All-male Teams Research Articles

Men and women of space

The influence of gender on the social context in which work performance takes place is considered. Women in single and mixed-gender polar expedition groups reported concern for the welfare of a teammate as a significant stressor. All-male teams exhibited higher levels of competitiveness and a lesser tendency to talk about their feelings. Excerpts from expedition debriefing interviews illustrate gender-related patterns noted in extreme environments. Application of these findings for the better selection, training, and performance of mixed-gender space crews is examined. A case study approach to conducting research on crew performance is recommended, and strategies for dealing with confidentiality are discussed.

At the end of the line: Women and united states foreign aid in Asia, 1978-1980

Addressing how seriously are being considered in recent US assistance projects and the evaluations made of those projects this discussion contends that the issue of women in development may be usefully conceptualized as having several distinct stages and argues that continuing problems remain in translating concern into action. The data base for the main project consisted of a nonrandom sample of 49 in-depth evaluations and special studies of US foreign aid projects in Asia. All had been conducted in the fiscal years 1978-80 for the Agency for International Developments (AID) Asia Bureau. The projects evaluated ranged in size from several million dollars to several hundred million dollars each and covered the entire spectrum of assistance. Women were not mentioned in the majority of evaluations and special studies surveyed. Using the most liberal coding scheme possible there is some mentionof -- sometimes only a phrase or 2 -- in 15 of the 49 evaluation reports (31%). 7 of the 15 teams with female members mentioned (47%). This contrasts with 8 mentions in the remaining 34 reports made presumably by all-male teams (24%). In 4 of the 49 reports were to be important (family planning programs which focus on only as acceptors) are not considered in this category. The 4 projects in which were to be prime beneficiaries were examined. 2 of the projects 1 in Korea and 1 in Bangladesh are Community Based Integrated Rural Development (cBIRD) projects under the auspices of the Save the Children Organization. The 3rd project a sericulture (silkworm raising) project in Thailand had originally been intended as a women in development effort but seems to have been translated into a help the whole family focus. The 4th project a survey research effort in the Southern Philippines considers the impact of infrastructure on an all-female sample. If are supposed to be principal beneficiaries of a project the question is whether they are receiving the principal proportion of project resources such as money training and credit. For example it is clear in both CBIRD projects that regardless of the intentions of their formulators are neither controlling a significant proportion of project resources nor reaping a significatn proportion of project benefits. If cumulative self-corrective knowledge about what helps and what hurts in various efforts is to be compiled and communicated a more insitiutionalized system of project evaluation is necessary. It is important ot consider at both the beginning and the end of projects.

Athletics and Equality: How to Comply With Title IX Without Tearing Down the Stadium

May 27, 1975, a former University of Michigan football center, now President of the United States, signed the so-called Title IX guidelines. A few weeks later, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare issued the Title IX regulations. However, in such a complex area, the law is by no means final and will be until Congress and the courts speak definitively. Indeed, HEW gave institutions a year for self-evaluation, and serious enforcement may begin for several years. In the meanwhile, although Title IX is the immediate issue, athletic directors in public institutions must still be concerned about possible litigation under the 14th Amendment, various state laws, and eventually the Equal Rights Amendment. What all these laws in common is the requirement of sexual equality. A major source of the controversy over Title IX and athletics is the meaning of equality. Equality may be measured in terms of opportunities, procedures, or results. Equality may be defined as treating every group in the same manner, as treating some handicapped groups preferentially, or as enhancing the unique capacities or interests of each groupTaccording to need. As if the conceptual problems were complex enough, Title IX issues been further exacerbated by the hidden agendas of interest groups in the struggle to formulate guidelines. Some educators seen Title IX as a tool to cut back on the expenditures and abuses of bigtime intercollegiate sports. Believing that athletic departments and their boosters can or will provide matching funds for women's athletics, they see Title IX forcing a reversion to amateurism. Some of the more militant feminists seem less interested in creating new opportunities for women athletes than in striking a blow against masculine culture as represented by certain athletic traditions. Their adamant opposition to separate but equal teams and physical education classes thus seems motivated less by a concern for equal resources than by a hostility to the type of socialization that takes place on all-male teams. Finally, the opposition to Title IX athletic regulations from some of the major universities and their football and basketball coaches seems to stem mainly from a desire to protect the competitive edge their affluence buys. While voicing a concern for the health of sports in general, they done very little, until the threat of Title IX and the recent recession, to redistribute sports revenues to women, to intramural programs, to minor sports, or to the have not schools on their schedules. Now the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has begun to act, but professional sports are generally far ahead in their efforts to equalize competition. Whatever one's personal views about the appropriate scope and value of intercollegiate athletics (for the record my sympathies are with those who would preserve, reform, and equalize college sports), it is an abuse of federal power to utilize Title IX to achieve any comprehensive change exGEORGE R. LA NOUE is professor of political science and assistant lacrosse coach at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. He is former chairperson of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Task Force on Higher Education. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do necessarily represent those of any government agency.