Male Bastion Research Articles

‘When I walk through the stadium’s gate, I have to be a man among the others’: doing gender by female Tunisian football fans

ABSTRACT Focusing on female fans of professional football teams in Tunisia, this article highlights the ways in which gender is performed within the specific context of football fandom. Based on a qualitative sociological study conducted through 23 semi-structured interviews with a group of women who identify as football team fans, this article analyses fandom's feminine performance. By examining the behaviours of women in the stands, a space dominated by male fans, the article explores the values, language, and gestures they adopt (and do not adopt) in reference to the characteristics valued in Tunisian society. The existing patterns of male dominance are reinforced by the various dimensions of the fans’ gender performance in this ‘male bastion’. Although women seem to accept male dominance and gender hierarchies in order to be recognized as authentic fans, the results show that women both construct and deconstruct their gender, highlighting the kaleidoscopic nature of gender.

Antagonistic Classes of Victorian Society in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights: Female Book Knowledge as Cultural Mediator

Abstract This study argues, through a series of close readings, that female book knowledge resists unified interpretation in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847), contradicting the widely-held Victorian assumption according to which discursive freedom is an exclusively male bastion of privilege. It instead concedes that self-instruction in the novel crosses cultural boundaries and perpetuates an ideological hegemony through the book as an agent of reconciliation. Book-knowledge in the novel is not the exclusive preserve of men, but a source of creativity for both ladies and ladies’ maids. Language and narrative technique, the study reveals, serve to unveil contrasts between servant and gentle folk, fashionable and popular manners, enforced and self-propelled reading.

Vachana Sahitya: A Revisitation to the Contribution of Sivasaranes (Women Saints ) to the Literary World

It was presumed that writing was the talent of only the male bastion till the recent past. Women were not to be seen or heard in the scenario of literature. To the contrary, the pages of history give some instances of women’s writings, such as hymns from the Rig Veda by Lopmudra, Gargi, Maitreye ; the testimonials of Buddhist nuns from the sixth century BC; body of work by 12th century Vachanakartiyaru (Women Saints) and a number of works by unknown women poets, novelists and so on. When we look at the status of women during various historical ages, we realise that it is not very satisfactory except during the Rig Vedic period. It was the same during the early 12th century. The women were controlled by the old orthodox traditions and rigid practices with no freedom and no voice of their own. The multi-faceted socio-religious movement called Sarana Movement or Vachana Chaluvali brought huge changes in the society. This movement involved all spheres of life such as social, economic, religious and literary reforms. The movement aimed at establishing a casteless, classless society and sowed the seeds of Gender equality. The movement brought women an honourable existence. Women were not only given opportunities to realize their physical and spiritual potential but also enjoyed equality with men. A free atmosphere during the 12th century led more than thirty women writers to express their independent and new thoughts. The vachanas became the medium to express their every day experiences. Since the ‘Saranas’ & ‘Saranes’ used common regional dialect to compose the poems they were able to reach the people. Through this simple medium called ‘vachanas’ they were able to bring in changes in the society. Women writers like Akkamahadevi, Bonta Devi Sattyakka, Lakkamma, Nilambike, Gangambike and others wrote about various concerns, mystic experiences, vows, nature, kindness, blind beliefs & other ill practices in the society. This paper is an attempt to revisit the contribution of women saints to the literary world.

Female philanthropic voluntary action: the battle for the hearts, minds and souls of Victorian sailors, soldiers and their families

ABSTRACT This article examines the relationships and networks of a group of philanthropic women working among the male bastions of Army camps, naval ports, garrisons and warships from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Concentrating on five women through autobiographical and biographical accounts, this article focuses on the nature of their relationships and broader female networks and considers the impact these combined elements had on their activism. The women were proactive setting up sailors’ and soldiers’ institutes in England, Ireland and around the British Empire, promoting evangelical beliefs and an anti-alcohol message through temperance pledges. It argues that interconnectivity, as told in their life stories, was crucial to help them face the challenges of their everyday work and suggests that their wider links to other proactive philanthropic females and membership of benevolent associations kept them informed about altruistic developments and helped to strengthen their professional activism.

