High-profile Women Research Articles

On Political Misogyny

Many political scientists hold that vitriolic speech against high-profile women has only negligible effects on other women in politics. They also contend that the prevalence of such vitriol is consistent with gender bias having no significant negative impact on most women in politics. This article argues that these sanguine positions rest on inadequate and untested assumptions regarding misogyny, and the role it plays in politics. In the service of putting us in a position to test the relationship between gendered discourse in particular elections and the structural obstacles faced by women in politics, this article develops a conceptualization of political misogyny: nasty claim-making that instills repugnant connotations into women’s collective political identities (e.g., their partisan identities). Attention is also paid to how political misogyny can distribute hatred burdens disproportionately among different groups of women.

Maximizing Women's Motivation in Domains Dominated by Men: Personally Known Versus Famous Role Models.

Two studies (n = 1,522) examined the impact of role models in sport and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains where gender discrimination has resulted in a lack of high-profile women. We examined the role of gender matching of personally known and famous exemplars on women's and men's motivation. Participants nominated a woman or man in sport (Study 1) or STEM (Study 2) who was either famous or known to them personally; they then indicated the extent to which they perceived this individual to be a motivating role model. Women and men were more motivated by personally known (vs. famous) role models. For famous exemplars, both women and men were most motivated by same-gender models (Studies 1 and 2). For personally known exemplars, men were similarly motivated by same- and other-gender models (Studies 1 and 2), but women were more motivated by same-gender models in sport (Study 1). Mediation analyses indicated that personally known (vs. famous) exemplars and, for women, same- (vs. other-) gender exemplars, were perceived as more attainable future selves and consequently were more motivating (Study 2). Given that there are fewer famous women in domains dominated by men, it is important to know if women can be inspired by personally known rather than famous individuals. These studies provide insight into the kinds of exemplars that are most motivating for women and may serve as a guide for educators and other practitioners seeking to provide the best role models for girls and women in domains dominated by men. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ's website athttp://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/03616843231156165.

‘Everything you need to embrace the change’: The ‘menopausal turn’ in contemporary UK culture

In recent years, the UK has witnessed an unprecedented period of pronounced public cultural conversation and promotion around a newly inflected era of menopause awareness. Importantly, this ‘menopausal turn’, as I term it, can be identified in operation throughout multiple and intertwined cultural spaces, including education, politics, medicine, retail, publishing, journalism, and more. While this invigorated conversation might be welcomed at many levels, this article examines how it would be both naive and indeed hazardous to conflate the amplification of cultural attention to menopause and demand for greater provision of menopause support currently seen in the menopausal turn, with greater inclusivity. This shift in UK media discourse has been nowhere more apparent than in the preparedness of a significant number of high-profile women celebrities and public figures ready and willing to share their stories and lend their names to confessional menopausal disclosures of one kind or another. Adopting an intersectional feminist media studies approach, I particularly examine how understanding of menopause is being envisioned and bolstered through this celebrity prism as primarily the terrain of White, cisgendered, middle-class affluence - even aspiration at times - and insist this movement be identified and acted on by all those engaged in studying or shaping menopause in the media as a pressing matter of consequence, in order to advocate for more intersectionally-conscious accounts of menopause.

WOMEN AND PEACEBUILDING: CAN NIGERIA LEARN FROM OTHER COUNTRIES?

The inclusion of women in conflict resolution and peacebuilding is an important notion that has been well documented. Despite a widespread call for inclusive peacebuilding and progress in some African countries, in Nigeria, women are yet to achieve direct representation in formal peace and policy decision-making processes. The complex nature of conflict in Nigeria makes it imperative to explore all possible solutions to peacebuilding, including women’s potential, which remains largely untapped. This article examined, through a review of the literature, the strategies that women employed to achieve direct representation at the table in formal peace talks in Kenya and South Africa. The conflict situations in the two countries resonate to some extent, with some of the current insurgencies in Nigeria.  The strategies of both the Kenyan and South African women were similar.  High-profile women in the two countries brought their skillset and competencies to work across women’s groups regardless of social, religious, or political affiliation. They formed strong coalitions and were able to unite to the lobby, dialogue, and push for representation in formal peace talks. They engaged with the government to be included as negotiators and mediators. In Nigeria, there is a need to change patriarchal norms and traditional mindsets that prevent women from representation at the peace table through sensitization. It is also essential to enlighten relevant stakeholders, especially the government, on the importance of leveraging women’s skillset in peacebuilding initiatives.

