Gender Prejudice Research Articles

A theoretical assessment of Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs (in micro industry): A study of Indian scenario

Even though women make up over half of the population, female involvement in and promotion of activities connected to entrepreneurship is very limited in India. women play a vital role in the growth of society, their dreams to start their own businesses have not been effectively tapped owing to the carelessness of many parts of society, government institutions, and non-government organisations. Prior to, during, and after the process of starting their business, female entrepreneurs confront problems connected to gender prejudice as well as financial obstacles. The current study that is being conducted will try to evaluate and identify the various available opportunities and challenges that are being faced by women entrepreneurs while managing their enterprise. This evaluation and identification will take place as part of the current study that is being conducted. The primary objective of this research is to determine the status of female business owners in India, more especially in the garment industry, with a concentration on the state of Telangana. It is essential to do an analysis of the policies that are now being made accessible to female business owners by both the national government and the individual Indian states. The researcher intends to investigate whether the current policies are sufficient, and whether or not they even help to the growth and extension of the current position of women entrepreneurs in India. The anticipated result of the investigation that is now being carried out is going to be contributing to the growth of the modern entrepreneurial ecosystem in India.

A STUDY ON PERCEIVED GENDER DISCRIMINATION, JOB STRESS AND TURNOVER INTENTION IN SERVICE SECTOR OF PAKISTAN

The study explores Pakistani working women’s perceptions on gender discrimination and identifies a knowledge gap about how women are treated unfairly in positions of power. The study also focuses on the relationship of gender discrimination with job stress and how the productivity of the firms is reduced which results in employee intention to quit the organization. It further investigates the mediating role of job stress between gender discrimination and employee turnover intention. A total of 268 questionnaires were used. Based on quantitative research approach, the data analysis was done by using IBM SPSS Statistics 22 and Smart PLS software version 3.0. Bootstrapping was used on the statistical data, which showed a mediating effect between gender discrimination, employee turnover intention and job stress. The software was used to assess convergent validity, discriminant validity, cross loading and hypotheses. The results interestingly highlights that all 3 hypotheses were significantly correlated at 1% significant level. In addition, results indicated that gender discrimination had a significant influence on employee turnover intention. Companies can lessen gender prejudice by giving female employees equal opportunity. The findings of this study clearly show that prejudice is widespread and is evident in two service sector businesses. Therefore, implementing anti-discriminatory rules was strongly advised in order to enhance the organizational legal foundation.

Isabelle de Charrière, Jane Austen, and Post-Enlightenment Fiction: Writing the Shared Humanity of Men and Women

This article analyses Isabelle de Charrière and Jane Austen together in relation to the changing perception of humanity affecting European thinking at the end of the eighteenth century. Not only is Charrière’s rather lesser-known work likely to benefit from the comparison, but Austen’s novels also gain in philosophical depth when read alongside hers. Each one an outsider in her own world, Charrière and Austen wrote against the grain of inherited gender prejudices but also against the growing conservatism of binary orthodoxy around 1800. Adopting as writers a perspective freed from ‘feminine’ expectations, as opposed to the lady novelist embodied by the famous Isabelle de Montolieu, they endeavoured to invent characters and stories distinct from the pervasive definitions of the feminine and the masculine, giving readers the possibility of considering the shared humanity equally shaping men and women.

Normalisation of mental health problems: Adolescents’ views on mental health problems and stigma

Abstract Background It is essential to listen to adolescents’ views on mental health issues since these problems are common among young people. Exposure to stigmatization is an additional burden, causing increased suffering. This qualitative descriptive study aimed to explore adolescents’ views on the prevalence of mental health problems and public stigma related to mental health problems. Methods Semi-structured individual interviews and focus group interviews were conducted with a total of 32 adolescents, aged 15-18 years. The interviews were held on Gotland, Sweden's largest island, between October and December 2020. Systematic text condensation was used to analyse the data. Results Three themes were identified: Having mental health problems is the new normal; What others think of us affects us a lot; If others lack experience and knowledge, they don't respond in a good way. The adolescents perceived mental health problems as a common phenomenon. Increased mental health problems in young people were linked to pressure related to school performance, social media and improved openness about mental health problems. Stereotypic gender norms, rumours and prejudice were perceived as important causal risk factors of mental health problems. Lack of knowledge was suggested as a source of prejudice against people suffering from mental health problems. Conclusions The adolescents recognised mental health problems as an increasing public health issue, but also as a normal phenomenon due to current living conditions for young people.. They perceived stereotypic gender norms, taboo and prejudice against mental health problems as factors contributing to and increasing mental health problems and wished for a society without such factors. The results suggest that the tri-folded description of stigma involving stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination can be applicable to adolescents. Key messages

