Gender Ideology Research Articles

Illegitimacy and Laws in Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White and No Name

Victorian sensation novels, in addition to their scandalous topics such as fraud, murder, adultery, bigamy, and madness, refer to Victorian laws and their construction by social and cultural standards. As a significant sensation novelist, one of the most important subjects Wilkie Collins calls for attention is illegitimacy, a social, political, and literary topic he recurrently employs in his fiction. In his novels The Woman in White (1860) and No Name (1862), he dwells on this issue, motivating the characters’ crimes and scandalous acts. In both novels, illegitimate characters act illegally to reconstruct their identities by challenging Victorian norms especially about illegitimacy. Concerning his life and his critique of Victorian laws and moral certitudes, this paper explores how Wilkie Collins employs and questions the theme of illegitimacy about crime, sensations, and social and legal problems that influence illegitimate children. After briefly examining illegitimacy and laws about it in Victorian England, it explores how the concept of illegitimacy is shaped and influenced by Victorian conventions and gender ideologies in the two novels.

“A public orgy of misogyny”: gender, power, media, and legal spectacle in Depp v Heard

ABSTRACT Possibly no other media event has given rise to the widespread ridiculing of domestic violence as the livestreaming of Johnny Depp’s defamation action against his former wife Amber Heard. This article analyses the social media commentary surrounding a Tik Tok released by the Milani cosmetic company, which used the attacks on Heard as an advertising opportunity. The paper contextualises Milani’s intervention in the case within the wider social media commentary targeting Heard’s makeup and appearance and maps its aftermath in the emergence of a cross-platform hashtag #BruiseKit that generated a series of viral posts and videos featuring young women painting fake bruises on their faces. It concludes that the largescale diffusion of reactionary gender ideologies evidenced in the media data was partly shaped by commercial interests and platform incentives, but not—for the most part—driven by formal political actors. Rather, misogyny was commodified. It was produced and consumed as a form of entertainment.

Questioning ‘Feminine Managerial Behavior’ – A European Study Considering Gender Ideology

The concept of a ‘feminine managerial behavior’, which implies that women in managerial positions behave differently to men in similar positions by exhibiting a more supportive management style, is both widespread and controversial. To gain new insight into the debate, this study looks at the role national gender ideology plays in structuring the relationship between sex and perceived managerial support. Based on a representative sample of 22,391 employees from 26 European countries, our findings reveal that, on average, perceived managerial support is higher when supervisors are women. However, if we control for the moderating role of national gender ideology, this difference disappears. Therefore, this article contributes to the nature/nurture debate by showing that gender differences in perceived managerial support stem primarily from persistent gender stereotypes.

Domesticating Disgust: Food, Labor, and Disgust in Colonial India

ABSTRACT This essay demonstrates the centrality of disgust to nineteenth-century Anglo-Indian culture and identity by examining a range of cultural materials, from Anglo-Indian travelogues and cookbooks to household guides and fiction. It shows how disgust shaped the creation of appropriate Anglo-Indian tastes in ways that asserted racial and civilizational supremacy. In imagining their homes as the domain of racial purity as well as the microcosmic representation of empire, Anglo-Indians sought to paradoxically eliminate disgust by depending on its very source—Indian servants. Given the alimentary embeddedness of disgust, this contradiction was particularly pronounced in thinking about culinary regimes and labor. Disgust in domestic cultures of British India, I argue, served three purposes: it identified its object, prescribed its own exclusion, and constituted Anglo-Indian subjecthood. It thus created a fiction of civilizational coherence and stability. Drawing on studies of disgust, nineteenth-century food cultures, and histories of imperial domesticity, this article shows how an affective history of the domestic culinary cultures of British India can yield stark understandings of its racialized material, labor, and gender ideologies.

Equal in East and West? Regional anti-gender discourses and heterogeneity of the European Commission’s discursive protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* and intersex rights

Recent research shows that lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* and intersex (LGBTI) rights have become a core value of the European Union. Concurrently, hostility towards LGBTI rights is increasing across the European Union, including through anti-gender mobilisations, which reject ‘gender ideology’. This study employs sequential discourse analyses to discover: (1) the regional specificities in anti-gender discourse; and (2) whether the European Commission is discursively responsive to these differences. We find that the European Commission adapts its LGBTI discourse to actual and expected regional specificities, both in the issues discussed and in the frames employed. These conclusions are relevant because they show that European Union discourse on LGBTI rights is not homogeneous and may be strategically adapted to regional contexts, which has implications for the purported universal protection of LGBTI rights in the European Union. Additionally, these findings shed light on the important but neglected role that social mobilisations play in sensitising European Union actors to regional variation in political attitudes and values.

