Masculine Field Research Articles

The impact of gender, culture, and sexuality on Mauritian nursing: Nursing as a non-gendered occupational identity or masculine field? Qualitative study

BackgroundInternational studies have generally defined nursing as a female-dominated occupation. The almost absence of male nurses seems universal, except as a privileged minority occupying positions within nursing specialties (‘islands of masculinity’). Nursing is associated with relatively low status owing to gender and income, and is also influenced by cultural perceptions of social status, the nature of the work and sexuality. ObjectiveThis study aims to describe and analyse how gender and cultural perceptions influenced the development of nursing in Mauritius. This paper examines why nursing in Mauritius became gendered in different ways due to the impact of gender equivalence in the work force, the gendered segregation in clinical practice and the absence of caring feminisation in nursing. Design and settingThis qualitative study is based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews and convenience sampling. The sample includes nurses working at five hospitals. They all come from the central and southern part of Mauritius. The data were collected over a five-month period during 2006. ParticipantsIndividual qualitative interviews were conducted with 47 nurses, both men (27) and women (20), of different grades, ages, religions and ethnic backgrounds. ResultsNursing practice is gender segregated, influenced and supported by cultural traditions and perceptions of gender relations, sexuality and touch in nursing. However, the professional identity and role is considered non-gendered, implied by the title of ‘nursing officer’ and the presence of male nurses who constitute almost 50 percent of the work force. Male nurses do not face similar barriers deterring them from entering nursing profession. Nursing did not develop the image of women's work and a low status job in Mauritius. ConclusionsThe nursing profession in Mauritius has been shaped by a different ‘history of origin’, social, cultural and societal conditions on the basis of the absence of gender imbalance in the work force and caring feminisation in nursing. Moreover, the increase of men's presence in nursing influenced its name, status and perception, shifting nursing into a masculine sphere with advantageous impacts on nursing.

Adversity, acceptance, and accomplishment: female athletes in Japan's modern sportsworld

In Japan as elsewhere, sport is strongly coded as a masculine field. Nonetheless, women have long played sports at elite and popular levels despite considerable, continuing disadvantages in material resources, media attention and ideological support. I propose four reasons for the surprising profile of Japanese sporting women over the past century. Japan has long placed importance on its success in the Olympic Games; as the Games were opened up to female events, national ambition motivated Japan to improve opportunities for elite female athletes and celebrate their success. A second factor is extensive corporate sponsorship of a range of individual and team sports at elite levels for both male and female employees, which opened up opportunities to women for intensive training and national and even international participation. Moreover, sporting accomplishment more generally in Japan has foregrounded trained effort and focused on commitment rather than ‘natural’ ability or brute strength. And mainstream no...

Men's involvement in gender equality – European perspectives

This article is based on a study that was commissioned from the Swedish non-government organisation, Men for Gender Equality, by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). The aim of the research was to map stakeholders – including public authorities, research centres, civil society organisations, social partners, and individual experts – working to engage men in gender equality work in all 27 Member States and at European level. Drawing on existing scholarship in the field of men and masculinities, the article outlines the current regional and national context, and the main findings of the research that were published as a report by the EIGE. The article examines the extent and nature of the work, identifying 241 organisations working on themes such as gender equality, violence prevention, fatherhood/caregiving, health, gay/bisexual and transgender issues, and education and learning. The greatest number were found in Sweden and the UK, and the fewest in Central and Eastern Europe. The article highlights different perspectives on the benefits of involving men in gender equality initiatives and examines stakeholder views of the obstacles to this work. It concludes with some observations on ways forward.

The construction of gender and creativity in advertising creative departments

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine female creatives' perceptions as to why there are so few women working as creatives (art directors, copywriters, and creative directors) in advertising.Design/methodology/approachInterviews with 21 female creatives provided insights into reasons for underrepresentation. Inductive coding was used to allow themes and categories to emerge from the data. A social constructionist interpretation was used.FindingsSince both gender and creativity are socially constructed, doing gender in the masculine creative department impeded progress and job satisfaction for women. Because women were held accountable both to the norms of the masculine field and to the norms of femininity, their performance suffered as they tried to succeed in an inequitable system.Originality/valueThis paper examines how being a woman operating within a masculine paradigm might be especially difficult in creative fields. Because creativity is constructed based on mostly male gatekeepers using masculinity as a model, women are devalued and unable to influence the field of gatekeepers.

