with women aged 75 and over, shed light on ageing as a process of development and on twofold bodily meanings, such as on-stage-body and off-stage-body. Thus, based on an approach of age and gender as intertwining systems, the article argues for a more complex understanding of the intersection of age and gender.

Multiple Meanings of Gender Equality: A critical frame analysis of gender policies in Europe

Abstract: This book aims to map the diversity of meanings of gender equality across Europe and reflects on the contested concept of gender equality. In its exploration of the diverse meanings of gender equality it not only takes into account the existence of different visions of gender equality, and the way in which different political and theoretical debates crosscut these visions, but also reflects upon the geographical contexts in which visions and debates over gender equality are located. The contextual locations where these visions and debates take place include the European Union and member states such as Austria, the Netherlands, Hungary, Slovenia, Greece, and Spain. In all of these settings, the different meanings of gender equality are explored comparatively in relation to the issues of family policies, domestic violence, and gender inequality in politics, while specific national contexts discuss the issues of prostitution (Austria, Slovenia), migration (the Netherlands), homosexual rights (Spain), and antidiscrimination (Hungary). The multiple meanings of gender equality are studied through Critical Frame Analysis, a methodology that builds on social movement theory and that was refined further with elements of gender and political theory within the context of the MAGEEQ research project (http://www.mageeq.net). The policy frames analyzed express particular representations of what the problem of gender inequality is and what the solution could be. They also include traces about how gender and other inequalities are conceptualized; who has/should have a voice in the framing of gender equality problems and solutions; for whom is gender inequality seen to be a problem; who is represented as the normative group; and who are the target groups of the policy measures proposed. In the discussion of the different ways of framing gender equality in Europe, each chapter will provide insights on the ongoing theoretical and political debate about "what is gender equality?", disclosing the visions, debates, and contexts that move around and contribute to shape such a complex and contested concept.

Do workplace gender transitions make gender trouble

Abstract: This article examines what happens when an employee makes the transition from one recognized gender category to another and remains in the same job. Drawing on in-depth interviews with transmen and transwomen in Texas and California, we illustrate how a new social gender identity is interactionally achieved in these open workplace transitions. While transgender people often are represented as purposefully adopting hyper-feminine or masculine gender identities post-transition, we find that our respondents strive to craft alternative femininities and masculinities. However, regardless of their personal gender ideologies, their men and women co-workers often enlist their transitioning colleague into gender rituals designed to repatriate them into a rigid gender binary. This enlistment limits the political possibilities of making gender trouble in the workplace, as transgender people have little leeway for resistance if they wish to maintain job security and friendly workplace relationships.

Gender and empire

Abstract: 1. Why Gender and Empire? 2. Empire, Gender, and Modernity in the Eighteenth Century 3. Of Gender and Empire: Reflections on the Nineteenth Century 4. Gender and Empire: The Twentieth Century 5. Medicine, Gender, and Empire 6. Sexuality, Gender, and Empire 7. Gender and Migration 8. Nations in an Imperial Crucible 9. Legacies of Departure: Decolonization, Nation-making, and Gender 10. Empire and Violence 1900-1939 11. Childhood and Race: Growing up in the Empire 12. Faith, Missionary Life, and the Family 13. Archive Stories: Gender in the Making of Imperial and Colonial Histories

What is Gender?: Sociological Approaches

Abstract: Introduction to the sociology of gender How different are women and men? Is gender something that we do? How can gender best be explained? Is gender about bodies? What are the politics of gender? How is gender intertwined with class? How is gender intertwined with 'race'? Conclusion: So what is gender?

Gender In Transition: Common Sense, Women And War

Abstract: On August 28, 2003, the Commissioners of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (PTRC) submitted their Final Report to President Alejandro Toledo and the nation, thus joining the growing list of countries that have implemented truth commissions as a means of transitioning from a period of armed conflict and authoritarian rule towards the founding of a procedural democracy. The PTRC shared several features with the Guatemalan and South African commissions that preceded it. All three commissions were considered “gender sensitive” because they actively sought out women's experiences of violence. This focus reflected the desire to write more “inclusive truths,” as well as changes in international jurisprudence. In this paper, the author draws upon research she has conducted since 1995 in Peru to explore the commissioning of truth and some implications in terms of women and war. She examines what constitutes “gender sensitive” research strategies, as well as the ways in which truth commissions have i...

