Feminist Sociology Research Articles

Responsibilised Resilience? Reworking Neoliberal Social Policy Texts

Responsibilised Resilience? Reworking Neoliberal Social Policy Texts

Martha E Thompson and Michael Armato, Investigating Gender: Developing a Feminist Sociological Imagination

Martha E Thompson and Michael Armato, <i>Investigating Gender: Developing a Feminist Sociological Imagination</i>

Doing Safer Masculinities: Addressing at-Risk Gendered Behaviours on Mine Sites

Doing Safer Masculinities: Addressing at-Risk Gendered Behaviours on Mine Sites

Tactics of Legitimation in the Psychedelic Sciences

I argue that psychedelic substances served as a doorway through which spirituality entered the scientific laboratory to an unprecedented degree by making spirituality more accessible to scientific methodologies. From a feminist sociology of knowledge perspective, these controversial sciences represent a unique opportunity to investigate the politics of knowledge constituting these traditionally demarcated and historically hierarchical systems of knowledge. Using discourse analysis I found that psychedelic scientists utilized a range of what I call tactics of legitimation to justify the scientific study of these peculiar substances and the spirituality associated with them vis-à-vis dominant scientific knowledges. Drawing on feminist theories of science and knowledge, I analyze the attendant epistemological costs of this assimilation in relation to the intersecting politics of race, class and gender. More broadly, this project demonstrates how a feminist theoretical perspective on sociology of knowledge enhances politically essential analyses of the co-constitutive relationships between knowledge, power and consciousness.

Problematising public and private work spaces: Midwives' work in hospitals and in homes

Objectivesas the boundaries between public and private spaces become increasingly fluid, interest is growing in exploring how those spaces are used as work environments, how professionals both construct and convey themselves in those spaces, and how the lines dividing spaces traditionally along public and private lines are blurred. This paper draws on literature from critical geography, organisational studies, and feminist sociology to interpret the work experiences of midwives in Ontario, Canada who provide maternity care both in hospitals and in clients' homes. Designqualitative design involving in-depth semi-structured interviews content coded thematically. SettingOntario, Canada. Participantscommunity midwives who practice at home and in hospital. Findingsthe accounts of practicing midwives illustrate the ways in which hospital and home work spaces are sites of both compromise and resistance. With the intention of making birthing women feel more `at home', midwives describe how they attempt to recreate the woman's home in the hospital. Similarly, midwives also reorient women's homes to a certain degree into a more standardised work space for home birth attendance. Many midwives also described how they like `guests' in both settings. Key conclusionsthere seems to be a conscious or unconscious convergence of midwifery work spaces to accommodate Ontario midwives' unique model of practice. Implications for practicewe link these findings of midwives' place of work on their experiences as workers to professional work experiences in both public and private spaces and offer suggestions for further exploration of the concept of professionals as guests in their places of work.

A Feminist’s Work Is Never Done

An interview with Joan Acker, professor emeritus at the University of Oregon. Acker’s work has been on the cutting edge of feminist scholarship for more than 35 years. Acker talks about such topics as her theoretical training, welfare reform, feminist sociology, and her informal campaign to end football.

Rehabilitating Interactionism for a Feminist Sociology of Sexuality

In this article we seek to rehabilitate the radical insights of the pragmatist/interactionist tradition and to establish its continued relevance to a distinctively sociological and feminist analysis of sexuality. We argue for the importance of the contribution of Gagnon and Simon in arguing for a fully social understanding of sexuality. We offer an account of the process whereby interactionism has been rendered all but invisible and make a case for recovering its insights. We argue that interactionism accounts for the processes through which sexuality is constituted culturally, inter-personally and intrapsychically and addresses the actualities of everyday social practices and is therefore ideally suited to grappling with the complexities of contemporary sexual life.

‘Telling the day’ in Beatrice Potter Webb and Dorothy Richardson: The Temporality of the Working Woman

In this article, the concept of ‘telling the day’, taken from the recent work of sociologist Jonathan Gershuny, is used as the starting point for a consideration of two texts which share as one of their key aims the accurate rendering of the working lives of women around the turn of the last century. These texts are Beatrice Webb's ‘Pages from a Work-Girl's Diary’ (1888), and a chapter from The Tunnel (1919), the fourth chapter-novel of Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage. I pay particular attention to the temporality of the way that these texts ‘tell the day’ of their working women protagonists. Apparently from very different genres (early participant-observation sociology, and literary modernism), this article both takes seriously the status of Webb's text as ‘literary experiment’, and argues for the productivity of seeing Richardson as engaging in kind of feminist sociology.