Connell's theory of masculinity – its origins and influences on the study of gender1

The Australian sociologist Raewyn Connell's theory of masculinity is the most influential theory in the field of men and masculinities. Along with its enormous impact on the field of gender studies, it has also been taken up across a wide range of other disciplines. Connell's book Masculinities, originally published in 1995, has been translated into five different languages and since it was first published its influence has increased with an English second edition being published in 2005. A crucial part of the enduring appeal of Connell's theory is that it provides a critical feminist analysis of historically specific masculinities whilst at the same time acknowledging the varying degrees to which individual men play in its reproduction. Yet, as I suggest here, three key elements of Connell's theory of masculinity have been largely neglected by other scholars. These are: the crucial influence of psychoanalysis and subsequent use of the life history case study method; the importance of non-hegemonic forms of masculinity; and the concept of cathexis. Because this article weaves parts of Connell's own life history into the development of the theory, it is based on a variety of sources, including two interviews with Connell.

Finding space in the field of masculinity

Hegemonic masculinity as a theoretical concept separates those men in a dominant position who are able to live up to the cultural ideal and attain hegemonic status from those who are subordinated and marginalized by it. Yet men's lived experiences of masculinity are not necessarily of being subordinated by the cultural ideal. Many men feel comfortable with their masculine identities despite an inability to fit the hegemonic ideal. Based on qualitative empirical research, this article identifies the strategies men use to successfully negotiate masculinities over the life course, and that enable men to adopt dominant masculinities in their everyday lived experiences while ultimately being subordinated in relation to the culturally dominant, hegemonic masculine ideal. Such strategies include reformulating definitions of masculinity, emphasizing maleness as innately masculine, and operating in subfields in the field of masculinity where the capital that men own is valued and their position dominant in relation to other men.

Race, Violence, and Terror: The Cultural Defensibility of Heteromasculine Citizenship in the Virginia Tech Massacre and the Don Imus Affair

Race, Violence, and TerrorThe Cultural Defensibility of Heteromasculine Citizenship in the Virginia Tech Massacre and the Don Imus Affair amy l. brandzel (bio) and jigna desai (bio) You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats. Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust fund wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac weren't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything. Seung-hui Cho "Today, We Are All Hokies"1 perhaps the shock jock, Don Imus, did not shock many when his white male appeal seemed to digress too neatly into the domain of blatant racist speech. The sexual/racial/gender-loaded phrases by which he characterized the Rutgers University women's basketball team saturated the media, as commentators repeatedly asked along the way whether it was or was not acceptable for him to say what they said over and over. The phrase, not needed here, was hotly defended by numerous Imus supporters, especially through the deployment of the color-blindness rhetorical maneuver of equivalency. In the process, the violence of Imus's speech was removed from the field of white masculinity and quickly displaced onto African American communities and rap music: if African American rap artists can say it, why can't Don Imus?2 But, the Don Imus affair quickly receded into the back pages as another event unfolded: the "Virginia Tech massacre," as [End Page 61] it soon became called.3 The defense here was more subtle as Asian/American groups, and Korean/Americans in particular, were held (in/directly) accountable for the redeployment of another age, old dichotomy: the unassimilated Asian and the American citizen. While it might appear to be an odd pairing, we want to use the Don Imus affair as a lens through which to examine the privileges of normative citizenship and the "cultural defenses" that circulate in regards to violence in the United States. Put differently, we want to ask, how does the juxtaposition of Don Imus and Seung-hui Cho4 allow us to see the ways in which certain citizen-subjects are afforded and sanctioned the "right" to violence?5 How might we use this opportunity to interrogate the reoccurring appeal of white wounded masculinity as a "cultural defense" for violence, a violence borne from unobtainable heteronormative ideals? While the connection was rarely made obvious, what made Seung-hui Cho's actions palatable were the ways in which the media worked to squeeze him into the wounded-masculinity narrative: he fit the "type" for young male school shooters. He was a loner, a nerd, and a young male ostracized from the community due to his inability to access male privilege, social capital, confidence, and, most importantly, women. In many ways, this might merely be another way to describe the historically produced stereotype of Asian American masculinity, yet increasingly this "type" is also becoming the description of white middle-class suburban boys who are unable to utilize the properties of white heteronormative masculinity and who are increasingly becoming framed as the most wounded victims within and of the nation. But as much as Cho could be made to fit within this typecasting, he refused such analysis. Through his series of videos, polemics, and photos, Cho highlighted the ways in which his isolation was directly related to normative white citizenship, the alienation of Asian Americans, and disenfranchised racialized "queer" masculinities. Therefore, we suggest that perhaps the media, and white America in general, worked so hard to fit Cho within the wounded-masculinity type in order to avoid the other hermeneutical option: the racially oppressed retaliating for their isolation from the privileges of normative citizenship. [End Page 62] Don Imus: In Defense of the Good Ole Boys White heteromasculinity is a pervasive discourse that depends upon the presumption that it is and always will be "on the defense." Moreover, as a discourse, it is not directly tied to particular types of bodies—rather, anyone can participate and further white heteromasculinity by ventriloquising the narrative of the loss of privilege of masculinity and/or whiteness at the hands of feminists, progressives, academics, and racially aware others...