What Drives? What Restrains? Hidden Dynamics of Knowledge Transfer from Buddhist Male Managers to Female Trainees

Knowledge is power; if so, what hidden dynamics interplay during the employee training process between Buddhist male managers and their female subordinates who would potentially be future peers? Using a phenomenological enquiry, we explored hidden forces driving and restraining effective knowledge transfer and managers’ underlying beliefs, attitudes, prejudices, and motives. The findings revealed the societal and individual prejudices towards women as the restraining forces, while Buddhist ideologies and values as the driving forces of knowledge transfer. The results can be interpreted at individual, national, and organizational levels, thus leading to a new conceptualization of knowledge transfer practices in similar religious and ideological contexts. The underlying contradictions between Buddhist beliefs and societal prejudices thwarted knowledge transfer effectiveness. These findings guide practitioners to innovate practical training to initiate a paradigm shift to eliminate the harmful effect of societal ideologies and gender prejudices and integrate Buddhist values’ driving forces into knowledge transfer practices. We concluded that religious doctrines play a vital role in knowledge transfer practices, attitudes, values, and workplace behaviour in native Buddhist societies; however, future research would enhance the generalizability of the findings in similar religious contexts specific to South Asian countries.

Tracing the Voices of the Oppressed: A Reading of Bapsi Sidhwa's Novel 'The Pakistani Bride'

The purpose of this study is to examine how Bapsi Sidhwa treats the motif of feminism in her novel The Pakistani Bride. Women are oppressed, dominated, and exploited in a predominantly male-dominated society. This study aims to investigate the gender prejudices that exist in the tribal patriarchal society in Pakistan. In order to highlight the remote lives of women in an overwhelmingly male-oriented society, FTDM (Fairclough's 3-Dimensional Model) is used as a lens for analysis of the novel's text. The findings of the study demonstrate that females are oppressed and subjugated emotionally, physically, and socially. Women's marginalization, oppression, and patriarchal hegemony are all deeply rooted in cultural practices. This debate focuses on women because power in discourse identifies the exact ways in which it can be exercised physically and practically in order to achieve desired results. The textual analysis reveals the pitiful condition and deplorable treatment of women in remote areas of Pakistan. Furthermore, the research reveals that FTDM demonstrates how ideological language is used and the role of persuasive strategies in the development of social relationships.

Feeling mentally unwell is the “new normal”. A qualitative study on adolescents’ views of mental health problems and related stigma

Young people suffering from mental health problems is a public health issue, and it is important to listen to adolescents’ views on the issues that affect their lives. This qualitative study describes adolescents’ perceptions of the prevalence of and public stigma towards mental health problems among young people. A total of 32 Swedish adolescents, aged 15–18 years old, took part in either semi-structured focus groups or individual interviews. The data were analyzed using systematic text condensation, resulting in three themes: Having mental health problems is the new normal; What others think of you affects you; If others lack experience and knowledge, they don’t respond well. The adolescents considered mental health problems to be common in young people and a normal feature of their lives. They displayed an in-depth understanding for reasons of the increase in mental health problems in young people, and factors such as pressure from school, stereotypical gender norms, rumors and prejudice were suggested as possible explanations for the increase, alongside improved openness about mental health problems. The adolescents’ perceptions of the stigmatization of mental health problems were consistent with a trifold definition of stigma, comprising stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination. The adolescents suggested that better education about mental health problems, and more inclusive gender norms, would help reduce stigma and improve young people’s mental health.

Initial teacher education (ITE) students’ perceptions of typical engineers: assessing potential for bias in the formative career decision years

There is a recognised lack of women participating in engineering and STEM in most western countries. However, it is desirable for engineering cohorts to have a broad diversity. Hence, girls need to be encouraged into all engineering fields, but especially those traditionally dominated by men such as civil, mechanical and software engineering. A number of factors influence students’ critical career decisions. In particular, teachers influence their students in a number of different ways, some overt and others subliminal, including influencing students’ self-image and belief in capability. Students between the ages of 11–13 years often develop images of themselves that can exclude them from careers in technology related careers such as engineering.This study conducted structured interviews with 20 initial teacher education students and two of their lecturers. The interviews considered the students experiences in their own career selection, the reasons one may encourage someone to consider engineering, and the participants of engineering and engineering practice. Interpretation of interview transcriptions indicated that most final year teacher-education students held either limited or stereotypical views of engineering. Participants thought of engineers as mainly for men or “country-type” girls who were good at maths and science. Most recognised the practical nature of engineering, some the academic nature. There was little recognition of the social and empathetic characteristics required.These outcomes imply a gap in understanding that may cause teachers to rely on their gender prejudice, rather than the skills beneficial in the career when providing career advice to potential engineers.