Being female doing gender: narratives of women in education management

Abstract: The paper explores gender relations in academia and discusses how gender is constructed within academic institutions. It is based upon the study of a business school, part of a British university. The construction of gender relations within this institution was of special interest because the majority of managerial roles were occupied by women. All female academic managers (dean, associate deans and heads of department) and a random selection of female and male academics were interviewed. The process of construction of gender relations is investigated through the analysis of the discrepancy between the ‘masculine culture’ of high education institutions and the dominance of women managers within this organization. It is suggested that the numerical dominance of women managers may create tensions between their individual identities as women and their managerial identities, due to the predominance of masculine practices and values within the organization. Additionally, it emerged that the maintenance of masculine ideals and practices is also associated with downplaying women’s achievements.

Revisiting Family Fortunes: reflections on the twentieth anniversary of the publication of L. Davidoff & C. Hall (1987) Family Fortunes: men and women of the English middle class, 1780–1850 (London: Hutchinson)

Abstract: This article seeks to mark the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Leonore Davidoff & Catherine Hall’s Family Fortunes: men and women of the English middle class, 1780–1850. Given the enormous shifts in the historical discipline since its publication, it seeks to assess the work’s relevance for today’s audience. A consideration of the book’s initial reception provides a reminder of the intellectual climate in which it was published. Whilst this reinforces a sense of the distance the discipline has since travelled, the discussion also points to the richness and perceptiveness of many of those early reviews. The ‘viewpoint’ speculates upon the likely impact of recent developments within both gender history and the social sciences for future treatments of the book’s central themes.

Talking of gender: words and meanings in development organisations

Abstract: This article reflects on the vocabulary commonly used within development organisations to communicate about ‘gender and development’. It argues that the relevant terminology, though frequently used, remains problematic. Some terms are almost entirely absent, while others are used loosely and inappropriately – with the subtleties of carefully developed and much-debated concepts often lost. Terms such as ‘empowerment’, ‘gender’, and ‘gender mainstreaming’ which originated in feminist thinking and activism have lost their moorings and become depoliticised. Despite these problems, there are indications that debates and language may be taking a more radical turn with the acknowledgement of the shortcomings of the practices of gender mainstreaming, the deepening of interest in the notion of empowerment, and the explicit adoption of a human-rights language.

Swept Under the Rug? A Historiography of Gender and Black Colleges

Abstract: This historiography of gender and black colleges uncovers the omission of women and gender relations. It uses an integrative framework, conceptualized by Evelyn Nakano Glenn, that considers race and gender as mutually interconnected, revealing different results than might be seen by considering these issues independently. The article is significant for historians and non-historians alike and has implications for educational policy and practice in the current day.

DECOLONIZATION AND THE QUESTION OF SUBJECTIVITY: Gender, race, and binary thinking

Abstract: The construction and performance of gender and gender relations has been paramount to the process of Decolonization. Gender has permeated the discourses and enactments of colonization and is an inseparable part of the casting of subjectivity through the coloniality of power. The notions of femininity and masculinity are themselves colonial constructs that have pressed more complex notions of gender, sexuality, and desire into a binary. The treatment of gender in three approaches to decolonization (Nelly Richard's cultural theory, Mujeres Creando's lesbian street performance, indigenous movement's written and audiovisual discourse) help to discern how gender and the coloniality of power are articulated and in how far these efforts at decolonization unwork colonial legacies. Richard challenges the geopolitics of knowledge. As she claims the specificity of Latin American heterogeneity as a place from which to theorize she also guards against essentialist notions of gender. The conflicts underlying gender het...