Negotiating the Field of Masculinity

This article presents a theoretical model of masculinities based on a combination of Connell’s theories on hegemonic masculinity and Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital, and fields. The work of Connell has been both profound and pervasive in its influence on the study of men and masculinities. However, there are limitations, particularly in relation to the disparity between the theoretical concept of hegemonic masculinity as the culturally dominant ideal and men’s lived experiences of a variety of dominant masculinities. The model presented herein introduces the possibility of multiple dominant masculinities that operate within subfields bound by a field of masculinity. The model also outlines the ways in which masculinities are both produced and reproduced as a consequence of struggles between dominant and subordinate groups of men. These struggles also provide a rationale for resistance and complicity determined by what is deemed to be valued capital within the field of masculinity.

Pride and Prejudice in the Professions: Women Doctors and Lawyers in Third Republic France

Medicine and law have traditionally been viewed as elite masculine fields, and they therefore offer a useful prism to evaluate feminization. This article examines the rise of women doctors and lawyers in Third Republic France (1870–1940): women's struggle for access, their growth and progress as medical and legal practitioners, and the resentment they encountered anew in the 1930s. Although antifeminism was ingrained in the professional ethos of medicine and law, women were only one social category targeted by discrimination, especially during the interwar period. Foreigners, naturalized citizens, the lower social classes, and the elderly also served as scapegoats for such perceived problems in the professions as overcrowding and declining standards. Economic protectionism and fears of changing professional identity constituted key motivations behind antiwomen sentiment. Women's success is due largely to the republican state, to prowomen currents in the professions, and to women's emergent self-promotion.

Are Computer Science and Information Technology still masculine fields? High school students’ perceptions and career choices

This study investigated Greek high school students’ intentions and motivation towards and against pursuing academic studies in Computer Science (CS), the influence of the family and the scholastic environment on students’ career choices, students’ perceptions of CS and the Information Technology (IT) profession as well as students’ attendance at CS courses at school, computer use in the home and self-efficacy beliefs regarding computers. Gender differences were examined with a view to identifying factors that may affect boys’ and girls’ career choices. The participants were 358 students of both sexes who completed an anonymous questionnaire. The data analysis showed that girls are less likely than boys to pursue a CS degree, and when they do so, it is mainly because of extrinsic reasons rather than personal interest in CS. Lack of opportunities for early familiarization with computing in the home and the scholastic environment is the factor that mainly differentiates boys’ and girls’ motivation against studying CS, having a greater impact on girls. Misconceptions of CS were detected in students of both genders. Girls view CS as a self-referencing, machine- and programming-oriented discipline to a greater extent than boys do, and hold less positive views of the IT profession. Boys view CS as more human- and application-oriented than girls do. They also have greater computer self-efficacy and more sex-stereotypical views of CS and IT as male domains. Appropriate actions to increase girls’ interest and participation in CS studies are proposed according to the findings.

Microoptical telescope compound eye

A new optical concept for compact digital image acquisition devices with large field of view is developed and proofed experimentally. Archetypes for the imaging system are compound eyes of small insects and the Gabor-Superlens. A paraxial 3x3 matrix formalism is used to describe the telescope arrangement of three microlens arrays with different pitch to find first order parameters of the imaging system. A 2mm thin imaging system with 21x3 channels, 70 masculinex10 masculine field of view and 4.5mm x 0.5mm image size is optimized and analyzed using sequential and non-sequential raytracing and fabricated by microoptics technology. Anamorphic lenses, where the parameters are a function of the considered optical channel, are used to achieve a homogeneous optical performance over the whole field of view. Captured images are presented and compared to simulation results.

