Gender Lens Research Articles

The development of an educational workshop to reframe and manage professional conflict via a sex and gender lens.

Conflict is inevitable in the emergency department, and conflict resolution is an essential skill for emergency providers to master. Effective conflict management can optimize patient care and enhance professional satisfaction. To communicate effectively in high-stress, high-impact situations, sex- and gender-based differences need to be considered. Nine resident, fellow, junior, and senior faculty members of the Academy for Women in Academic Emergency Medicine collaborated to design a 4-h workshop. The focus was on professional communication and conflict resolution in emergency medicine (EM), with special attention on how sex and gender can influence these processes. The final educational workshop utilized a variety of formats focused on communication and effective conflict resolution including: traditional didactics, facilitated small groups with case-based learning, expert panel discussion, and an experiential learning session. The consideration of how sex- and gender-associated factors might contribute additional complexity or challenges to conflictual interactions were interwoven into each session to highlight alternative vantage points. Effective conflict resolution is an important skill for success in EM. We developed a workshop that went beyond typical communication-based programming to consider how sex- and gender-related factors influence communication and conflict resolution.

Seaweed aquaculture through the lens of gender: Participation, roles, pay and empowerment in Bantayan, Philippines

Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing food-producing sectors worldwide. Of particular importance is the cultivation of seaweed, particularly in East and Southeast Asia where seaweeds dominate the production market, and are key for coastal communities both as main livelihood source and as alternative or supplementary income to fisheries. Women play a crucial role in various segments of the seaweed aquaculture value chain; yet few researchers have empirically examined the gendered impacts of women’s participation in aquaculture. Using the case study of Bantayan Island, in the Philippines, the objective of this study is to deepen our understanding of the impact of women’s participation in aquaculture by specifically investigating their roles, remuneration and empowerment related to the production node of seaweed aquaculture. Adopting a novel research approach, which combines the outcomes of a focus group discussion and the data collected through two questionnaires, we provide a comprehensive and robust understanding of gender issues in aquaculture. Results of the economic analysis of labour costs indicate that women constitute most of the workforce but are paid less than men; the average gender pay gap is 55.4%. Moreover, our study finds that there is a well-established gendered division of labour in seaweed aquaculture. Greater female participation is not mirrored by more women in leadership roles and decision-making power in the workplace, although participation may have a positive impact on female intrahousehold empowerment. An important contribution of our analysis is to show that gender stereotypes in aquaculture production persist and they affect roles, wages and decision-making power. Acknowledging the fundamental contribution of women in aquaculture can inform the development of gender-sensitive indicators, supporting the measurement of progress towards relevant Targets of the fifth Sustainable Development Goal (“ Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls ”), therefore mainstreaming gender into resource management, and poverty alleviation

Inclusive diets within planetary boundaries

Inclusive diets within planetary boundaries

Cash plus programming and intimate partner violence: a qualitative evaluation of the benefits of group-based platforms for delivering activities in support of the Ethiopian government’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP)

ObjectivesIntimate partner violence (IPV) is a public health challenge but there is evidence that cash and cash ‘plus’ interventions reduce IPV. An increasingly popular design feature of these kind of...

Socio-economic impacts of Covid-19 through gender lens: A situational assessment in Dhaka city, Bangladesh

Global trends showed that men were somehow, more inclined to the infection and death by Covid-19 than women, which showed no exception in Bangladesh. This paper aims to focus on major socio-economic impacts (economic, education, health, gender power relation) and Covid-19-induced response measures in urban context, through gender lens. Qualitative and quantitative methods were blended for the study. A significant relationship was identified between respondent's gender and maintaining social distancing (χ2 (1, N = 110) = 12.2037, p = 0.000477), also in case of going in crowded places during the first wave of Covid-19 (χ2 (4, N = 110) = 18.8001, p = 0.00086), using chi-square test. Concerned with socio-economic impacts, the gender of respondents was found to have a moderate impact on domestic abuse (χ2 (1, N = 110) = 1.8442, p = 0.174454). As for other impacts, null hypotheses failed to be rejected. Regarding response and awareness level, researcher found that 71.6% of women were more skilled in isolation management, and food stocking, in contrast with 64% of men. Entrenched social prejudices and unequal gender-specific treatments toward women, could stimulate the gender-sensitive disproportion in preparedness, impact, and response phase since the Covid-19 emergence.