Africa After Gender

Abstract: Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: When Was Gender? Stephan F. Miescher, Takyiwaa Manuh, and Catherine M. Cole Part 1. Volatile Genders and New African Women 1. Out of the Closet: Unveiling Sexuality Discourses in Uganda Sylvia Tamale Postscript compiled by Bianca A. Murillo 2. Institutional Dilemmas: Representation versus Mobilization in the South African Gender Commission Gay W. Seidman 3. Gendered Reproduction: Placing Schoolgirl Pregnancies in African History Lynn M. Thomas 4. Dialoging Women Nwando Achebe and Bridget Teboh Part 2. Activism and Public Space 5. Rioting Women and Writing Women: Gender, Class, and the Public Sphere in Africa Susan Z. Andrade 6. Let Us Be United in Purpose: Variations on Gender Relations in the Yoruba Popular Theatre Adrienne MacIain 7. Doing Gender Work in Ghana Takyiwaa Manuh 8. Women as Emergent Actors: A Survey of New Women's Organizations in Nigeria since the 1990s Hussaina J. Abdullah Part 3. Gender Enactments, Gendered Perceptions 9. Constituting Subjects through Performative Acts Paulla A. Ebron 10. Gender After Africa! Eileen Boris 11. When a Man Loves a Woman: Gender and National Identity in Wole Soyinkas's Death and the King's Horseman and Mariama Ba's Scarlet Song Eileen Julien 12. Representing Culture and Identity: African Women Writers and National Cultures Nana Wilson-Tagoe Part 4. Masculinity, Misogyny, and Seniority 13. Working with Gender: The Emergence of the "Male Breadwinner" in Colonial Southwestern Nigeria Lisa A. Lindsay 14. Becoming an Opanyin: Elders, Gender, and Masculinities in Ghana since the Nineteenth Century Stephan F. Miescher 15. "Give Her a Slap to Warm Her Up": Post-Gender Theory and Ghana's Popular Culture Catherine M. Cole 16. The "Post-Gender" Question in African Studies Helen Nabasuta Mugambi The Production of Gendered Knowledge in the Digital Age Resources for Further Reading List of Contributors Index

Socialist modern : East German everyday culture and politics

Abstract: This book explores the ways in which modernity shaped the relationship between socialist state and society in East Germany The reunification of Germany in 1989 may have put an end to the experiment in East German communism, but its historical assessment is far from over Where most of the literature over the past two decades has been driven by the desire to uncover the relationship between power and resistance, complicity and consent, more recent scholarship has tended to concentrate on the everyday history of East German citizens This volume builds on the latest literature by exploring the development and experience of life in East Germany, with a particular view toward addressing the question: what did modernity mean for East German state and society? As such, the collection moves beyond the conceptual divide between state-level politics and everyday life so as to bring into sharper focus the specific contours of the GDR's unique experiment in Cold War socialism What unites all the essays is the question of how the very tensions around "socialist modernity" shaped the views, memories and actions of East Germans over four decades This book will appeal to those interested in German history and anthropology, the Cold War, Eastern Europe, the history of communism, European social history and the history of everyday life, gender history, as well as modernity and socialist popular culture

Transmuting Gender Binaries: the Theoretical Challenge

Abstract: This paper provides a cross-cultural account of gender diversity which explores the territory that is opened up when sex, gender, and sexual orientation, binaries are disrupted or displaced. Whilst...

Gender and space in early modern England

Abstract: Space was not simply a passive backdrop to a social system that had structural origins elsewhere; it was vitally important for marking out and maintaining the hierarchy that sustained social and gender order in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Gender had a considerable influence on its use and organization; status and gender were displayed physically and spatially every moment of the day, from a person's place at table to the bed on which he or she slept, in places of work and recreation, in dress, gesture and modes of address. Space was also the basis for the formation of gender identities which were constantly contested and restructured, as this book shows. Examining in turn domestic, social and sacred spaces and the spatial division of labour in gender construction, the author demonstrates how these could shift, and with them the position and power of women. She shows that the ideological assumption that all women are subject to all men is flawed, and exposes the limitations of interpretations which rely on the model and binary opposition of public/private, male/female, to describe gender relations and their changes across the period, thus offering a much more complex and picture than has hitherto been perceived. The book will be essential reading not just for historians of the family and of women, but for all those studying early modern social history. AMANDA FLATHER is a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Essex.