A Casa dos Estudantes do Império (CEI), as poetas africanas da década de 50 e os filmes de Sarah Maldoror

Nos anos 50, em Lisboa, vários estudantes provenientes de diferentes colónias portuguesas em África encontraram-se na CEI –Casa dos Estudantes do Império, um centro cultural e de lazer para universitários e intelectuais vindos de África ou da Ásia. Sublinharia nomes como Amílcar Cabral (1924–1973), Mário Pinto de Andrade (1928–1990) e Agostinho Neto (1922–1979), famosos ativistas que, naquela altura, investiram em formas de resistência cultural contra o colonialismo, sendo a literatura um dos meios para despertar reflexão/ consciência política no meio estudantil. As mulheres que se destacaram neste meio cultural e académico foram Noémia de Sousa (1926–2002), Alda Lara (1930–1962) e Alda do Espírito Santo (1926–2010). Esta investigação reavalia o papel destas três mulheres na frente de intervenção cultural para a formação da consciência política coletiva que desembocou nas lutas de independência das colónias portuguesas. Estas três mulheres também são as primeiras autoras integradas nos respetivos sistemas literários nacionais, tornando-se figuras fundadoras numa genealogia do contributo literário das mulheres. No entanto, as suas obras também representam uma geração particular, enquadrada pela atmosfera da CEI. Como consequência do ativismo político desenvolvido nos corredores da CEI, alguns dos jovens intelectuais comprometidos tiveram de deixar Portugal, exilando-se em Paris, onde se reuniram em torno da revista Présence Africaine. Este artigo também explora a ligação da CEI a Paris, via Mário Pinto de Andrade e a sua mulher, a cineasta Sarah Maldoror (1938–),a qual adaptou textos de Luandino Vieiraao cinema(Monangambé, 1968,and Sambizanga, 1972). Na altura, o cinema de Maldoror foi um meio para divulgar internacionalmente o regime contra o qual o povo angolano lutava. O objetivo final desta investigação é explorar a articulação entre a obra destas quatro autoras e o ativismo política da CEI.

Sporting Women and Social Media: Sexualization, Misogyny, and Gender-Based Violence in Online Spaces

This study investigated gender-based violence targeting high-profile women in virtual environments through the case of women’s tennis. Using a netnographic approach and the lens of third-wave feminism, 2 popular social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter) were analyzed to examine social commentary and fan interaction surrounding the top-5-seeded female tennis players during the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. Athletes were exposed to violent interactions in a number of ways. Four themes were identified through data analysis: threats of physical violence, sexualization that focused on the female physical appearance, sexualization that expressed desire and/or proposed physical or sexual contact, and sexualization that was vile, explicit, and threateningly violent in a sexual or misogynistic manner. Findings demonstrate how social media provides a space for unregulated gender-based cyberhate targeting high-profile women in their workplace in a way that traditional sport media does not.

Towards a research agenda for examining online gender-based violence against women academics

ABSTRACT Gender-based violence in virtual environments is commonly experienced by women and girls, and online abuse has become a significant social problem. High profile women in a variety of professions often become victims of online violence. The topic of online gender-based violence has to date received scant academic attention. Little is known about how female academics are represented and treated in online and social media spaces. Academics are increasingly exhorted to disseminate their work and to engage with an audience outside academia but the online violence against female academics compromises their ability to fulfil this agenda. This paper provides insight into the literature surrounding the experiences of women academics negotiating virtual spaces and further presents a research agenda in order to explore the phenomenon more closely. In doing so, we highlight the need for greater protection and regulation of virtual environments in order to support those who use them.