From the Lens of Gender: The Influence of School Gender Education on Sports Involvement of Adolescent Students

From the Lens of Gender: The Influence of School Gender Education on Sports Involvement of Adolescent Students

Phenomenological Study on Young Women’ s Resilience Strategies Amidst Pandemic

Women are significantly affected by COVID-19 pandemic. The sexist and discriminatory practices and roles have even burdened them. With the challenges and problems that they encountered; this paper analyzed how the lives of young women have been affected during the pandemic. It also explores on their recovery and resilience strategies by highlighting their experiences and work activities to help sustain the basic needs of their families. Using gender lens to studying women’s lives and experiences, a qualitative design of face-to face, in-depth interviews was employed. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyze the data. The study group consisted of young women aged 24-29 (students and non-students) and were previously part of a non-skilled work sector who lost their jobs during the pandemic. Findings were presented according to time frame; their lived experiences before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. Three main themes were drawn from the findings: the trend of social media, social capital, and the personality of women. The result indicated that COVID-19 pandemic had triggered the preconceived notion of gender roles. Productivity and sustainability have even dwindled. Although challenged by work restrictions, young women have shown different kinds of resilience and coping strategies to provide the needs of the family especially of their children. Women’s strategies and mechanisms have debunked the stereotypical knowledge and preconceived notions about women. Unlike the notion that men work for the family, women are in fact active and responsible agents of economic development.

Wellbeing, psychological distress and self-harm in late adolescence in the UK: the role of gender and personality traits

ABSTRACT Concerns about mental health difficulties and reduced wellbeing in adolescents are on the rise in public discourses and the media. This study utilised data from the Millennium Cohort Study (Waves 6 and 7) to examine 17- year- olds’ mental health and wellbeing in relation to gender and personality traits, and longitudinal differences in social and emotional difficulties and prosocial behaviour from mid to late adolescence. Across measures of mental health and wellbeing, the findings showed that adolescent girls fared much worse than boys, particularly in reporting psychological distress and self-harm. Longitudinal analyses showed that as young women moved from mid to late adolescence, they scored higher in psychological distress and social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Also, compared to boys, girls rated themselves higher on neuroticism, a personality trait, which emerged as a strong predictor of psychological distress. The findings from this study have implications for young people’s mental health and wellbeing and gender inequality. Given the current policy concerns about young people’s mental health difficulties and self-harm, this study is hoped to contribute to an informed debate about wellbeing through gender and personality lenses while raising questions about current understandings of wellbeing and education and public health policy developments.

Our Civilizing Mission: The Lessons of Colonial Education. By Nicholas Harrison

Nicholas Harrison’s excellent book is not only a fascinating study of colonial education in Algeria and an examination of literary texts which trace the impacts and influences of colonial teaching on writers and teachers. It is also an examination of the ‘critical anxieties about the historical and conceptual foundations of “humanities” education’ (p. 7), a topic of increasing urgency today as the humanities as an area of study is repeatedly under threat from governments who pour money into ‘profitable’ STEM subjects to the detriment of the humanities. In this highly relevant and multidisciplinary book, Harrison draws on concepts and debates from history, postcolonial studies, and literary studies. Some of the key questions he raises include: How were Algerian writers influenced by France’s ‘civilizing mission’ — France’s political rationale for empire as evoked in the title of the book — through their own education and the education they offered to their students? What might they have gained from their colonial education, what caused them anxieties, and how did their experiences as student and teacher help them to advance their writing career? The study is bookended in the Introduction and Conclusion by Harrison’s astute reflections on the value of humanities education and the teaching of literature at university level. In Chapter 1 he discusses Edward Said’s approach to the teaching of literature through his works, and he sees Said’s writing as ‘paradigmatic in its equivocal relationship to literary education and humanities education more widely’ (p. 10). The following chapter takes a historical approach to colonial education in Algeria. Chapter 3 explores writings by Mouloud Feraoun which give insight into what it was like to be a teacher during the Algerian War of Independence, while Chapter 4 focuses on texts by Feraoun, Mohammed Dib, Assia Djebar, and others which recount the culture of colonial schools through the lens of gender and laïcité. The final chapter analyses accounts of children’s experiences of learning French and French literature at school in Algeria. This thematic approach to literature about colonial education is one of the many strengths of the book, as Harrison deftly demonstrates the richness of his selected works of fiction and memoir and the complex relationship of the writers towards colonialism as contained in the texts. A further strength is that the book is very well researched; Harrison draws on many historical, biographical, literary, and critical sources, offering detailed close readings of the texts but also providing comprehensive contextualization of the period in which they were written. Furthermore, he nuances our understanding of colonial education in Algeria, arguing that many pro-colonialists were quite suspicious of using education as a colonial tool because they wanted to keep ‘indigenous’ people in an inferior position to the colonial French authorities. Harrison’s book is essential reading for scholars and students of Algerian literature and the history of colonial education; more broadly, it will be of interest to all advocates of literature and the humanities.