Family migration in China: A longitudinal analysis of couples' migration behaviour

AbstractThis article addresses internal migration behaviour in the context of two‐gender‐couple households in contemporary China. Against the backdrop of increasing female education in a society where ideals in the gendered division of labour prevail, this study assesses the role of partners' education in regards to a couple's migration behaviour. Considering education to be a key resource in a couple's negotiations, we test hypotheses on gender symmetry and asymmetry of a partner's resources with regard to a couple's relocation. Additionally, we assess how the role of partners' resources varies across populations with rural and urban backgrounds, and acknowledge persistent barriers to migration due to household registration policies (Hukou) and the associated disadvantages faced by rural migrants and their children. For our analyses, we deploy longitudinal couple‐dyadic data from the China Family Panel Studies (2010–2018) and estimate couples' inter‐county moves using discrete‐time event history models. Our results suggest that couple relocations are associated with higher levels of the male partner's education, and not with the female partner's education. We do not find that partners' gender ideology moderates these associations. The role of the male partner's education was found to be more relevant in couples' relocations for those with an agricultural household registration. Our research contributes importantly to debates on persistent gender inequality and urban–rural divides in China, and how these factors permeate migration behaviour.

An unlikely coalition to defend the nation and banish “gender ideology” from Brazilian schools

In 2011, Jair Bolsonaro initiated a fight against the federal program proposal School without Homophobia (2009), which aimed to educate children, school staff, and parents on the respect to sexual diversity and prevention of violence against LGBTQIA + students. Bolsonaro’s Gay Kit unleashed an anti-gender campaign in Brazil. The fight against "gender ideology" that follows Jair Bolsonaro initial campaign indicates a turn in the articulation and the discourse of conservative and right-wing actors. This anti-gender campaign brough together groups that historically have been divided along class, race and gender lines, such as radical Catholic, middle- and upper-class white conservative Brazilians, and Neo-Pentecostals. In this paper, I analyze the power of the anti-gender campaign unleashed since the 2010s to find a common enemy, a common language and a common interest among conservative sectors of Brazilian society. I argue that gender works as the main symbolic glue that helps right-wing actors to forge a common identity in opposition to a new common Other, namely leftists. The main factor bridging them together is the preservation of the masculinist national identity that denies any form of structural inequality and critical thinking.

‘They are doing it because they love it’: U.S. and English fan perceptions of women footballers as ‘role models’

We draw from 102 interviews with American and English adults who attended the 2019 Women’s World Cup to examine how fans perceive women footballers as ‘role models’, with attention to the operations of gender ideology. Despite the recent professionalization and commercialization of women’s football, there is a dearth of research on fan perspectives of players as role models. Our findings show that most fans perceive role modelling as women’s accessibility and authenticity in interaction. Fans naturalize women’s often uncompensated labor as role models through a supposed love for their sport and desire to see its future growth, endorsing a gender essentialist view of women as notably caring and giving in comparison to men. However, a minority of fans embrace a more critical view by identifying role modelling as an expectation placed disproportionately on women within an already unequal resource environment. We conclude that role modelling is a gendered expectation for elite women footballers and that fans can be a source of pressure towards its enactment.

Marital decision-making power and husband’s happiness: evidence from a micro dataset in China

Using a micro-level representative dataset of China, the very first paper empirically analyzes the relationship between marital decision-making power and husband’s happiness. While employing the OLS and ordinal logit model, the paper finds a negative effect of husband’s marital decision-making power on his happiness in contemporary transitioning China. The conclusion remains consistent even after conducting additional robustness tests, such as propensity score matching and instrument variable analysis. The negative effect is particularly noticeable among educated men and those men living in environments that emphasize egalitarian gender ideologies, as they tend to reject the notion of men being dominant in the family. Our findings highlight the increasing acceptance of egalitarian gender ideologies among Chinese men, especially those with higher socioeconomic status, as a result of socioeconomic advancements.

Study on Gender Ideology Evolution in the "Star Wars" Film Series

With the progression of time, female roles in science fiction movies have become increasingly significant, showcasing notable changes in both their quantity and character traits. Spanning 42 years, the "Star Wars" film series of 11 movies exhibits marked differences in female character portrayal. Over several years of development, female roles have gradually moved away from the singular identity of being "objects of gaze," no longer solely passive "desires of objects" or mere carriers for the flat representation of male characters in the audience's eyes and within the films. In the current narrative mechanism of Star Wars movies, the patriarchal center has been significantly challenged, and the "female discourse subject" with agency and independent will is gradually emerging. This study aims to explore the relevant connections between these female characters and the feminist trends of the time. By decoding the imagery of women in mainstream commercial films under the patriarchal framework, it analyzes the underlying gender ideologies and attempts to explore the future trajectory of constructing female discourse.

