Gender Ideology Research Articles

Claiming Space: Representations of Female Railway Travelers in Victorian Novels

abstract: The emergence of passenger railways challenged separate spheres gender ideology in terms of public and personal space. The presence of women passengers threatened Victorian assumptions that travel is a masculine activity and railways are a masculine space. Women travelers were perceived as suspect, in terms of social standing and sexual reputation, especially if unaccompanied. This analysis explores representations of female rail-travelers in Victorian novels, whose increased mobility subverted and redefined gendered ideas about public and private spaces. The onset of railway travel marked a cultural shift contributing to the breakdown of separate spheres ideology.

Multidimensional gender ideologies: How do they relate to work-family arrangements of mothers with dependent children in Poland and western Germany?

This study uses a multidimensional approach to identify gender ideologies and investigate their association with work-family arrangements among mothers of dependent children in Poland and western Germany. Based on data from the Generations and Gender Survey, we apply ordinal latent class analysis and identify five gender ideology classes: (1) traditional, (2) intensive parenting, (3) ambivalent, (4) moderately egalitarian, and (5) strongly egalitarian. In both countries, we find that the intensive parenting class resembles the traditional class in terms of lower maternal employment, a more gendered division of housework and childcare, and a smaller probability of using formal childcare, whereas the ambivalent respondents mostly practice work-care arrangements that are similar to the moderately egalitarian class. With respect to informal care, mothers who identify with strong egalitarianism significantly differ from the traditional class in western Germany, but they do not in Poland—thus highlighting the role of the cultural and institutional context in explaining the complex links between mothers’ gender ideologies and work-family arrangements.

Mitigating Gender Stereotypes Toward AI Agents Through an eXplainable AI (XAI) Approach

People often apply gender stereotypes toward computerized agents. Rather than challenging these stereotypes, modern AI technologies controversially use them in creating AI agents that underline stereotypical gendered roles. This approach thus further reinforces the often male-dominated societal gender norms and disenfranchises women and gender non-binary individuals. While this issue has raised concerns in the HCI and CSCW communities, still little is known regarding how to mitigate the negative impacts of embedding gender stereotypes in AI agents. In this paper, we propose an eXplainable AI (XAI) approach to mitigating individuals' gender stereotypes toward AI agents. We conducted an online video vignette experiment with 350 participants randomly assigned to one of the eighteen conditions of a 3 (gender of the agent: woman, man, gender-neutral) x 3 (task gender: feminine, masculine, neutral) x 2 (presence or absence of AI explanation) between-subjects design. Our findings indeed suggest that XAI helped participants avoid applying gender stereotypes toward gendered AI agents, by increasing their understanding of how the agent came to its decision and decreasing their rating of the agent's humanlikeness. We contribute to CSCW research by providing a timely investigation into individuals' gender stereotypes toward the state-of-the-art AI agents and by advancing the empirical understanding of the cognitive processes and mechanisms underlying these gender stereotypes. We also demonstrate how eXplainable AI can effectively suppress the application of social characteristics (i.e., gender stereotypes) toward AI agents by disrupting the said cognitive processes. Insights from this study can inform how future AI technologies should be designed to create a progressive gender reality that will gradually reshape humans' experience and ingrained gender ideologies.

Consistent Egalitarianism or Heterogeneous Belief Patterns? Gender Ideologies in Contemporary East and West Germany

Abstract Studying gender ideologies is crucial for understanding the work and family related behaviors of women and men. This paper analyzes the gender ideologies of respondents living in East and West Germany, and whether these belief patterns differ by socio-demographic characteristics. To this end, latent class analysis is applied to eight gender role items from the FReDA 2021 survey. The results show the presence of a consistent and widespread egalitarian gender ideology in both regions, as well as a less prevalent traditional one in the West. Additionally, heterogeneous gender ideologies are to be found with egalitarian essentialism present in both regions, and intensive parenting only in the West. Respondents with a lower level of education and males have higher chances of holding non-egalitarian ideologies. The findings align with the literature on persisting East-West differences in gender ideology, and with research on the diversification of gender ideology.