Breaking Through Despite the Odds: Learning from the Career Experiences of Successful BAME Women

The obstacles that minority groups face can often result in perceptions that success is beyond one’s control, further resulting in feelings of powerlessness, dependency, detachment, and resentment. Unlike their white counterparts who face ‘glass ceiling’, ethnic minority women who have less support and even fewer opportunities to advance, encounter “concrete ceiling” or “concrete walls” which are more difficult to break. Societal and organizational structures often put prejudicial barriers in their path which overlook merit, thereby impeding their advancement to senior positions. Being constantly overlooked, despite being competent, can negatively impact their leadership aspirations. So how do these women shield themselves from the frustration and marginalization that comes with the racial and gender prejudice they face and how do they achieve career success? To understand this, we interviewed 50 ethnic minority women in senior leadership positions. Deviating from the norm in business and management literature, we adopt a positive psychology perspective and delineate elements of Hope to examine their career goals, their motivation to reach these goals (agency) and how they go about achieving these (pathway). We found that the women in our study were hopeful in their goal pursuit, aware of the disadvantages they faced, anticipated these, and successfully identified pathways to achieve their goals and advance their careers. We develop a conceptual model based on our findings which has theoretical implications for both diversity and career success literatures.

Exploring Men’s Perceptions of Women’s Role in Agriculture: A Qualitative Study of Union Council 79, Multan

In the patriarchal society of Pakistan, women are viewed as inferior to men. This gender prejudice is also evident in the agriculture industry. This study intends to investigate men's perceptions of women's role in agriculture-related activities. Utilizing a qualitative study design, the researcher conducted six focus group discussions and eight in-depth interviews with the men in Multan district, Punjab, thematic analysis was performed on the data in order to deeply comprehend the phenomenon. The bulk of the male population partially recognises women's contributions in the agriculture sector, the study revealed. Most of the population believed that poverty is the primary reason why women work in agriculture. In men’s views, women are weaker than men and, as a result, unable to conduct agriculture-related activities, particularly the activities requiring extra force. Their attitude was strongly patriarchal in that they viewed women as unpaid or low-paid workers. The vast majority of the population recognises that their contribution is of crucial importance to food security. It can be concluded that the majority of male members view women as lesser and weaker workers than males. Men's sexist attitudes toward women demonstrate the urgent need to confront patriarchal society, which not only hinders women's development in the agriculture industry but also affects their productivity and food security.

Questioning gendered ageism in job-related non-formal training and informal learning

ABSTRACT Age can lead to stigmatisation, which is aggravated in groups that are already at risk of exclusion, such as women. This intersectional bias between age and gender (gendered ageism) affects so-called mature workers (aged 50 and over) in different ways, including the prejudices of employers and workers regarding their skills and competencies, as well as regarding their motivation to participate in training. In this article we analyse mature female workers’ level of training, motivation, and use of job-related skills, with the aim of providing evidence that breaks with ageist gender prejudices on this issue. For this, we conducted a descriptive analysis using ANOVA, and we applied structural equation modelling in an analysis of the PIAAC data of the OECD (2016), dividing the entire sample (n. = 31,739) into four subsamples (women −50; women 50+; men −50; men 50+). In our descriptive analysis, female older workers achieve the highest scores in almost all the variables. Our proposed model, resulting from multigroup comparisons among the four subsamples, has a more optimal fit and structural coefficients of greater weight in mature female workers than in younger ones, especially regarding the influence of informal learning at work on the level of use of job-related skills.

“It will be difficult for you to move on from this…” An Autoethnographic Study of Hitting the Glass Ceiling in an Academic Recruitment Process

This narrative is an autoethnographic study of how discrimination and prejudice counteract the academic meritocratic system. In Sweden, which is one of the most gender-equal countries in the world, opposition to gender equality and prejudices against what is considered the Other can be hidden and thus reproduced in decision-making processes and structures. This narrative shows how a professorial recruitment process bypassed the meritocratic system i.e., the system in which qualifications and educational results in combination with the individual’s achievements should play the greatest role in the promotion process. This is a story about how the supposed meritocracy is twisted and manipulated within university contexts and how the “temperament” of a foreign female researcher is utilised to exclude her from entering through the coveted doors of academic departments. Different experiences, characterised by demanding conditions, have been analysed with the help of gender theoretical perspectives, opposition to gender equality, intercultural perspectives and a number of social psychological perspectives linked to prejudice. The description is interwoven with previous experiences from younger years, which together contribute to an increased understanding of the individual narrative and its specific context.