On the Margin of Male Gaze: An Analysis of a Typical Category of Female Supporting Characters in Hitchcock's Works

Gender concepts within Alfred Hitchcock's films have long been a focal point of interest for feminist film scholars. This analysis delves into a recurring archetype of young, rejected women in Hitchcock's cinematic works, exemplified by characters like Miriam in Strangers on a Train, Midge in Vertigo, and Danielle in To Catch a Thief. The essay seeks to unravel the underlying gender ideologies associated with these characters. Through this examination, it becomes evident that Hitchcock situates these subversive female figures at the margin of the male gaze, using their misfortunes as a form of retribution for transgressing patriarchal norms. In doing so, male viewers can reaffirm their own gender identity by witnessing the punishment inflicted upon these women. On the one hand, these portrayals serve to reinforce gender stereotypes, perpetuating a well-established pattern that aligns with the collective subconscious of the mainstream male demographic, which fears the prospect of women gaining autonomy or challenging the existed power dynamics. On the other hand, the stark contrast between these marginalized characters and the heroines in Hitchcock's films can inspire alternative perspectives and independent interpretations among different audience segments.

How gender and political ideology impact women-focused aid to sub-Saharan Africa

ABSTRACT Foreign aid plays a critical role in actualising pro-women outcomes in the Global South. However, there is a paucity of research on how gender and political ideology inform gender-oriented foreign aid to sub-Saharan countries. This study examines how gender and political ideology inform the trends of women-focused foreign aid donations from Australia, Canada, Finland, and Germany to sub-Saharan African nations from 2002 to 2016. During this period, government leaders and ministers in the donor countries were from different genders and political ideologies. The study reveals that female heads of government gave more women-focused aid to sub-Saharan Africa than male heads of government. The study also found that right-wing heads of government allocated more women-focused assistance to sub-Saharan Africa than left-wing politicians. This study points to the importance of the active role of female heads of government in effectively mainstreaming and furthering the idea of gender equality on a global scale.

Navigating stigmatized motherhood: self-stigma of single mothers with mental illness in Thailand

ABSTRACT Drawing on participant observations and in-depth interviews with twenty-two single mothers with mental illness and four medical workers from a psychiatric hospital in Thailand, this article analyses the self-stigma faced by single mothers with mental illness in Thai society. Using an intersectional approach and looking at motherhood as a social construct, the article shows the connections of intersectional stigma with single motherhood and mental illness, and demonstrates its relation to gender, class, ethnicity, religion and other identity markers within the Thai socio-cultural context. Findings from the research suggest that the current gender ideology, which shapes the stigmatized mothering experiences of single mothers with mental illness in Thailand, needs to be revisited and reformed by individuals, medical workers and the state at every level.

Who Watches and Follows Girls’ and Women’s Sport?

Despite high and rising consumption of women’s sport in the United States (U.S.), limited research has addressed the social factors that lead individuals to become consumers of girls’ and women’s sport. This study uses 2018-19 National Sports and Society Survey (NSASS) data to examine the frequencies and predictors of U.S. adults’ consumption of girls’ and women’s sport. We integrate social structure and life course theories to consider social structural locations, parental and own sports involvement during childhood, adult gender ideologies, and adult sport commitments as predictors of adults’ consumption of girls’ and women’s sport. The results indicate moderate consumption of female sport, with just over half of adults appearing to spend some time watching/following female sport in the last year. Also, we estimate that U.S. adults average watching/following female sport for about one hour per week, but they report that their watching/following of female sport is typically only a small fraction of their overall sport consumption. Regression findings show consistent evidence of sexuality, number of female family members, parents’ sports fandom or athleticism, childhood sports involvement, adult gender ideologies, and adult sport commitments shaping the consumption of female sport. In addition, there is some initial evidence that gender seems to encourage men to watch/follow more female sports, but women appear more prone to watch female sport as opposed to male sport. However, gender and sexuality interact with one another in predicting female sport consumption, such that gay/lesbian identities particularly heighten consumption of female sport among women. Consequently, there is evidence that lesbians are disproportionately among the most avid consumers of girls’ and women’s sport.

The variety of anti-gender alliances and democratic backsliding in Turkey: fault lines around opposition to “gender ideology” and their political implications

ABSTRACT This article examines the politics of knowledge production and the affective politics of rising anti-genderism in civil society in contemporary Turkey with a focus on two main points: (1) the variety of actors and their different strategies opposing “gender ideology,” and (2) the effects of state–movement dynamics on the political efficacy of those strategies. The findings demonstrate that anti-gender alliances between state and civil society actors display a discursive plurality in Turkey in terms of how they manage the fluidity and heterogeneity of the opposition to “gender ideology” that links a wide range of concerns about feminist ideas, movements, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex (LGBTI+) rights. Providing a typology of the different forms of opposition to “gender ideology,” the article concludes that in the recent era the right-wing populist regime in Turkey has redrawn its alliances in the gender policy field, accommodating illiberal actors’ anti-gender demands and anti-equality policy visions. This shift toward an aggressive performance of anti-genderism renders gender equality politics more contentious through a polarizing populist form of knowledge production and affective politics and even destabilizes gender equality policies that have already been accepted.