A Third Kind of Feminist Reading: Toward a Feminist Sociology of Biblical Hermeneutics

This article proposes that the next step in feminist biblical studies requires, even demands, the development of sociologically framed paradigms. It illustrates this proposal for such a third kind of reading with an examination of the interpretation history of Genesis 2-3 during the past forty years. Five hermeneutical stages emerge. They move from a first stage on feminist interpretations, to a second stage on deconstructive responses, to a third stage of interpretations that reassert androcentric meaning, to a fourth stage on the Christian Right’s insistence on patriarchal gender roles, and finally to a fifth stage on commercialized biblical meanings in the Western media. This analysis shows that a feminist sociology of biblical hermeneutics explains, even to beginning students, the connections between biblical hermeneutics and society, because it conceptualizes biblical texts and interpretation histories as hermeneutically dynamic, politically and religiously charged conversations concerning socio-political practices.

Crimen Sollicitationis

Late modernity’s binary intrigue of child sexuality/abuse is understood as a backlash phenomenon reactive to a general trans‐Atlantic crisis concerning the interlocking of kinship, religion, gender, and sexuality. Tellingly dissociated from 1980s gay liberation and recent encounters between queer theory and kinship studies, the child abuse theme articulates modernity’s guarded axiom of tabooed incest and its projected contemporary predicament “after the orgy”—after the proclaimed disarticulation of religion‐motivated, kin‐pivoted, reproductivist, and gender‐rigid socialities. “Child sexual abuse” illustrates a general situation of decompensated nostalgia: an increasingly imminent loss of the child’s vital otherness is counterproductively embattled by the late modern overproduction of its banal difference, its status as “minor.” Attempts to humanize, reform, or otherwise moderate incest’s current “survivalist” and commemorative regime of subjectivation, whether by means of ethical, empirical, historical, critical, legal, or therapeutic gestures, typically trigger the latter’s panicked empiricism. Accordingly, most “critical” interventions, from feminist sociology and anthropology to critical legal studies, have largely been collusive with the backlash: rather than appraising the radical precariousness of incest’s ethogram of avoidance in the face of late modernity’s dispossessing analytics and semiotics, they tend to feed its state of ontological vertigo and consequently hyperextended, manneristic forensics.

Nuns, Dykes, Drugs and Gendered Bodies: An Autoethnography of a Lesbian Feminist’s Journey Through ‘Good Time’ Sociology

This article provides an autoethnographic account of my personal journey through ‘good time’ sociology. Telling my story involves recounting my experience as a Catholic nun and closeted lesbian in 1970s’ USA; providing a picture of what it was like to do the first PhD on lesbians in the UK; explaining the impact of drugs and alcohol research on my lesbian feminist sociological imagination and reflecting upon the place of ‘deviant bodies’ in the new genetics and generally in society. My stories are framed by the backdrop of being a lesbian feminist sociologist in academia and informed by a small yet, emerging body of work by LGBT scholars who use autoethnography. Autoethnography is introduced as a methodological tool for speaking and writing reflexively about being out in academia. I demonstrate that telling one’s story can become a gift — ‘a telling creating conversations that transcends our traumas’ and a way of healing ourselves and others.

Relational Leadership and Technology: A Study of Activist College Women Leaders

This qualitative study examines women’s experiences using infor- Q1 mation and communication technologies (ICTs) such as computers, cell phones, text messaging, and social networks as leaders in campus activist organizations. Institutional ethnography (IE), a framework and research approach drawn from feminist sociology, was applied to consider aspects of the campus environment that influence women’s work. Interviews and text investigation informed a collective map of how campus activist work is accomplished. The results indicate that women leaders struggled to balance the efficiency promised by technology to facilitate work and the necessity for face-to-face connections to build engagement. The IE perspective revealed campus practices, including an overinvolvement emphasis and policies restricting the use of space, which can hinder initial student involvement. However, women’s relational leadership behaviors and use of ICT, emphasizing personal connection and inclusivity (Komives et al., 2006), may best position them for future citizen-leadership roles.