Territories of Contested Womanhood: Pussyhats, the Pachamama, and Embodying Resistance in the Era of Hashtag Feminism

In response to a recent surge of openly misogynistic political discourses at the highest levels of government, a vibrant wave of hashtag feminism across the Americas evidences women’s widespread concerns over their bodily and territorial rights. Engaging Twitter and Facebook as digital archives-of-the-present, in conjunction with ethnographic interviews and surveys conducted in Peru and in the United States, we analyze protest symbols in two high-profile women’s rights movements: the United States #WomensMarch and the Peruvian #NiUnaMenos March. For Native women in both movements, the land grabs perpetrated by state and corporate actors factored as heavily into their resistance motivations as did their concerns over bodily rights and reproductive justice, which were the central concerns of non-Native women respondents. In the United States, the majority of protesters used the pussyhat as an organizing principle to react against politicians’ allusions to the physical abuse of women and their policy-driven threats to reproductive choice; meanwhile, some Native women donned the warbonnet scarf to recognize their intersectional oppressions under Donald Trump. In the Peruvian context, women across the nation took to city streets with blood red paint dripping down their thighs to provoke social memory of a recent era of forced sterilizations under Alberto Fujimori. In the Andean highlands, Aymara and Quechua women invoked the Pachamama, or Earth Mother, as a vibrant ally to aid in their battle against threats to their bodily sovereignty and the ongoing destruction of indigenous landscapes. Within these two hashtag movements, we find a pattern of mainstream communications that emphasize body as territory, while indigenous protest symbols focus not only on who is being grabbed—but where.

The Feminization of Forced Migration during Conflict: The Complex Experiences of Algerian Women Who Fled in the ‘Black Decade’

Abstract The rise of fundamentalism and terrorism, and the violent acts committed against women, during the Algerian conflict of the 1990s (the ‘Black Decade’, also referred to as the Algerian ‘Dark Decade’) undoubtedly had a catalytic effect on the mass feminization of Algerian migration. However, they arguably served to amplify an existing migratory movement of women. This article argues that, during times of war or internal conflict, violence and a climate of fear may be the main reason why women flee, but it is not the only one. Women’s forced migration is complex and is often related to specific, gender-based oppression, which is exacerbated by conflict. This research, conducted amongst highly skilled women who left Algeria during and after the Black Decade, reveals that their decisions to leave were also greatly influenced by their position as women: the violence specifically targeted at educated or high-profile women, women’s legal situation and the oppression they experienced in family and society. Yet, despite the UNHCR’s gender guidelines, the complex experiences of women fleeing gender-based violence often remain unacknowledged by national asylum regimes.

Where are the women? Evaluating visibility of Nigerian female politicians in news media space

This study examines the spatial representation of Nigerian women politicians in the news media of Africa’s most populous country. Through a content analysis of newspaper coverage of four high-profile women politicians during the 2015 electoral cycle, the study investigates the visibility of the women in three national newspapers. The analysis shows that women do not only occupy limited space in the news media but are also marginalised in political news despite decades of advocacy for gender equality. Although women have become more active politically since the end of military dictatorship in 1999, their participation and engagement in politics is not reflected in media coverage. The study argues that the degree of visibility of women in political news entrenches marginalisation and reinforces assumptions that ‘only men do politics.’ From this standpoint, the study illustrates how newspapers reinforce patriarchal understanding of politics and consequently highlights the manifest and latent obstacles that women encounter in the political arena. It comes to the conclusion that the relative absence of women in media spaces is emblematic of public perception of their political status.