ОТАНДЫҚ МЕДИАӨНІМДЕРДІҢ ГЕНДЕРЛІК ИДЕОЛОГИЯСЫНЫҢ ТАБИҒАТЫ

In recent years, Kazakhstan has seen active discussions regarding gender equality and children's rights in the media. A scientific article conducts an analysis of the manifestation of gender ideas in materials published in domestic media. The aim of this research is to determine the level of discussion of gender equality issues in Kazakhstani media and to understand how gender ideologies are disseminated among the audience through the media. Gender ideology is represented in Kazakhstani media through various methods and genres. Films, articles and other media products shape images not only through visual representations but also through text, cultural codes and connotations that influence perception and the formation of public opinion. Therefore, understanding gender ideology is crucial when creating informational products and shaping public opinion. It is also important to study the influence of informational products on the audience. As part of the scientific approach, a textual analysis of media materials was conducted. From 2020 to 2023, research was conducted on gender processes in the republican newspaper "Ulan" and domestic series on the Gakku TV channel, where an analysis of historical, cultural, philosophical, psychological, and comparative aspects was conducted. As a result of the research, it was found that in some media, certain humanitarian and democratic principles of protecting women's and children's rights were violated. This finding underscores the need to form a humanitarian view on the issue of gender equality and to ensure ethical and aesthetic evaluation of informational products.

The ethical formation of undergraduate students in pedagogy in times of "gender ideology": a cross-sectional study using the Defining Issues Test-2 (DIT-2)

The ethical formation of undergraduate students in pedagogy in times of "gender ideology": a cross-sectional study using the Defining Issues Test-2 (DIT-2)

GENDER THEORY AND GENDER IDEOLOGY. THE CZECH SITUATION

The social role of a person, to a large extent imposed by the person’s sex, may change. The social role is given by a social construct called gender, while sex is given biologically. Gender theory or gender studies is a branch of science exploring sex and gender. Besides and in contrast to it, there is gender ideology, or better anti-gender ideology, standing in fierce opposition to every mention of gender. Gender theory uses rational arguments, anti-gender ideology usually does not. It may be portrayed by the example of the Istanbul Convention about violence against women and domestic violence. Its topic is not gender, but it uses the word gender from time to time as a useful instrument of gender theory. However, the Convention is presented by its opponents as an instrument for spreading gender ideology. The Catholic Church or their bishops in the Czech Republic are usually of the same opinion, they are also manipulated or are the manipulators themselves. This way their opinion does not correspond to the teaching of the Vatican documents and is misleading for many Czech Catholics. Nevertheless, the influence of the Catholic bishops is diminishing in many aspects, including the question of gender.

Gender ideology and the crisis of democracy in Latin America in legislative debates in Brazil and Uruguay

Resumo: Este artigo apresenta uma análise comparativa dos movimentos antigênero na América Latina, com foco no Brasil e no Uruguai, e tem o objetivo de investigar como esses se relacionam com processos de desdemocratização. Metodologicamente, foram analisados, a partir da técnica de análise de conteúdo temática (Bardin, 2016), discursos proferidos em câmaras legislativas dos dois países sobre a denominada “ideologia de gênero” na década de 2010. Como resultados, identifica-se que a atuação via poder legislativo tem sido uma estratégia compartilhada dos movimentos antigênero, especialmente com o objetivo de fundar e/ou fortalecer as bases religiosas para avançar nas agendas conservadoras e restringir direitos. No entanto, o sucesso dessa estratégia varia de país para país. Observam-se semelhanças entre os casos brasileiro e uruguaio, mas os movimentos são mais robustos no Brasil. Este trabalho junta-se a uma série de debates que identificam nas questões de gênero um eixo estruturante do processo de desdemocratização pelo qual passam distintas democracias contemporâneas e aponta para o fato de que o posicionamento daqueles que são contrários à ideologia de gênero não se restringe a um debate no campo dos costumes, mas, principalmente, estabelece-se no campo da disputa em torno dos valores democráticos e do próprio sentido da democracia.

Housework as a Woman's Job? What Looks Like Gender Ideologies Could Also Be Stereotypes

Housework as a Woman's Job? What Looks Like Gender Ideologies Could Also Be Stereotypes