Persistence of the Gender Frame: Gender Perceptions of Ambiguous Chinese and Gender-Neutral American Names in the United States

How do people conduct gender classification in ambiguous contexts? A gender framing perspective suggests the pervasiveness and consequences of using gender in novel contexts, but there is a paucity of knowledge about how people assign a gender to ambiguous targets in interpersonal relations. This study fills in this knowledge gap by investigating how U.S. individuals classify the gender of two types of gender-ambiguous names—Chinese names written in English letters and gender-neutral American names. It also examines how respondents’ gender ideologies and racial stereotypes are associated with their perceptions of gender-ambiguous names. An online survey experiment with 795 U.S. individuals finds that respondents predominantly assign a binary gender (versus neutral or unsure) to both Chinese names (40.8 percent men and 37.4 percent women) and gender-neutral American names (41.1 percent men and 19.4 percent women). Multivariate analyses reveal that respondents with traditional gender ideologies associate a gender-binary perception with gender-neutral American names rather than Chinese names. Meanwhile, respondents who endorse the racialized stereotypes that Chinese people are socially cold and/or generally competent are more likely to perceive Chinese names as men’s names. These findings demonstrate that a gender-binary frame persists in ambiguous contexts, and that the classification outcome is conditional on contextual signals and preexisting cultural beliefs. They also deepen understanding of gender neutrality during social interactions and a gendered nature of racialized stereotypes.

Futile attempts to remake the world: Wars in the North Caucasus and refugee masculinities in Poland

AbstractThis study describes the lived experience of an Ingush refugee man to examine how wars in the North Caucasus became a part of his daily life. Concentrating on individual life, the study discusses a gendered “recovery” pattern among Chechen and Ingush asylum‐seeking men who were encamped in Poland between 2007 and 2009. The study shows how attempts to remake the world reproduced trauma while fostering the perception that the ongoing life aligns with the prevailing gender ideology in the sending societies. The recovery process was hindered owing to protracted precariousness and uncertainty. When displaced men fail to remake the world at collective centers for refugees, they may become detached from life in a way that supports the formation of novel forms of sociality. The study's findings may reverberate to the present political and socioeconomic landscape, where multiple crises impact the subjectivity and autonomy of refugees.

Walking the Orientalism Tightrope: How Muslim Americans Construct their Gender Ideologies

Walking the Orientalism Tightrope: How Muslim Americans Construct their Gender Ideologies

An unmethodical method: Contextualising the critical essay

This paper charts a theoretical and literary genealogy for what I term the critical essay, which I define as a literary essay that includes analysis of an artwork amongst its objects of inquiry. After briefly outlining the increasing prevalence of the critical essay in contemporary letters, I review theoretical schemas surrounding the critical essay, and grapple with the terminological slippage of labels like “essay” and “criticism”. Drawing from Marxist and feminist schools of literary studies, I argue that alternative forms of critical writing have generally been propounded not as literary modes but rather as scholarly revolts against disciplinary strictures. I argue that such alternative forms of critical writing share a desire to invent modes of analysis and expression capable of challenging dominant class, race and/or gendered ideologies. I go on to propose that the critical essay may be capable of disrupting the epistemological frameworks undergirding public criticism, making space for writers who, due to their subject positions, have not historically been conferred critical authority.

From self-sacrifice to self-awakening: G. G. Alexander’s translation and adaptation of the story of Diaochan from Sanguo yanyi

ABSTRACT In the 1860s, George Gardner Alexander translated the story of Diaochan from the Chinese classical novel Sanguo yanyi (Romance of the Three Kingdoms) and then adapted it into a five-act play, Teaou-shin. This adaptation is the most typical example of textual transformation in the English transmission history of the novel over the past two centuries, showcasing how textual intervention can reflect and engage with contemporary social issues of the recipient society. Through an art form that was popular with the British audience at the time, the play made effective use of the British theatrical tradition. On the basis of adopting the general plot of the story of Diaochan, the play adapted to the social realities of Victorian England and remodeled the characters. By manipulating the theme of the story, Alexander showed solidarity with the women’s rights movement of the time. Through changes in form and content, the story adapted to the literary tradition of England and the gender ideology of the time, catered to the tastes and expectations of Victorian readers and audiences, and conveyed Alexander’s stance on the “woman question”.

Role Models or Inferior Participants? Chinese News Portrayals of Gender and Disability in the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games

The question of how gender and disability are portrayed in sports media is less explored in many societies including China. This research investigates the Chinese news portrayals of female versus male Paralympians and their relationships with the Chinese sociocultural context. Employing Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (Multimodal CDA) to analyze language and images in Chinese news coverage of the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games, this study finds evidence that female and male Paralympians are both constructed as inferior physicalities in sports. However, in the discourse of ableism and sexism, female Paralympians are doubly marginalized from the perspectives of physicality and masculinity. The display of sexism further trivializes female Paralympians by portraying them as feminine, infantile, and physically inferior compared to male Paralympians. The discursive representations interact with body ideology, disability discourse, and gender ideology in post-reform China, further strengthening the dominance of males and the non-disabled in and beyond sports.