Man as Memory and Metaphor of Matter: Italo Calvino’s ‘Priscilla’ and the Narration of (Bio)science

ABSTRACT This article investigates the relation between science and narration through the lens of gender and anthropocentrism. By analysing Calvino’s long, ‘biocomic’ triptych ‘Priscilla’ (published in T con zero in 1967) alongside (popular) scientific tales on (a)sexual reproduction, patterns in fictional and scientific storytelling are individuated. The three parts of Calvino’s story, starting from a unicellular organism and ending in the (primordial) sea, tell a remarkably non-anthropocentric tale. Different life forms and sexualities are explored alongside the microbiology of human reproduction. The binary terms and gendered hierarchies through which the meeting of egg and sperm is often recounted in scientific narratives are much less pronounced in ‘Priscilla’. By exploring the posthuman and non-speciesist aspects of Calvino’s story, the entanglement between past and future, pre-human and post-human, human and animal, can be reappraised in an original manner.

Security Predicament of Syrian Refugees Through Gender Lens in Line with EU–Turkey Joint Action Plan 2015

War has numerous repercussions for each gender. In the instances of war-induced displacement, both genders are usually subject to intensive risks in their journey as refugees, from reaching destined countries through dangerous routes to gender differences and inequalities they face in the host countries. The tales of agony and calamity shed light on the fact that the refugee crisis is very much a crisis for both genders not limited to one gender. Since the Second World War, the Middle East has been regarded as the world’s most conflict-prone region. Continuous Wars and civil wars have always raised questions about human threats and Syria is not exceptional. As a consequence of the Syrian civil war which was started in 2011, 13.5 million Syrians substituting for more than half of Syria’s population are deracinated, destitute or confined in difficult to access areas. Tens of thousands of Syrians have fled their nation in search of safety and access to essential amenities. Many Syrians choose to reach Europe other than Middle East countries as their destination to get asylum where they risk their lives by making the dangerous journey through the Mediterranean Sea route and both men and women face different refugee predicaments throughout their journey. At the same time, the European Union (EU) is playing a significant role in managing the Syrian Crisis, although it has been facing a remarkable advent of refugees and migrants. In 2015, the EU and Turkey officially followed a joint ‘Action Plan’, which mainly aimed to deter the gargantuan influx of outcasts and transients into the EU. However, the plan has faced a lot of criticism which argued that although the EU presented as a humanitarian actor in dealing refugee crisis, it is trying to push its responsibilities towards Turkey. Against this backdrop, this article has examined the crisis faced by the Syrian refugees after the adoption of the joint action plan. Further, it has analysed, if the said joint action plan has made their refugee journey more complicated in the EU by adding new challenges for both Syrian men and women differently.