‘Ass‐kicking’ Women: Doing and Undoing Gender in a US Livestock Auction

Abstract: Using in-depth interviews with farm operators and participant observation at a livestock auction, this article explores how women in conventional agriculture in the USA ‘do gender’ in a male-dominated world. In particular the ways that space, both public and private, alters the performance of gender are analysed. Given that agriculture in the USA has traditionally been tied to masculinity and that more and more women are entering the field, the article examines the strategies women employ to negotiate the tension between being women and being farmers. The findings suggest that in general women's success is intricately tied to their ability to reproduce the masculinity that spells success for their male counterparts. These women dress in masculine clothing, swear and are ‘tough as nails’. Furthermore, women's mere presence as farm operators does not necessarily subvert the relationship between masculinity and agriculture. In many ways this notion is reinforced by the presence of these women and so the performance of gender ultimately reinforces rather than subverts the ties between hegemonic masculinity and agriculture.

Examining the Gender Gap in Children’s Attitudes Toward Politics

Abstract: In the 2004 presidential election, a majority of men (54%) voted to reelect George W. Bush, but a minority of women (48%) supported Bush at the polls. The gender gap was also evident in races for the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate in 2004. In addition, there is a persistent and significant difference in policy preferences and political priorities among men and women. Taken together, the evidence clearly indicates that men and women currently view politics in the United States differently. What factors help explain these differences? In the present study, we examined whether boys and girls view politics differently. We interviewed eighth-grade students from six middle schools in Maricopa County, AZ in the spring of 2003 and 2004. Our results indicate that the gender gap in policy and partisanship is established early, before children reach adulthood. This suggests that the persistent gender gap in adult views about politics is rooted, at least partially, in gender differences during childhood socialization.

(Trans)Forming Gender: Social Change and Transgender Citizenship

Abstract: This paper aims to contribute to recent sociological debates about gendered identity constructions and formations, and gendered citizenship, by exploring gender transformation through an analysis o...

Gender and Education in Pakistan

Abstract: This book explores gender and education in Pakistan by looking at the underlying processes that result in different patterns of educational experiences of and outcomes for females and males.

Living Gender after Communism

Abstract: Contents Foreword by Karen Dawisha Acknowledgments Living Gender Janet Elise Johnson and Jean C. Robinson I. Negotiating Gender 1. Housewife Fantasies, Family Realities in the New Russia Tania Rands Lyon 2. Contesting Violence, Contesting Gender: Crisis Centers Encountering Local Governments in Barnaul, Russia Janet Elise Johnson II. Denying Gender 3. The Abortion Debate in Poland: Opinion Polls, Ideological Politics, Citizenship, and the Erasure of Gender as a Category of Analysis Anne-Marie Kramer 4. The Gendered Body as Raw Material for Women Artists of Central Eastern Europe after Communism Ewa Grigar III. Traditionalizing Gender 5. Birthday Girls, Russian Dolls, and Others: Internet Bride as the Emerging Global Identity of Post-Soviet Women Svitlana Taraban 6. Does the Gender of MPs Matter in Postcommunist Politics? The Case of the Russian Duma, 19952001 Iulia Shevchenko IV. Negotiating Gender within Nationalisms 7. Romanian Women's Discourses of Sexual Violence: Othered Ethnicities, Gendering Spaces Shannon Woodcock 8. Challenging the Discourse of Bosnian War Rapes Azra Hromadzic 9. Deficient Belarus? Insidious Gender Binaries and Hyper-feminized Nationality Anna Brzozowska Fifteen Years of the East-West Women's Dialogue Nanette Funk Works Cited List of Contributors Index