An exploration of ruling relations and how they organize and regulate nursing education in the high‐fidelity patient simulation laboratory

Recently, schools of nursing have adopted the use of high-fidelity human patient simulators in laboratory settings to teach nursing. Although numerous articles document the benefits of teaching undergraduate nursing students in this way, little attention has been paid to the discourses and texts organizing this approach. This institutional ethnography uses the critical feminist sociology of Dorothy E. Smith to examine the literature and interviews with Practical and Bachelor of Science in Nursing students, and their faculty about this experience. The research shows how discourses rationalize and sustain certain processes at the expense of others. For example, ruling discourses such as biomedicine, efficiency, and the relational ontology are activated to construct the simulation lab as part of nursing and nursing education. The analysis also highlights the intended and unintended effects of these discourses on nursing education and discusses how emphasizing nursing knowledges can make the simulation lab a positive place for learning.

Gender, globalization and organization: exploring power, relations and intersections

PurposeCurrent debates on neo‐liberal and universalistic globalization pay little attention to gender or to other marginalized groups, and fail to consider the complexity and diversity of the experiences of men and women in specific socio‐political contexts, especially those in the developing world. The paper challenges mainstream theories which present globalization and its associated forces as gender neutral. The main purpose of this paper is to advance theoretical debates on the gendered organizing dynamics of globalization.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on organization theory, gender and development studies literature, and feminist sociology, to advance critical understandings of contemporary debates of the intersecting qualities of globalization, transnational organizations and gender social divisions.FindingsThe paper provides a critical synthesis of the complexity and interconnections between gender, organization and globalization. The paper identifies international development agencies; transnational corporations; international nongovernmental organizations and government state machineries as key stakeholders in the global and national regulation of employment and diversity issues. The paper outlines the organizing praxis of these key stakeholders, and stresses the need for all actors to engage in human rights awareness and equality consciousness raising.Originality/valueThe paper provides an original gendered organization analysis of globalization which reveals the specificity of global‐local linkages mediated by national states, international organizations, women's NGOs and gendered government machineries.

Using Students' Racial Memories to Teach about Racial Inequality

As teachers, our lessons about contemporary racial inequality are complicated and contradicted by the rhetoric of color-blindness—the belief that race no longer matters for determining life chances—entrenched in our culture. Students remain attracted to notions of racism as a problem of the past and often reject the idea that racism is still a major problem today. In this paper we describe an effective classroom exercise, adapted from bell hooks, that we use to overcome these challenges by helping students learn about the persistence of contemporary racial inequality. We ask students to reflect on their own racial memories, and by integrating their own experiences with scholarly readings about race, power, and privilege, students learn to connect their racial memories to broader patterns of racial inequality. This exercise meets a key pedagogical goal of both feminist teachers and sociologists, which is to help students understand how their personal experiences are connected to broader social arrangements and patterns of inequality. We discuss both successes and challenges of the exercise in this article. Introduction

A Tale of Two Technologies

This article brings insights from feminist science and technology studies to bear on recent public debates over the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which prevents many cervical cancers, and male circumcision as potential HIV preventive. In the United States, attempts to mandate HPV vaccination have activated intense concerns about female “promiscuity,” whereas talk of promoting circumcision against HIV has triggered scant anxiety about American boys’ sexuality. The authors show how intersections among gender, sexuality, race, and age have shaped responses to these two containment technologies—and how the technologies’ deployment both relies on and reproduces meanings of gender and sexuality that constitute the omnipresent “double standard.” The analysis develops an original feminist sociology of containment, explicating how social relations shape the innovation, reinvention, and use of technologies to contain particular sorts of bodies, fluids, and sexual practices—by whom, under what conditions, and for what purposes.