Feminism, Femininity, and Negative Embodiment: A Contemporary Meta-Analytic Test

AbstractPrevious work has examined the relations between feminism, feminine gender roles, and body image concerns with inconclusive findings. The purpose of this study was to conduct an updated meta-analysis of the relation between feminist identity and negative embodiment, and to conduct new analyses to test how endorsement of femininity relates to negative embodiment. Through the technique of meta-analysis, we analyzed 80 studies (87 samples, N = 24,308) and 217 effect sizes to examine these associations. The predictor variables were measures of feminist identity and endorsement of femininity. The negative embodiment criterion variables were measures of body dissatisfaction, self-objectification, internalization of cultural body ideals, and disordered eating attitudes. Feminist identity was found to be negatively associated with negative embodiment, but only modestly, with small but significant effect sizes across most variables. Endorsement of femininity was found to be positively associated with negative embodiment, with mostly significant effect sizes ranging from small to large. These findings underscore the importance of considering the roles of feminist identity and traditional gender ideology in the etiology and prevention of women’s experiences of negative embodiment.

Alignment, negation, and androcentricity: representation of bride price by Chinese state media

ABSTRACT Bride price in China, the groom-to-bride monetary transfer, generally falls into realms of sociology and cultural studies, with the media perspective less explored, particularly when it concerns the state media which steers China's media system. In light of this, this study collected state media Weibo posts and made a content analysis of the representation of bride price with Wodak's discourse-historical approach. The social underpinnings and implications of such representation are also examined. Results reveal a general negation of the practice. It is linked to crimes and categorized as an outmoded custom that burdens men, and low/no bride price is advocated. These representations, although in alignment with Beijing's anti-high-bride-price agenda, remain androcentric. The study helps unravel the interplay among state power, gender ideology, and media representation in contemporary China, and offers insights on how patriarchy is perpetuated in official discourse. It also illuminates how government agendas are legitimized and strengthened in everyday texts on social media in the Chinese sociopolitical matrix.

The Intersection of Ideology, Subjectivity, and Social Psychology: A Psychoanalytic Approach

This study explores the role of ideology in social psychology and psychoanalysis by drawing on the theoretical approaches of key figures such as Martín-Baró, Moscovici, Lacan, and Žižek. The research highlights how ideology functions as a structure influencing human subjectivity and actions, particularly through the mechanism of fantasy as articulated in Lacanian theory. Ideology is not only seen as an explicit system of beliefs but also as an unconscious process that shapes identification and social interaction. Through in-depth analysis, this study demonstrates that fantasy plays a crucial role in reproducing ideological structures, thereby enabling the persistence of the existing social order. The study also expands our understanding of how gender and political ideologies are produced and reproduced in everyday life. By integrating psychoanalytic concepts and ideological analysis, this research offers a new perspective on understanding human subjectivity within a social context and proposes a more comprehensive theoretical framework for analyzing the relationship between social psychology and ideology. These findings are expected to contribute significantly to the existing literature and encourage further research in this field.

An analytic framework for theorizing the anti-gender agenda in education

This article theorizes the global anti-gender movement in education. This conservative movement opposes “gender ideology,” which is perceived as a threat to traditional social values. Building on a systematic literature review of how the anti-gender movement shapes educational policies, politics, and practices, with a specific focus on Brazil and the US, this article presents a theoretical framework for conceptualizing: 1) the contested meanings of “gender ideology”; 2) its discursive components; 3) the characteristics and composition of anti-gender alliances; 4) the anti-gender agenda’s manifestations in curriculum, pedagogy, the social relations of schooling, and education policy. We attempt to highlight the ways in which anti-gender politics often operate together with racial politics to reveal the ways in which conservative, right-wing alliances, frequently predicated on and united through anti-Blackness, white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny, exert influence on educational policies, politics, and practices to simultaneously maintain a white supremacist, cis-heteronormative, and patriarchal state. We conclude with a discussion of the contradictions of this agenda and resistances to these conservative attacks on equity, inclusion, diversity, and human rights.

Further semantic change of the derogatory sociomorpheme tái in Chinese gender-related Internet neologisms

Internet neologisms provide discursive spaces for grassroots netizens. This study examines a pair of gendered labels gaining popularity in Taiwanese online forums: táinán ‘Tai-man’ and táinǚ ‘Tai-woman’. The quantitative keyword analysis based on a corpus of online data suggests that táinán and táinǚ are pejorative labels. The qualitative discourse analysis of the keywords in context presents gender stereotypes associated with táinán and táinǚ, respectively. Converging evidence for the negative attitudes toward táinán and táinǚ is obtained in a questionnaire survey. The shared morpheme tái inherits localness-related ideologies and interacts with gender ideologies concerning ideal manhood and womanhood, and it has come to index an ideological contrast between favorable foreignness and unfavorable localness. This study contributes to the current literature on Chinese morphological patterns studied in social contexts. Moreover, this study presents evidence that changes in social meanings also follow the dominant trajectories of other semantic changes.