The future of gender

Abstract: Part I. Reorienting the Feminist Imagination: 1. Mapping the feminist imagination: from redistribution to recognition to representation Nancy Fraser 2. Perspectives on gender equality: challenging the terms of debate Valerie Bryson 3. When will society be gender just? Ingrid Robeyns Part II. Variations on the Theme of 'Gender': 4. Does biology play any role in sex differences in the mind? Simon Baron-Cohen 5. Sex and the social construction of gender: can feminism and evolutionary psychology be reconciled? Susan Hurley 6. 'Trans' trouble: trans-sexuality and the end of gender Terrell Carver 7. Gender and social change Tony Lawson 8. Procreative mothers (sexual difference) and child-free sisters (gender) Juliet Mitchell Part III. Gender and Political Practice: 9. The politics of female diversity in the 21st century Catherine Hakim 10. Gender inequality and the gendered division of labour Rosemary Crompton 11. The equal treatment principle and 'gender': theory and practice Jude Browne.

Beyond home-host dichotomies: a comparative examination of gender relations in a transnational mexican community

Abstract: Based on a qualitative study with women from a transnational Mexican community, the authors examine how women's perceptions of gender empowerment, adherence and practice of gender ideals, and the h...

World History and the History of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Abstract: Women's history had its origins in the women's movement and in the new social history, and like other areas of social history, it has seen relatively few interchanges with world history as both have developed over the past twenty years. This article suggests some of the reasons for this lack of intersection; assesses recent scholarship that brings world history and the history of women, gender, and sexuality together; and suggests future directions.

Gender and East Asian Welfare States: from Confucianism to Gender Equality

Abstract: How can we understand the gender logic underpinning the welfare states/systems of East Asia? Does the comparative literature, which has largely been concerned with western Welfare states, whether in The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (Esping-Andersen 1990), or in gender-based analysis of the male breadwinner model (Lewis 1992, 2001, 2006), have anything to offer in understanding the gender assumptions underpinning East Asian welfare states? Are the welfare systems of East Asian countries distinctive, with Confucian assumptions hidden beneath the surface commitment to gender equality? We will use the (mainly western) comparative literature, but argue that Confucian influences remain important, with strong assumptions of family, market and voluntary sector responsibility rather than state responsibility, strong expectations of women’s obligations, without compensating rights, a hierarchy of gender and age, and a highly distinctive, vertical family structure, in which women are subject to parents-in-law. In rapidly changing economies, these social characteristics are changing too. But they still put powerful pressures on women to conform to expectations about care, while weakening their rights to security and support. Nowhere do welfare states’ promises bring gender equality in practice. Even in Scandinavian countries women earn less, care more, and have less power than men. We shall compare East Asian countries (Japan, Korea, Taiwan where possible) with some Western ones, to argue that some major comparative data (e.g. OECD) show the extreme situation of women in these countries. Some fine new qualitative studies give us a close insight into the experience of mothers, including lone and married mothers, which help us to understand how far the gender assumptions of welfare states are from Scandinavia’s dual earner model. There are signs of change in society as well as in economy, and room for optimism that women’s involvement in social movements and academic enquiry may be challenging Confucian gender hierarchies.

Involving men in gender policy and practice.

Abstract: The rationale for engaging men to positively transform gender relations is compelling. This paper outlines the arguments for male inclusion, both for gender equality and for men themselves, the principles that should underpin their involvement, and some notes of caution about the process. Men have traditionally been treated as generic and ungendered representatives of humanity. Engaging them is therefore about addressing men as gendered beings who participate in gender relations. Patterns of gender injustice are tied to social constructions of masculinity and male identity. It is therefore crucial to work with men to build new definitions and identities to which they can aspire. Men, as well as women, have a stake in fostering gender equity. They pay significant emotional, physical and social prices for adhering to traditional masculine norms, particularly in conflict situations. However, engaging men does involve (perceived) risks, particularly that it will distract attention and resources away from core feminist goals of justice for women. Positive male involvement should be guided by a pro-feminist approach, sensitive to diversity amongst men, and acknowledging of male contributions. If gender mainstreaming is to achieve any radical transformation of the patriarchal gender order this kind of work needs to be widely adopted, funded, institutionalised and integrated into policy and professional development.