Handbook of Anger Management

This book, well organized in its structure, attempts to be comprehensive in its content, from assessment of anger through understanding of its etiology and treatment. Readers may find it useful to have good guidance for assessment and categorization of different types of anger (eg, deliberate anger, anger avoidance, passive aggression, paranoia, sudden anger, shame-based anger, excitatory anger, habitual anger, moral anger, resentment/hate). The Handbook of Anger Management gives a fairly good list of differential diagnoses of anger, although it does omit various conditions such as acute and chronic organic confusional states (eg, dementias, brain injuries, toxic confusional states). The Handbook gives a useful list of commonly abused substances and their relationship to anger. There are questionnaires included at the end of the book for anger assessment, categorization, and treatment planning. Dr Potter-Efron has also added a quiz to assess anger turned inward. Different behavioral forms of anger turned inward are mentioned, such as self-neglect, self-sabotage, self-attack, self-blame, and, ultimately, self-destructiveness. There is emphasis on forgiveness, and the reasons given are biomedical. However, with a religious bias prevailing in the Handbook of Anger Management, it can be thought of as being driven by a different set of beliefs and needs. There are areas of the book that can be described as somewhat blurred in boundaries, in which the author regards spiritual and existential as interchangeable. The Handbook presents various case studies. In some cases, there are references to God and there is advocacy for the need for the subject to return to a previous level of religious devotion irrespective of hard life experiences (which led to grief and its anger). Some may regard this kind of anger management as frankly irresponsible, while others might think of it as something to be expected from a book with a religious bias. Anger is acknowledged in the Handbook as being sometimes creative, but it would have been helpful to read inspirational examples—history must be full of these examples. Anger related to injustice or other forms of unexpected human suffering holds potential for great energy and great potential to benefit the individual and society. Dealing responsibly with anger can be very beneficial and even financially rewarding. When the physician or therapist is treating clients who have suffered injustice, knowledge of such examples of creative anger might be useful. The Handbook does mention briefly the contribution of feminist sociologists in understanding violence toward women, but it does not go as far as to include recommendation of feminist therapy in treatment of anger, nor does it give reference in text to these feminist writers. The text also shies away from acknowledgment of the reality that misogyny is a part of all major religions. Attachment theories are used particularly in understanding marital aggression, romantic jealousy, and antisocial behavior. Psychoanalytic and cognitive behavioral approaches are addressed well. There are fairly detailed programs for individual and group therapy, and many counselors and therapists may find these very useful. For angry children and adolescents, there is a section that incorporates techniques appropriate to that age group. In the reference section, there are no obvious further reading recommendations for assertiveness training, and there are some minor errors. The Handbook of Anger Management contains material for all those involved in managing patients with anger problems: psychiatrists, social workers, counselors, and therapists. The religious bias is in keeping with some of today's political leadership in the United States and the United Kingdom. Tomorrow is another day. Helen Bright, BSc (Hons), MBBS, MRCPsych Consultant psychiatrist, Ipswich, United Kingdom

Aging and Risk: Physical and Sexual Abuse of Elders in Canada

In this article, we review the literature on physical and sexual elder abuse within the context of risk theory and feminist sociology. Employing data from the 1999 General Social Survey, we also examine several variables potentially associated with the risk for physical or sexual abuse of elders. Women, Aboriginal Canadians, and elders who are divorced, living in urban areas with low income have a higher risk of physical or sexual abuse. This supports risk and anxiety as factors. Further testing of elder abuse using this theoretical framework is required.

Telling stories: the use of personal narratives in the social sciences and history

In Telling Stories, Mary Jo Maynes, Jennifer L. Pierce, and Barbara Laslett argue that personal narratives-autobiographies, oral histories, life history interviews, and memoirs-are an important research tool for understanding the relationship between people and their societies. Gathering examples from throughout the world and from premodern as well as contemporary cultures, they draw from labor history and class analysis, feminist sociology, race relations, and anthropology to demonstrate the value of personal narratives for scholars and students alike. Telling Stories explores why and how personal narratives should be used as evidence, and the methods and pitfalls of their use. The authors stress the importance of recognizing that stories that people tell about their lives are never simply individual. Rather, they are told in historically specific times and settings and call on rules, models, and social experiences that govern how story elements link together in the process of self-narration. Stories show how individuals' motivations, emotions, and imaginations have been shaped by their cumulative life experiences. In turn, Telling Stories demonstrates how the knowledge produced by personal narrative analysis is not simply contained in the stories told; the understanding that takes place between narrator and analyst and between analyst and audience enriches the results immeasurably.

La maternité pour autrui : état du droit et éléments du débat

Contemporary feminist research is highly preoccupied with dismantling social categories and challenging binaries which have long underpinned social thinking. Surprisingly, such deliberations have left the nexus of age and singlehood resistant to deconstructive analysis. Addressing recent literature on age, feminist theory and singlehood we are concerned with re-evaluating the image of the old maid image alongside the omnipresence of age and ageism in current discourses on singlehood, family life and intimate relations. Drawing on a content based analysis we argue that single women are faced with a triple disfranchisement based on their age, gender and single status. We further argue that the aging process of single women should be viewed as a situated symbolic practice disguised as a natural imperative, and not as it is customarily grasped, as a given biological category. Thus, this paper is set to critically revisit the authority of age and ageist practices by offering a new conceptual lens through which a revised feminist sociology of singlehood and age could be developed.