A Feminist Reflection on Gender Relations Beyond Complementarity

This paper explores gender relations in access to and control over resources in Awra Amba Community of Amhara Region, Ethiopia. The study employed primary and secondary data sources. The primary data were gathered through semistructured interviews with selected community members and key informants, focus group discussions with selected community and committee members and nonparticipant observation of gender roles and relations in the study community. Secondary data were obtained through a critical review of related literature and documents. Both primary and secondary data were organized thematically and analyzed through systematic interpretation and triangulation of various sources. The study found that locally available resources are collectively owned and administered by the ‘Development Committee’ and income is equally distributed to all household heads at the end of each fiscal year. Gender relations in the study community are guided by the principle of mutual understanding among all the members of the community. Women, like their men counterparts, make important decisions through their membership and leadership in different administrative committees. Women members of the community fulfill their basic needs as selfreliant workers, but not as being dependent upon their husbands. In general, the local economic and administrative structures, cultural values and principles promote equitable gender relations in division of labor and in access to educational opportunities, economic resources, leadership and decision-making at the household and community levels. This finding reveals that the existing gender relations in Awra Amba community are contrary to gender relations in other communities of Amhara Region, where the patriarchal gender ideology is most prevalent. Key Words : Gender, gender relations, access to and control over resource, Awra Amba Community

This study investigates the effects of gender and power relations on decision-making regarding induced abortion among undergraduate students in Nigeria. The qualitative in-depth interview method of data collection was utilised to elicit data on the objectives of the study. Findings of the study reveal four dimensions of gender and power relations that have significant impact on decision-making regarding induced abortion in the study location. The four essential forms of gender and power relations identified are: i.) Male-female power relations, ii.) Parent-child power relations, iii.) Significant order and power relations among peers, and iv.) Lecturer-student power relations. These four typologies of gender and power relations among other things promote a detrimental culture of clandestine and unsafe induced abortion among single young undergraduate students in Nigeria. Based on the findings of the study, there is a need to strengthen the existing structure that promotes gender equality in the country. In addition, young female students that are sexually active should be empowered to adopt efficient and effective contraception. Furthermore, there is a need to build the capacity of Nigerian female undergraduate students especially in the areas of self-dignity and self-esteem in order for them to take right decisions whenever an unwanted pregnancy occurs.

Women's position in society, gender roles, and gender division of labour affect household food security, dietary diversity, nutritional status, and well-being of all household members, especially children. Building on both primary and secondary data, this study explores gender roles and relations in food provisioning among the North-East India Indigenous matrilineal Khasi and patrilineal Chakhesang Peoples, amid societal transition. With the use of a combination of ethnographic and ethnobotanical research tools, a total number of 200 informants participated in 20 focus group discussions and 28 key informant interviews. The feminist political ecology framework was used to analyse the structural power relations influencing gender food-provisioning labour. Results show that both matrilineal and patrilineal women play equally crucial roles in agrobiodiversity management, subsistence agricultural production, and household food provisioning. However, customary laws shape different gender relations, women's status, and appreciation of women's work in the two societies. Gender roles appeared more flexible in the matrilineal society and more clearly defined in the patrilineal society, and gender relations more egalitarian among the Khasis while more hierarchical among the Chakhesangs. Household food-provisioning work and engagement in agricultural production did not seem to positively contribute to the social status of Chakhesang women, because these were expected as structural elements of the patriarchy. Current socio-cultural and economic changes in both Indigenous societies have altered the traditional food system, traditional livelihoods, and resource management practices, affecting women's role in household food provisioning and leading to the deterioration of women's status, influencing household dietary diversity, food, and nutritional security.

This article explores the role of Iraqi women in reconstruction processes by contextualising the current situation with respect to changing gender ideologies and relations over the past three decades. Before discussing the Iraqi case specifically, I provide a brief theoretical background about the significance of gender in reconstruction as well as nation-building processes. A historical background aims to shed light on the changing gender ideologies and relations during the regime of Saddam Hussein. The article focuses particularly on the impacts of the early developmental – modernist discourses of the state and the impacts of war (Iran – Iraq war 1980 – 88, Gulf wars 1991, 2003) as well as on the comprehensive economic sanctions regime (1990 – 2003). The latter involved wider social changes affecting women and gender relations but also society at large because of the impoverishment of the well educated middle-class, wide-scale unemployment, an economic crisis and a shift towards more conservative values and morals. It is against this historical background that contemporary developments related to ongoing conflict, occupation and political transition affect women and gender relations.