Family Bonds: Genealogies of Race and Gender

Abstract: Feminist and critical race theorists alike have long acknowledged the "intersection" of gender and race difference; it is by now a truism that the ways we become boys and girls, men and women, cannot be disentangled from the ways we become white or Black men and women, Asian or Latino boys and girls. And yet, even as many have sought to attend to this intersection of difference, most critical treatments focus finally either on the production of gender or the production of race. Family Bonds proposes a new way to think about the categories of gender and race together. It first explicates and then puts to work Foucault's archaeological and genealogical methods to advance the main argument of the book: Gender is best understood primarily as a function of "disciplinary" power operating within the family, while race is primarily a function of a "regulatory" power acting upon the family. Each of the book's central chapters is an individual story, or history - the founding of Levittown, the definitive suburb after the Second World War (1950s and 60s); the development of the diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder (1970s and 1980s); and the federal coordination of scientific research on violence (1980s and 1990s). Together they make up a larger story about the construction of race and gender in the U.S. in the second half of the twentieth century and demonstrate the centrality of the family in these constructions. Rather than a formal study of Foucault's own work, Family Bonds is an effort to produce genealogies of the sort that Foucault himself hoped his work would prompt.

Changes and continuities: Implementation of gender equality in a South African high school.

Abstract: The 1996 constitution of the Republic of South Africa establishes a range of rights including the right to gender equity. Careful observation shows that gender equity in South African education is far from being achieved. There is no education policy directed at ending gender inequity and there seems to be little focus on implementing the recommendations of the countrys Gender Equity Task Team Report for eliminating sexism and the sexual harassment of female students and teachers. This research note contends that gender equity in South African education remains elusive. Fewer women than men hold top administrative positions in education many female administrators fill positions still considered feminine and women in positions still considered masculine are being pushed out. Patriarchal attitudes in education thrive. Therefore this paper records and analyzes the experiences of women in educational leadership and the messages sent to students. To expose the conflict between the policy intent and reality it reanalyzes data collected on school-governing bodies to determine whether education offers women an opportunity to experience lives unrestricted by gender oppression. (authors)

What is this gender talk all about after all? gender, power and politics in contemporary nigeria

Abstract: Gender discourse is very influential everywhere, calling to attention the unwarranted discrepancy between the locations of men and women in the state and society in almost every facet of life. It places particular emphasis on the oppression and marginalisa- tion of women at all levels. The feminist movements have for years continued to advocate for gender balance especially through affirmative action. Yet, only marginal progress has been made. Drawing insights from contemporary Nigeria, this paper argues that if the gender discourse will ever be productive, it would have to be reoriented and situated within the framework of power politics.

A Critique of the Gender Recognition Act 2004

Abstract: This article critiques recent UK transgender law reform. The Gender Recognition Act 2004 is to be welcomed in many respects. Formerly one of the European states most resistant to social change in this area, the UK now occupies pole position among progressive states willing to legally recognise the sex claims of transgender people. This is because the UK is, at least ostensibly, the first state to recognise sex claims irrespective of whether applicants have undertaken any surgical procedures or had hormonal treatments. The article highlights the significance of this development through providing an overview of the trajectory of common law reform around the world. The legislation clearly benefits transgender people unable to undertake surgery due to financial reasons and/or medical contra-indications. It also benefits transgender people whose search for harmony does not require surgical intervention. However, the Act also perpetuates a mental illness model for understanding transgender desires; contributes to the break-up of legally recognised marriages; insists on the permanence of gender crossings and assumes that surgery will occur. The Act also contains exceptions to the generality of legal recognition provided by the state. In this respect the article considers concessions to religious and sporting lobbies. Finally, the article highlights how non-disclosure of gender history prior to a marriage assumes a kind of legal significance under the Act which non-disclosure of other facts generally lacks in relation to marriage. In this regard, the article will contend that a biological understanding of sex operates as a subtext within the Act.