Civic-military schools in Brazil: Feminist lenses to uncover a patriarchal, white supremacist, and queerphobic project

This article examines the rise of conservative policies in Brazilian education, particularly since 2014 when teachers became targets of accusations related to "ideological indoctrination" and "gender ideology." The Non-Partisan Schools Movement has significantly contributed to fostering a climate of distrust and the militarisation of education has gained momentum under Jair Bolsonaro's presidency (2019–2022). Focusing on the Civic-Military Schools Program (PECIM), the article employs relational and feminist lenses to analyse the arguments of conservative supporters. Although the policy does not overtly promote anti-gender or anti-feminist rhetoric, its documents and implementation reveal underlying biases. While militarisation is framed as a means to improve educational quality, results indicate a dangerous initiative involving untrained military personnel, abusive behaviours, and practices that undermine the self-esteem of girls, queer and Black students. An intersectional feminist perspective, therefore, is fundamental to highlighting contradictions in conservative discourse and interrupting their policies.

Reclaiming Black (Female) Subjectivity and the Othered Gaze in Harriet's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Analyzing White Representation in the Black Imagination

This essay explores the representation of whiteness and the reclamation of black (female) subjectivity in Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by a black female author during the antebellum period, Jacobs’ narrative offers a unique critique of the hegemonic power structures that defined her era. The essay examines how Jacobs uses her narrative to subvert the dominant racial and gender ideologies, presenting whiteness as the Other and reclaiming her identity and agency through the act of writing. By analyzing the text through the theoretical lenses of Slave Narrative, Feminist Discourse, and Otherism, this paper highlights the complex ways in which Jacobs negotiates her subjectivity in a society that systematically denies (her) black humanity.

Paul and Pseudo-Paul: Authorship, Ideology, and the Difference of Androprimacy

This essay proposes a new conceptual approach to authorship and gender ideology in the Pauline corpus through the neologism ‘androprimacy’. I maintain that in addition to the scholarly literature that has engaged questions of authorship in the Pauline corpus and its relevance for the ordination of women, approaching this topic from the angle of ‘androprimacy’ exposes a distinct structure of sex-based discrimination that Paul rejects (1 Cor 11.11–16) and that the author of 1 Tim (1 Tim 2.11–15) affirms, demonstrating that androprimacy was a contested ideology in the first century, a relevant finding for promoting women’s ordination.

Reimagining maternity: a multimodal analysis on the identity construction amongst Chinese “Married, child-free” women in Xiaohongshu

ABSTRACT This study delves into the distinctive narrative of “Married, Child-Free” within China’s social media context, specifically analyzing user-generated posts on Xiaohongshu, a popular platform among young Chinese females. Through Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA), this research uncovers thematic elements of the “Married, Child-Free” discourse, their encapsulation via multi-modal semiotic resources, and their interplay with pervasive sociocultural and gender ideologies. The emergence of the “Married, Child-Free” narrative stands as a crucial paradigm shift in virtual feminist interactions, craftily maneuvering within accepted marital norms while contesting the inevitability of motherhood. This narrative is embedded in consumerism and neoliberal principles of self-governance and individualism, symbolizing a movement away from overt resistance to an innovative negotiation of societal norms. The “Married, Child-Free” discourse offers potent perspectives on maternal consciousness, presenting motherhood as a choice rather than a societal decree. The study’s exploration of such discourse contributes to dialogues around women’s autonomy, gender dynamics and the re-imagination of societal norms, ultimately informing paths towards gender parity and societal progress in contemporary China.

“My Parents Rejected all these Employment Opportunities”: An Intersectionality Perspective on Minoritized Gender Ideology

In the case of conservative minority women who are dependent on their families, selecting a field of study can be clarified by understanding it from an intersectionality approach underscoring their minority status, living within a family in a way that changes and manifests itself in different ways along their life-course. The weight of dependency on parents who are more conservative, a weight allowing for the inter-generational gap in conservatism to predominate the selection of field of study, is often neglected, receiving less attention. In this article we focus on Arab-Palestinian women in Israel, minority graduates of a teacher education college, as an opportunity to investigate possible inter-generational discrepancies. More specifically, the weight of these discrepancies in the development of a minoritized gender ideology; namely, the process in which a field of study and the institution of study were selected, selections that are currently reflected upon vis-â-vis employability considerations and family obligations. By studying minoritized gender ideology, we contribute the voice of an additional social location to the repertoire of diverse Muslim women’s voices. Further, we elaborate on the notion of minoritized gender ideology together with embedded agency, pointing out the salience of the temporal dimension of intersecting religion, ethnicity and gender.