Conceptual Overview (Portrayals of Sexuality in Pornography)

Recent industrial location theory argues non-labour factors affecting changes in the spatial division of labour are of diminishing importance since their spatial components are becoming relatively homogeneous. Emphasis upon labour, however, equally tends to view it as fairly homogeneous - spatially differentiated only in terms of skills (taken as given), cost, militancy etc derived from local variation in workforce reproduction; itself influenced by local industrial history. Interest in unique local forms of labour often ignores a major division within labour - gender. It is argued that the social construction of gender and gender relations, like labour, are reproduced in place and thus spatially and temporally differentiated. A comparison of women's current and historical structural position in the labour force reveals very little structural change over time, despite economic restructuring and the less spatially uneven pattern of women's paid work. Against this scenario, mainstream economic and sociological explanations for sex segregation are subjected to critiques that expose the way labour market theories take sex discrimination in paid work and gender for granted. Whilst feminists have shifted the problematic to the causes rather than effects of sex discrimination and segregation, those accounts rarely incorporate historical and/or spatial dimensions. Equally, geographers rarely encompass feminist perspectives in the analysis of socio-spatial processes. A framework is developed to synthesize these spatial and feminist perspectives so that spatial and temporal dimensions of the social construction of gender and gender relations within production relations can be embraced. Storper & Walker's notion of labour, created and reproduced in place, is placed within Young's conception of a 'gender division of labour' which, under capitalism, is the division of work and home, production and reproduction. To illustrate variations over time and space, snapshots of two regions, the Cotton region of Lancashire and the Potteries of N. Staffordshire are analysed at two distant points in time: during industrialisation and, through case studies of industries, for the contemporary period of economic restructuring. Whilst the domestic side of the division between home and work is integral to the notion of a 'gender division of labour', the focus here is upon the spatial division of paid labour and the intra-workforce side of that equation. Further, within production, the case studies are drawn from manufacturing activities because it is these, rather than more spatially homogeneous service employment, which still differentiate between places. A four-way comparison along the axes of space and time demonstrates that gender construction and relations do vary within and across regions. The two study regions throw up a bewildering amalgam of attributes, whose content and gender ascription varies over time and space. These observed dynamic features is, however, the surface phenomena - the effects rather than causes. More important is the way these variations arise out of spatial variations in the pattern and mix of industries within regions and the corresponding sexual composition of the workforces that comprise these industries.

Climate change causing heavy rainfall and floods is one of the major constraints to agricultural productivity particularly in rice farming in the Philippines. Despite many studies on the adverse impacts of unpredictable extreme weather events on agriculture, very few studies have examined the differential vulnerabilities and adaptation strategies of male and female farmers in rice farming communities. This study examines gendered vulnerabilities and impacts as well as variable adaptation strategies taken by men and women in response to extreme flooding events in Nueva Ecija, Philippines. To assess how gendered adaptation strategies are produced and reinforced in two selected farming communities in the Philippines, I draw on practice theory and adopt a feminist perspective to examine how structure and agency influence practices and how practices can be changed in order to adapt to climate change. Moreover, since this study has a feminist agenda - gender is central to the analysis in order to expose gender differences and inequalities in areas experiencing climate change and to show how social change can empower and improve women’s position as they adapt to climate change. Adopting a feminist methodology was facilitated by a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Results of this study reveal that gendered vulnerabilities to extreme flooding are due to traditional gender roles in household and farming activities and women’s lack of access to assets and resources. Also, men and women adapt to flooding according to traditional roles and gender relations. The differential vulnerabilities and responses to the negative effects of flooding events of women and men are further aggravated by women’s lack of access of assets and resources and lesser participation in making decisions related to farming. However, prolonged exposure to flooding and continuous loss of livelihood motivated some men and women to realize the need to alter their existing gender roles and relations. Women are compelled to spend more time outside their homes to seek income from non-farm work. In this situation, men assume household and child care responsibilities. This alteration of gender roles and relations has significant impacts particularly for women who have challenged the underlying assumptions and taken action to change their situation and lessen the impacts of climate change on themselves and their households. However, their desired changes are dependent on other institutions, such as non-government organizations (NGOs) and government that must facilitate much needed social change. This implies that changes in gender practices not only require women to think and act differently but require changes at the state and institutional level. Thus, this study concludes that climate change is a necessary but not sufficient condition for women to achieve social change. Furthermore, in order to sustain new practices in gender roles and relations, a women’s global movement is needed to assist local women to assert their rights to greater access to and control of resources and to influence policies which are necessary in building women’s resilience to climate change.