Women and the historical enterprise in America: gender, race, and the politics of memory, 1880-1945

In Women and the Historical Enterprise in America , Julie Des Jardins explores American women's participation in the practice of history from the late nineteenth century through the end of World War II, a period in which history became professionalized as an increasingly masculine field of scientific inquiry. Des Jardins shows how women nevertheless transformed the profession during these years in their roles as writers, preservationists, educators, archivists, government workers, and social activists. Des Jardins explores the work of a wide variety of women historians, both professional and amateur, popular and scholarly, conservative and radical, white and nonwhite. Although their ability to earn professional credentials and gain research access to official documents was limited by their gender (and often by their race), these historians addressed important new questions and represented social groups traditionally omitted from the historical record, such as workers, African Americans, Native Americans, and religious minorities. Assessing the historical contributions of Mary Beard, Zora Neale Hurston, Angie Debo, Mari Sandoz, Lucy Salmon, Mary McLeod Bethune, Dorothy Porter, Nellie Neilson, and many others, Des Jardins argues that women working within the broadest confines of the historical enterprise collectively brought the new perspectives of social and cultural history to the study of a multifaceted American past. In the process, they not only developed the field of women's history but also influenced the creation of our national memory in the twentieth century. |Des Jardins explores American women's participation in the practice of history from the late 19th century through the end of World War II, a period in which history became professionalized as an increasingly masculine field of scientific inquiry. Des Jardins reveals how women nevertheless transformed the profession during these years in their roles as writers, preservationists, educators, government workers, archivists, and social activists.

A sporting chance: The anatomy of destiny?

We begin this paper by drawing a parallel between women's exclusion from sport and their exclusion from science. Both are stereotypically masculine fields, which women enter only at risk of losing their identity. Moreover, both have justified the exclusion of women by recourse to biological arguments that women are inferior. It is thus not surprising that the combination of these fields in “sports science” adds further justification. We look at some of these biological arguments here, and at how they serve to limit women's participation in sport. Feminists have accepted that biological differences between women and men exist, and have either (i) argued for integration in sports, assuming that the differences are, or will be, unimportant, or (ii) argued for separate spheres, because of existing sex/gender differences. But both of these viewpoints still see our biology as fixed. We argue instead that “biology” can itself be subject to change, and that a truly feminist understanding of women and sport must take the possible transformation of physiology into account.

Evaluating competence of women and men: Effects of marital and parental status and occupational sex-typing

A sample of 160 female and male college students read a completed job application and a letter written by the applicant. The job was in either a feminine or a masculine field. The applicant was described as either female or male, single or married, and having one or no children. Subjects answered seven evaluative questions about the competence of the applicant and the merits of the letter. Women, especially single ones, who applied for a sex-typical job generally were evaluated most favorably. Men, especially single ones, and women who applied for sex-atypical jobs were evaluated least favorably.

Mathematical Ability and Masculinity

The idea that men are Better than women at mathematics has been widespread. Many writers on education have taken it for granted; a few have tried to prove it. Unfortunately, the general acceptance of this assumption distorts the test results; achievement rather than innate ability is measured. A comparison of the scores of men and women on various kinds of arithmetic tests is not conclusive, since ability to do arithmetic is partly the result of past and present interest in the subject. Even at an early age, boys are expected to be interested in mathematics. Girls, on the other hand, though they may have equal ability, may be discouraged from learning by the prevailing idea that mathematics is a masculine field.

Sex and Personality

THE purpose of this work, which the authors regard as a pioneer attempt, is the accomplishment in the field of masculinity and femininity of something similar to Binet's early achievement in the field of intelligence, inasmuch as they have endeavoured to apply psychometric methods in the form of a test to the study of sex temperaments. The test was originally devised by the senior author, Lewis M. Terman, in 1922 in the investigation of intellectually superior children, and has since been applied in the examination of a great variety of groups, including college students, office workers, athletes, delinquents, homosexuals and prostitutes, the ages ranging from early adolescence to extreme old age.