Gender, authentic leadership and identity: analysis of women leaders’ autobiographies

Purpose Leadership theories have moved from viewing leadership as an innate trait, towards models that recognise leadership as a social construction. Alongside this theorisation, gender and leadership remain of considerable interest, particularly given the under-representation of women in leadership positions. Methodological approaches to understanding leadership have begun to embrace innovative methods, such as historical analyses. This paper aims to understand how high profile women leaders construct a gendered leadership identity, with particular reference to authentic leadership. Design/methodology/approach Thematic analysis of autobiographies, a form of identity work, of four women leaders from business and politics: Sheryl Sandberg, Karren Brady, Hillary Clinton and Julia Gillard. Findings Analyses reveal that these women construct gender and leadership along familiar normative lines; for example, the emphasis on personal and familial values. However, their stories differ in that the normative extends to include close examination of the body and a sense of responsibility to other women. Overall, media representations of these “authentic” leaders conform to social constructions of gender. Thus, in the case of authentic leadership, a theory presented as gender neutral, the authenticity of leadership has to some extent been crafted by the media rather than the leader. Originality/value The study reveals that despite attempts to “craft” and control the image of the authentic self for consumption by followers, gendered media representations of individuals and leadership remain. Thus, alternative approaches to crafting an authentic leadership self which extend beyond (mainstream) media is suggested.

Media Capital or Media Deficit?

This paper will focus primarily on how women in leadership roles are represented in the media using a feminist critical discourse approach (FCDA). There is a tendency amongst some feminist media analysts to homogenise all media as sexist, but contradictory tendencies are evident, especially with the rise of new media platforms. On the one hand, the news value of “unexpectedness” affords women in prominent leadership roles relatively high media capital. On the other hand, even ostensibly positive coverage can help to reinforce the limited and limiting perceptions of women that circulate in the mediatised public sphere. For instance, the hybridised gendered interactional and rhetorical styles favoured by many women in public sphere roles have led to them being evaluated as inauthentic by mainstream media institutions. This paper will investigate these contradictory tendencies through a focus on case study evidence of dominant media constructions of British, Irish, and US female political leaders. The paper will conclude by considering briefly the use of Twitter, blogs, and other new media platforms by high profile women in politics in order to bypass the persistent interpretative control exercised by some mainstream media institutions.

Politicizing Bodies: Hegemonic Masculinity, Heteronormativity, and Racism in News Representations of Canadian Political Party Leadership Candidates

Based on the argument that bodies are politicized when their gendered, sexualized, and racialized features are woven into mediated political discourses, our study investigates newspaper coverage of candidates for the leadership of Canadian national political parties. A systematic intersectional analysis of reporting on 30 candidates who competed in 13 leadership contests found that only certain bodies are seen to embody and personify political leadership. High-profile women, a gay man, and a Black woman were noticed for their visual dissonance from the prototypical body of the political leader, as news coverage highlighted their physical characteristics in ways that marked them as aberrant and inauthentic in their desire for political power. Men with physiques incompatible with idealized masculinity were also presented as incapable of offering commanding performances on the political stage. We conclude that deeply held cultural norms, based on hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity, and racism, are expressed in news mediation of political leadership competitions.

Aïcha's Sounith Hair Salon: Friendship, Profit, and Resistance in Dakar

Whereas high-profile women leaders in Dakar, Senegal’s Sunnī movement engage public media like radio and television to disseminate their movement’s ideals of Islamic reform and modesty for women, lesser-known female authorities convert private spaces like their homes into public forums (“internal publics”) as a means to perpetuate Sunnī norms. This article examines the case of Aicha, who as owner of a prosperous Sunnī beauty salon that she operates in her living room, educates other women about reformist values and provides employment for female adherents. In this way, lesser-known female authorities like Aicha may spread more potent political and countercultural messages about state secularism, tarīqas, and Muslim femininity for the movement than illustrious female Sunnī leaders.