In this chapter, I explore the impact of the post-Soviet political and socioeconomic transitions on women in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. I review the impact of Soviet policies on gender roles and relations in order to contextualize post-Soviet developments. The central segment, which examines gender roles and relations after socialism, is divided into two sections. In the first section, I examine the impact of local political and socioeconomic transitions on gender relations and local responses to those transitions. In the second section, I discuss the impact of regional/global events and interactions on gender roles and relations. Throughout the chapter, I consider the similarities and differences of the transitions and the responses to those transitions in the post-Soviet republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus.

hi general discourse, it is nut possible to discuss without bringing out the man-woman relation features. The enthusiasm on the discussion increases, following the people awareness concerning to gender relation and position. Javanese culture maintains a unique family interrelation system. Inside this arrangement, we can explore the position and role o f a person inside the community as well as the man and woman interrelation. This research describes the system as the gender relation. The Javanese is a patriarchy community, xoho sets certain gender-related boundaries to show man domination over woman within the society. From the historical background, the gender relation inside Javanese community roas represented on the architectural spacc. The rcscarch reveals the layout concept o f traditional Javanese house from previous era, whereas the space concept is still initiated by the gender boundary. Architecture as the product of human culture implements the community socio-cultural condition and psychology. The same situation also occurred on the gender separation from the social environment and community psychology. In present time, the modernization, woman emancipation and the penetration o f western culture are the basis for the transformation o f gender position and relation to be occurred inside the Javanese community. The transformation itself is pointed out to equal man and woman status and position more. The transformation pattern o f gender relation, especially occurred within the Javanese family, slowly shifted the gender concept inside the house. The transformation o f the gender concept could be generalized and derived into significant patterns o f room function and organization transformation, the intention o f space and also the orientation. Jit this era, the transformation also alters the pattern o f room layout to a more neutral space. Keywords: gender, interior, transformation, Javanese culture

Gender and HIV/AIDS in Africa south of the Sahara:interventions, activism, identities Debbie Epstein (bio), Robert Morrell (bio), Relebohile Moletsane (bio), and Elaine Unterhalter (bio) Introduction The incidence of HIV/AIDS cannot be separated from social relationships and therefore the different forms of manifestations of social relationships are bound to have different impacts. From this assumption, one can say that different identities potentially result in varied degrees of the spread of HIV. However … identities in themselves do not explain sufficiently the spread of HIV. … It is more the context within which these identities are lived that has a significant impact on the prevalence of HIV. (Kirumira, this volume, page 154-9) As Edward Kirumira points out in the interview he gave for this special issue, social relationships cannot be separated from the incidence and prevalence of HIV/AIDS. It is now widely acknowledged that the gender dimension of the AIDS pandemic is critical both for the understanding of its impact and to the successful implementation of prevention and amelioration campaigns. Gender inequalities clearly fuel the pandemic - leaving young women particularly vulnerable to infection. In this special issue, we examine the ways in which AIDS has impacted on gender relations in Sub-Saharan Africa and the way in which gender relations themselves have shaped and continue to shape the path of infection. By examining three discrete areas - interventions, activism, and identities - from a gender perspective, this issue weaves together threads of gendered analysis which are often separated in the popular media and in policy. The ways in which men and women, boys and girls, are affected by the pandemic must proceed, we argue, from an understanding that gendered identities are socially constructed and that these constructions are embedded in, and [End Page 1] formative of, power relations. We contend that, up to now, many of the interventions that seek to address 'gender' still work with essentialist and static understanding of men and women and of masculine and feminine identities. Such interventions can appear either to avoid the issue of power completely or to treat gendered identities as if they were discrete phenomena unrelated to power. However, gendered social identities cannot be separated from power relations. Furthermore, the pandemic has generated an environment in which gender identities and relations are changing very rapidly. People throughout the continent are facing situations which two decades ago were unthinkable. Family forms have been revolutionised - the deaths of parents and extended family members have created households with very young heads. Old women have been propelled into parenting third generation children (as their own children have died). Marriage as a family form is changing. In some cases, men have less power in the workplace and the family than women do. On a wide number of fronts, issues that were hitherto taboo have come to the fore. Sexual orientation and traditional sexual practices (circumcision and virginity testing, for example) have pushed their way on to AIDS agendas worldwide. In turn, these have found their way into interventions of one sort or another and are currently expressed by activists. As we show, there is great diversity in these responses to AIDS and this diversity reflects and impacts upon gender relations. Another important aspect of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa is that it is taking place within a global context in which socio-economic relations, famine, indebtedness and the role of international corporations, particularly the pharmaceuticals, have a major impact. This is manifested in levels of poverty and consequently compromised immunities even before HIV infection, in the macro-economic possibilities for Sub-Saharan African countries and in the interventions offered by aid organisations and activism within affected countries. UNAIDS offers a glimpse of the scale of the problem: AIDS in Africa By far the worst-affected region, sub-Saharan Africa is now home to 29.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS. Approximately 3.5 million new infections occurred there in 2002, while the epidemic claimed the lives of an estimated 2.4 million Africans in the past year. Ten million young people (aged 15-24) and almost 3 million children under 15 are living with HIV. A tiny fraction of the millions of Africans in need of...