Certification to compensate gender prejudice – Analysis on impact of management system certification on export

ABSTRACT Management system certification signals that the organization meets international standards, which provides a certain confidence in the company. This confidence is in particular needed for exporting companies in developing countries. Because the business world is dominated by men, female leadership might be another reason to have less confidence in a company. Women-led companies may therefore benefit more from certification. Therefore, this study empirically tests the impact of certification on export, and the moderating effect of female leadership. We use data from enterprise surveys conducted by the World Bank in 2013 that include 4111 firms from 25 Central and Eastern European countries in transition. We implement a recursive bivariate probit model and an extensive sensitivity analysis to account for endogeneity issues. Results confirm that certification and export are positively correlated. Firms managed by females benefit more from certification based on international standards than firms managed by men, especially in the service sector. This suggests that certification compensates for the possibly negative connotations of female leadership. Female managers may consider implementing a management system and get it certified, resulting in a competitive advantage in export markets. Our findings provide food for thought for purchase managers – are they free from prejudice?

Criminalization of femicide in Latin America: Challenges of legal conceptualization

The concept of femicide was created within the feminist theoretical field of studies influencing Law reform in Latin America. Eighteen countries throughout the region have criminalized femicide based on different legal provisions, in intimate and nonintimate relations. This article aims to provide a comparison of legal definitions of femicide as adopted in Latin American legal frameworks and to analyze the challenges of using law to give a name to the gender-based killings of women. The transition of the concept to law may partially impact its potential since other forms of gender-based violence may be hidden in a general clause of ‘gender prejudice’. It may also lead to restricted recognition in the legal system since traditionally this system operates in a conservative way wherein individual criminal liability has limitations in addressing institutional discrimination. Despite regional challenges, criminalization has contributed to raising social awareness on gendered killings. It has induced improvements in statistics and pushed for more attention on prevention policies and support for survivors and relatives. Nevertheless, current conservative movements tend to stress only the punitive approach and entail backlash on gender equality policies. This comparative study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the concept in the region.

Initial Validation of the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory in a Military Setting

The military is a work environment in which the underrepresentation of women and the presence of gender prejudices continue to exist. The present study validated the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI) for the Croatian military population. To determine the ASI scale’s basic metric characteristics, data were collected from a sample of 895 active-duty military personnel (445 men and 450 women). The study results determined satisfactory measurement characteristics for the ASI scale and confirmed the ambivalent sexism construct with its basic dimensions. Sexism in the military environment was found to a moderately high degree, and gender differences were observed. Three types of sexism endorsement were identified in both subsamples (egalitarian, moderate egalitarian and traditional for women, and moderate egalitarian, traditional and hostile for men), with additional differences detected in their socio–demographic and professional characteristics. The findings support the apparent exposure of women to sexism in the military environment, and suggest the need to raise awareness of the negative impact of gender prejudice on gender relations in the military.

Awareness of the Cultural Ego and Gender in Lonely Marriages by Shantichitra

This paper explores the novel Lonely Marriages that revels the inner psyche of women who search for free-will, as it questions the cultural ego that procreate the gender discernment and prejudices that predominate the country constructed by the representations of ancient mythologies. Such prototypes have been replicated and expected to be followed and obeyed in the ways of life trailing to the dangers of abandonment if not abide by the rules it infers. The paper ventures the consciousness of the female characters who reciprocate the cultural ego, as the writer puts it, to describe the biases shaped against women.

Gender Prejudices in Ekegusii Language: A Case of Proverbs/Wise Sayings

The advent of the twentieth and the twenty first century has seen languages embrace gender neutrality consciously and these changes in languages have contributed to gender equality. In this regard, the power of languages cannot be ignored in shaping people’s social constructions and their roles in societies. Studies have indicated that languages have the power to create and enforce gender determinism and the marginalisation of the feminine gender. Currently, both English and French have embraced inclusivity, whereby there is a deliberate attempt to move away from the use of the masculine as the default form for nouns, to the use of gender-neutral words. This may not be the case for many other languages of the world. That is why this article investigated the use of prejudiced language in Ekegusii paying particular attention to proverbs or wise sayings. Specifically, the article investigated the gender inferences, the roles and the stereotypical constructions in the proverbs or the wise sayings. It also investigated the effect of these gender inferences on the users’ perceptions in constructing their identities as men or women. The Social Constructionism Theory guided the analysis while a descriptive field linguistic design was used. Judgemental sampling was then used to sample proverbs from the Ekegusii dictionary and thereafter analysed them to determine the gender inferences, the roles, and the perceived gender constructions. The findings revealed that the figurative language used in these proverbs had underlying gendered prejudiced language that perpetuates historical patriarchal hierarchy that denotes men as norm. Further, the gendered prejudiced language outlines roles that influence members of the society to conform to specific societal expectations in line with their gender therefore forming stereotypes. Proverbs or wise sayings mirror essentially, a culture of a given people. Their continued use indicates one’s prowess in a given language and it is deemed prestigious. Therefore, it is hoped that the findings herein will awaken the users on the gendered ideologies in some of the proverbs so that even as they use them, they may conform to the modern trends of gender-neutral language.