In the Balance: Women and the 2011 Scottish Parliament Elections

The victory of Alex Salmond and the SNP in the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections has changed the political arithmetic of Scotland. Yet while Scottish politics adds up very differently, some numbers have remained stubbornly similar. Four elections on, the 'new polities' dream of gender equality in political representation has yet to be realized in the face of political indifference and party inaction. While the SNP has some high-profile women, only around one in four of the victorious SNP MSPs is female. Two of the eight new Cabinet secretaries, Nicola Sturgeon and Fiona Hyslop, are female, as are four of the ten ministers. Women comprise 31.6 per cent of the 19strong Cabinet, compared with 27.5 per cent of the SNP parliamentary party. Overall, women took just 45 out of 129 seats in Holyrood (34.8 per cent) in the fourth elections, compared with previous highs of 39.5 per cent in 2003 and 37.2 per cent in 1999.

Comparing domestic and returnee female entrepreneurs in China: is there an internationalisation effect?

The number of women entrepreneurs in China has increased rapidly with the development of China's new economy. These entrepreneurs consist of returnees and domestics. This study seeks to identify the key patterns in the entrepreneurial development of the two groups and the factors that influence their career paths and success. We study the entrepreneurial development of women entrepreneurs in China through historical review and case studies of 12 high profile women. As compared to domestics, we find that returnees are relatively more educated, start their businesses younger or reach executive positions at a

Gatekeepers of Venture Growth: A Diana Project Report on the Role and Participation of Women in the Venture Capital Industry

Women have received a disproportionately low share of available venture capital in the United States. This study provides the first overview of women decision makers in the venture capital industry. Data from Pratt's Guide to Venture Capital Sources for 1995 and 2000 was analyzed to identify the numbers and characteristics of women in management positions. In addition, high-profile women venture capitalists were interviewed.The study tested the hypothesis that the presence of more women in decision-making roles in the venture capital industry would provide greater access to capital for women entrepreneurs. Three key points were considered: (1) whether highly visible, experienced women venture capitalists exist in the venture capital industry; (2) whether such women venture capitalists influence decision making in their firms; and (3) whether such women venture capitalists increase the flow of women-led deals to their firms.Results indicate that the venture capital industry is overwhelmingly male; that pre-existing relationships provide an important link between entrepreneurs and venture capitalists; and that women venture capitalists do not give preferential treatment to women, although 70 percent are in partnerships that have closed deals with women-led companies. It appears that the presence of more women venture capitalists would lead to the following: increased network connections between venture capitalists and women entrepreneurs; increased numbers of proposals to women venture capitalists; a greater likelihood that firms will invest in women-owned firms; an increase in women's access to capital; and a more powerful voice for women in the country's entrepreneurial progress.

Women's Representation in the 2007 Scottish Parliament: Temporary Setback or Return to the Norm?

NTRODUCTION Since devolution, Scotland has been one of the world leaders in terms of levels of women’s representation: substantial proportions of female parliamentarians were returned in both the 1999 and 2003 elections. The ‘female face’ of the Scottish parliament was widely regarded as one of the ‘success stories’ of devolution and as evidence of a new kind of politics (Brown 2001, Burnside et al. 2003, Mackay et al. 2003). However the 2007 elections have resulted in the first drop in the number of female MSPs since the creation of the parliament. In the third elections, women took 43 out of 129 seats in Holyrood (33.3 per cent), compared with 39.5 per cent in the 2003 elections and 37.2 per cent in 1999. In terms of the victorious SNP, the performance on women’s representation was comparatively poor. Although the party has a number of high profile women

How old is too old for fertility treatment?

Women are delaying starting their families. High-profile women such as Cherie Blair and Madonna are having successful pregnancies with healthy babies in their forties. Is this sending out messages to women that delaying conception during their twenties and thirties is a good idea? Fertility treatment can overcome certain age-related hurdles but is certainly not the magic wand some expect it to be.

How Old is Too Old for Fertility Treatment?

Women are delaying starting their families. High-profile women such as Cherie Blair and Madonna are having successful pregnancies with healthy babies in their forties. Is this sending out messages to women that delaying conception during their twenties and thirties is a good idea? Fertility treatment can overcome certain age-related hurdles but is certainly not the magic wand some expect it to be.