Conditions Driving Youth Employment in Key Sectors of the Nigerian Economy

The rising incidence of youth unemployment, especially in emerging economies, calls for prompt attention of development experts and policy makers given its effect on sustainable growth. This challenge has worsened in recent times in Nigeria, hence, making it crucial to understand the factors driving youth employment. We analyzed the differential impact of sectoral growth on youth employment across rural and urban areas through a gender lens and identified the specific conditions needed for investment in sectors with potentials for job creation in the Nigerian economy. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, revealed comparative advantage (RCA), employment elasticity, and Logit regression model. It was observed that Nigeria has demonstrated a comparative advantage in the export of 17 products. Our findings also revealed that all the economic sectors in Nigeria have potential for creating employment at different levels with financial services contributing the highest (0.734) and manufacturing the lowest (0.056). The increase in education influenced employment and a higher likelihood of male youths’ employment in the services, construction, and industry sectors as compared to more female youths in the trade sector. Some common conditions that could aid firms’ production scale-up and increase job creation across all sectors include: increased access to finance, improved infrastructure (road, water, air, power, and rail), and favorable interest rates and exchange rates. We recommend that concerted effort be targeted at mainstreaming gender in all sectoral policies and key sectors be strengthened through targeted welfare reforms aimed at enhancing the capacities of the youths for sectoral relevance.

The gender dimension of outsiderness in Western Europe: a comparative cross-model analysis

PurposeThe article investigates whether and to what extent outsiderness is gendered in Western Europe, both in terms of its spread and degree. It thus explores which male and female post-Fordist social classes are more exposed to the risk of this phenomenon. It also scrutinizes whether such a gendered characterization has varied over time and across clusters of Western European countries.Design/methodology/approachRelying on a comparative analysis of the data provided by the European Social Survey (ESS) dataset and comparing two points in time – the early/mid-2000s and the late 2010s – the work provides both a dichotomous and continuous variable of outsiderness, which measure its spread and degree in the female and male workforces of a pooled set of growth models.FindingsThe empirical analysis shows that outsiderness is profoundly gendered in Western Europe and thus a feminized social phenomenon. However, the comparative investigation highlights that outsiderness has been genderized in diverse ways across the four growth models. Different patterns of gendered outsiderness can be identified.Originality/valueThe article provides a comparative and diachronic analysis of outsiderness from a gender lens, putting into a mutual dialogue different literature on labour market, and shows that outsiderness represents a key analytical dimension for assessing gender inequalities.

Relational masculinities, dependence, and insecurity: making sense of the 2015 Comfort Women Agreement by unmasking gender

ABSTRACT This article critically assesses the 2015 Comfort Women Agreement between Japan and South Korea by employing the lens of gender – an approach that, curiously, has been neglected in making sense of the so-called landmark deal. For this examination, I revisit Connell’s conceptualization of the relationship between hegemonic and subordinate masculinities, defined in terms of complicity and marginalization, and propose two interrelated concepts as a way to capture their interactive relationality. I argue that the Agreement cannot be fully understood without careful attention to a global politics of gendered hierarchical relations between hegemonic and subordinate masculinities, anchored in the mutuality of dependence and insecurity in regard to the United States, Japan, and South Korea. This is seamlessly woven into the gendered domestic politics that resonated with the Japanese government’s apology and the Agreement’s implementation in South Korea. I demonstrate how the allegedly distinct domains of the official/public and the secret/private in fact fundamentally overlap to bolster the artificial domain of masculinity – a critical factor that underpinned the Agreement, in which masculine fears and desires were implicated.

Securitisation, humanitarian responses and the erosion of everyday rights of displaced Venezuelan women in Brazil

ABSTRACT This article explores the gendered securitisation of humanitarianism through the lens of Venezuelan women who have fled to Brazil, as part of the largest migration flow in South America. By the end of 2022, the number of displaced Venezuelans had grown to seven million, half of whom were women and girls. Alongside humanitarian programmes, measures of migration control, policing and deterrence are now routinely implemented. This article explores the interplay between securitised policies and humanitarian programmes in the everyday experience of rights of Venezuelan migrant women and girls. We ask: what happens when migrant women reach Brazil, a supposed place of safety? Do they experience rights restitution and protection, or do they continue to be subject to everyday gendered humiliations? Building on fieldwork in Boa Vista and Manaus in 2020–2022, we explore migrant women and girls’ experiences with shelter and healthcare, two central pillars of humanitarian programmes. Contributing directly to literatures on migration management, humanitarianism and control, this article focuses on ‘the receiving end’ of securitised humanitarian practices and deploys a gender lens to reveal how securitised humanitarianism reproduces disciplinary dynamics of governance and creates gendered risks and vulnerabilities that erode migrant women and girl’s rights and agency in everyday life.