Career Decisions and Strategies of Women in Protestant Ministry

Special difficulties arise for women even today if they wish to pursue their career as Protestant ministers. These difficulties are partly the disadvantages experienced also by women in other professions – like horizontal segregation and glass ceiling, expectations based on traditional gender roles, stereotypes and prejudices, or even discrimination –, but partly they derive from peculiarities not characteristic of secular professions, which mostly have to do with expectations related to roles based on the conservative values and norms characteristic of religious environments as well as with the fact that conditions and expectations have been tailored to men traditionally in this profession. In spite of these difficulties more and more women are choosing the ministerial profession all over the world, including Hungary. Our study investigates how the ministerial profession is constructed for women. We have focused on the formative personal decisions made in the course of women’s career as ministers as well as on those respective influences exercised by their personal environment and the religious institutions that had impact on their decisions. We have provided an overview of the career decisions made by female ministers along with criteria and difficulties related to the decisions. We drew the conclusion that the decisions outline three typical career strategies for female ministers. It is characteristic of all three career strategies that the decisions related to private life and the decisions related to the profession are very intertwined and interdependent. We argue that secular professions tend to be quite different from the ministerial profession in this respect. This study is based on our research („Nők a lelkészi pályán” NKFIH K-128313) in which we have analyzed 26 in-depth interviews with female ministers.

Feminism, Intersectionality, and Gender Category: Essential Contributions for Historical Thinking Development

The following article inquires how introducing the gender category, feminism theories, and intersectionality into social sciences education, especially regarding historical thinking development, could be key for the construction of a more critical and egalitarian future. The main research problem is knowing how the use of the gender category is included, or not, in the development of historical thinking in pre-service teacher beliefs and how it could condition them when they work on historical and social problems in the classroom. The main objective is to analyze the historical thinking development in pre-service Spanish teacher students and their capacity for constructing critical discourses with a gender perspective. Pre-service teachers of five Spanish universities (of the Primary and Secondary Education Degree) were asked about a report from a digital newspaper version that forces them to use historical thinking and to consider gender stereotypes and prejudices. Their responses were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results indicate that pre-service teachers are not able to identify their own gender roles and prejudiced attitudes when they attempt to explain a social problem and they propose solutions, even when they could verify that there was another manner to understand this report. Hence, this research highlights the relevance of implementing feminism, intersectionality, and gender category for historical thinking development since these future teachers need to work around democratic culture competences. By contrast, not including this perspective will lead to them still maintaining historical thinking and democracy configured on hegemonic, heteropatriarchal, sexist, and Eurocentric cultural models.

Gender Prejudice Within the Family: The Relation Between Parents' Sexism and Their Socialization Values.

Gender inequalities are still persistent despite the growing policy efforts to combat them. Sexism, which is an evaluative tendency leading to different treatment of people based on their sex and to denigration (hostile sexism) or enhancement (benevolent sexism) of certain dispositions as gendered attributes, plays a significant role in strengthening these social inequalities. As it happens with many other attitudes, sexism is mainly transmitted by influencing parental styles and socialization practices. This study focused on the association between parents' hostile and benevolent sexism toward women and their socialization values (specifically, conservation and self-transcendence), that are the values parents would like their children to endorse. We took both parents' and children's sex into account in the analyses. One-hundred-sixty-five Italian parental couples with young adult children participated in the study. Parents, both the mother and the father, individually filled in a self-report questionnaire composed of the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory and the Portrait Values Questionnaire. Findings showed that mothers' benevolent sexism was positively related to their desire to transmit conservation values to their sons and daughters. This result was also found for fathers, but with a moderation effect of children's sex. Indeed, the positive relationship between fathers' benevolent sexism and conservation was stronger in the case of sons than of daughters. Moreover, fathers' benevolent sexism was positively associated with self-transcendence values. Finally, fathers' hostile sexism was positively associated with conservation and negatively with self-transcendence. Limitations of the study, future research developments, and practical implications of the results are discussed.