Neither the impacts of climate change on people nor the ways in which people respond to climate change are gender neutral. Important gender differences exist regarding the implications of climate change for the lives of females and males of all ages. Gender inequalities and gender roles play a key role in determining the choice of adaptation strategies of both men and women. They may ultimately lead to changing gender relations. The amount of research and documentation on existing coping and adaptation strategies has increased, but rarely are these findings differentiated along gender lines, and they frequently fail to describe how adaptive strategies cause changes in gender relations. Using qualitative data from the Meatu and Iramba Districts in Tanzania, this study examined changes in gender relations in response to climate change. Findings show that men and women react differently to climate change, leading to changes in gender roles and relations to accommodate the impact of the phenomenon. The impacts of climate change are changing gender relations, which can be to the advantage or disadvantage of either gender category. However, it was found that changes in gender relations had more disadvantages for women than for men. Adaptation strategies utilized by both men and women have positive and negative outcomes, which either challenge or reinforce existing gender inequality.

Culture, Gender, Language and Literature Relationship: 4th Year Elt Students’ Perceptions of Female Issues in American and British Literature Associate Professor Aysun Yavuz Abstract In this paper; culture, gender, language and literature relationship is discussed from the sociolinguistics perspective. This complex relationship is analysed in relation with cognitive categories, Whorfian Hypothesis, grammatical markers, natural, grammatical and social gender and the notion of gendered language. Social gender is also examined within a literary lens through female issues raised by 4th year ELT students in analysing literary texts in ‘Selections from Western Literature’ as an elective course at an ELT department at a Turkish University. Five (5) thematic categories are gathered through inductive analysis of the presentation data as female issues which are namely; obedient and modest; beautiful, seductive or destructive; underappreciated and emotionally trapped woman; woman as an object of love and female writer expressing her love. Female issues are examined in relationship with social gender and drawing from the thematic categories; suggestions and implications regarding how to integrate literature, culture and gender relationship as a tool of teaching English in the ELT curriculum are discussed. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/ijll.v3n2a4

This chapter investigates how and why computer science in Malaysia is dominated by women. Drawing on recent critical interventions in gender and technology studies the paper aims at opening up for more culturally situated analyses of the gendering of technology or the technology of gendering with the Malaysian case exemplifying the core of the argument. The paper argues along four different strands of critical thought: (1) A critique of the ‘black-boxing’ of gender in gender and technology studies; (2) A critique of the Anglo-centric bias of gender and technology studies advocating more of context sensitivity and focus on the cultural embeddedness of gender and technology relations; (3) In line with that, also paying more attention to spatial practices and body politics in regard to race, class, and gender in gender and technology relations; 4. A critique of ‘western’ positional notions of gender configurations and opening up for more fluid constructions of gender identity including the many crossovers between relational and positional definitions of femininity and masculinity.

ABSTRACTFemale autonomy and female solidarity occupy a special place in gender and development thinking. For some feminists, myself included, they represent closely held ideals; as such, they are very difficult to bring into question. This contribution reflects on these ideals in order to raise critical questions about the attachments that gender and development practitioners may have to particular ways of reading ‘gender relations’. It draws on ethnographic fieldwork in Nigeria to explore the lack of fit between received ‘Western’ ideas about gender and the complexity, contingency and multiplicity of relations and identifications among women in this cultural context. It argues that superimposing received notions of gendered power relations on those whom development intervention seeks to assist — in the form of gender myths that have a hold on hearts as well as minds — may offer these women neither succour, nor the means for them to empower themselves.

Although in the social discourse, men and women are characterized by values that are specific to modernity or postmodernity, however, the analysis of social data often shows that the process of evolution must be located rather at the intersection between tradition and modernity. Thus, the status of men and women is in the process of being reconstructed and this is not a comfortable stage, especially for men. Marital modernity requires, as a matter of priority, a re-evaluation of the role structure and gender relations in the direction of equity, and in this endeavor, the greatest challenge is felt by men, who have to relinquish the old advantages of their traditional status. In this respect, a first hypothesis would be to consider women as having the main role in stimulating this action, and men as being less motivated to give up, by their own accord, the advantages offered by the traditional marital framework. 
 From another point of view, we rhetorically ask whether women are ready for this challenge and to what extent the social context becomes supportive in this transition of role and gender relations.
 The study aims to make an analysis of gender and marital role relations, in order to identify the challenges of functionality in the contemporary transitional couple.