Achieving Equity in Emergency Medicine Quality Measures Requires a Sex and Gender Lens

BackgroundQuality measures within Emergency Medicine (EM) were developed to standardize and improve care. Their development has been limited by lack of consideration of sex- and gender-based differences. Research has suggested that sex and gender can impact clinical care and treatment. Inclusion of sex and gender differences is needed to create EM quality measures that are equitable to all. ObjectiveThe aim of the review is to provide a brief history of EM quality measures and the value of considering sex- and gender-based evidence in their development to ensure equity, using acute myocardial infarction (AMI) as an example. DiscussionCurrent quality measures related to AMI, such as time-to-electrocardiogram and door-to-balloon time in percutaneous coronary intervention, may have important and modifiable disparities when stratified by sex. Even when presenting with signs and symptoms of AMI, women experience delayed time to diagnosis and treatment. Few studies have considered interventions to mitigate these differences. However, the data available suggest that sex-based disparities can be minimized by implementation of strategies such as a quality control checklist. ConclusionsQuality measures were created to deliver high-quality, evidence-based, and standardized care, but without the inclusion of sex and gender metrics, they may not advance care to an equitable level.

‘¡O estado altísimo!’: Resounding Virginity in New Spanish Convent Sources

If virginity had a sound, it would sound like the Virgin Mary, according to devotional sources from New Spain intended for the indoctrination and spiritual contemplation of cloistered nuns. This article traces that allegory from its inception in reflections on biblical narratives of Mary’s life to some of the most complicated theological musings on the nature of the Virgin’s soul. Through the lens of gender and voice studies, this essay examines rare literature, music manuscripts, and visual art of New Spain and shows how virginity was socially constructed and deployed as a type of sonic instruction of Mary’s essence.

India’s Partition through the lens of Gender: Trauma and Triumph interconnected

The horrible tragedy of modern Indian history is India’s Partition and the consequent refugee problem. A total of 18 million people were victims of this bloody incident; undoubtedly 10 million and more had been compelled by circumstances to abandon their homes. According to Ram Chandra Guha, author of India After Gandhi, nowhere in known history had the transfer of so many millions taken place in so few days. Women were the worst sufferers of Partition because their life was terribly affected by rape, murder, plunder and devastating bloodbath of communal riots. Prafulla Kumar Chakravarty in his book entitled Marginal Men depicted the fathomless trauma of uprooted people. Actually, refugee crisis was cause of severe headache of the newly created states. In the West the crisis did not take a never- ending shape and ended after a short while. The story of Eastern Frontier was quite different. According to Bipan Chandra, the flow of refugees did not stop upto 1971 in the Eastern Frontier and it can be added that the refugees from the East was an alarming problem for the Government of India. 
 Khwaja A. Khalique in his article entitled Genesis of Partition has rightly raised the pertinent issue that the unwanted incident of India’s Partition benefitted no one.
 Undoubtedly the Partition benefitted none but affected the life of women in both Eastern and Western Frontiers in the ghastliest manner. In this article I have tried my best to discuss its tremendous influence on womenfolk of our beloved motherland.

Applying a gender lens to biodiversity conservation in High Asia

Community-based conservation efforts represent an important approach to facilitate the coexistence of people and wildlife. A concern, however, is that these efforts build on existing community structures and social norms, which are commonly dominated by men. Some biodiversity conservation approaches may consequently neglect women’s voices and deepen existing inequalities and inequities. This paper presents two community case studies that draw upon the knowledge and experience gained in our snow leopard conservation practice in pastoral and agro-pastoral settings in Mongolia and India to better understand women’s roles and responsibilities. In these settings, roles and responsibilities in livestock management and agriculture are strongly differentiated along gender lines, and significant gaps remain in women’s decision-making power about natural resources at the community level. We argue that context-specific and gender-responsive approaches are needed to build community support for conservation actions and leverage women’s potential contributions to conservation outcomes.

Semiotic analysis of English books of Punjab Textbook Board (Pakistan) with Gender Lens: Exploring the gender sensitization level of Punjab Textbook Board officers

Semiotics is visual literacy which is an important aspect of learning process involving various social aspects of a society. Visuals are used dominantly in all books of early learners because it is considered the most efficient way of learning and teaching. Representation of gender through visual literacy is the most current and debatable social issue in the contemporary world.