Women directors in Italy: 1913–2017

Corporate elites have been male bastions until very recently and businesswomen have been very few and difficult to track. This paper addresses this topic by investigating the presence of women among the directors of the top 250 Italian joint-stock companies in eleven benchmark years spanning from 1913 to 2017. It shows a male preponderance throughout the period investigated. Women were nearly totally excluded from Italian boards until the end of the 20th century and their number showed a sizeable increase only after the turn of the century. Women also occupied marginal positions in the boards: very few of them held multiple directorships and the first female interlocker appeared only in 1972. In a country dominated by family capitalism, for a long time the very few women directors sat on the boards of family firms and were members of the families that owned these firms. The presence of women in Italian corporate boards was boosted in recent years by the introduction in 2011 of mandatory gender quotas for listed firms and for firms participated by the state. This law provided legitimacy to the appointment of women on boards also in other firms not affected by the new regulation. The massive increase in seats held by women led to a professionalisation of female directors in Italy, even though women are still largely excluded from top executive positions.

French female youth and sports inspectors and the challenge of neoliberalism during the Trente Glorieuses

In a society where the politics of life is geared toward maximizing the physical and psychological dimensions of human capital to ensure economic growth, France’s Inspectorate for Youth and Sports played a key role in disseminating a new mode of governance of bodies and youth—a form of self-governance based on the rising neoliberal values that emerged during the period of the Trente Glorieuses. Representing a tiny minority in an essentially male bastion, a small number of women, cherry-picked for their expertise and effectiveness as inspectors, came to play a vital role in a new mode of youth governance aimed, against a backdrop of social control, at encouraging young people to assume greater self-responsibility and to take ownership of their physical education and activities. Guided by research in the human and social sciences as a basis for rethinking how physical education is taught in schools, women may be seen as key contributors to the emergence of a new ethos designed to develop the ability of French youth to adapt to the social and economic transformation of capitalist society by appealing to the psyche (superego) and self-regulation. Despite promoting a “differentialist feminism”.

When Women’s Football Came to the Island

This article looks at the early development of women’s football in Ireland, examining the cultural impact of the first women’s matches, and how this early heritage has laid foundations for future developments. Women took to playing association football not long after it was first established as a male bastion during the latter half of the nineteenth century. These early matches attracted large crowds, public and press criticism, and in some instances social disorder. The article first examines how the Irish press presented this sporting innovation and the first exposure to actual matches when the British Ladies Club arrived to play in Belfast in early June 1895. Beyond the expected disapproval, there is evidence that debate took place on women’s general role in society, and in particular how females could engage in sport. Also examined is the way British Ladies Club presented themselves as upper-middle-class, and how this contrasted with the way they were portrayed in the press. New research is presented, which casts doubt on the club’s middle-class image and shows how friction between the club and its main sponsor arose when a true picture of the players’ backgrounds came to light. In conclusion, the author contrasts the Irish response to the British Ladies Football Club with the women’s sides that played during World War I and the post-war period. It is shown that the early matches of the 1890s paved the way for a more appreciative and accepting audience.

‘Camera Obscura’ to ‘Camera Dentata’: Women Directors and the Politics of Gender in Malayalam Cinema

This article examines women directors in Malayalam cinema as historical subjects, looking at the manner in which they place themselves within Kerala’s cultural semiotics and its popular imaginary, disrupting or legitimising an illusion coded to the measure of gender desires and differences within its semiosphere. The logic of commercial cinema demands that women directors fall in sync with the representative politics of the male gaze and a capitalist libidinal economy, seducing women into passive codes of femininity and aligning men within the registers of a hegemonic masculinity, in effect foreclosing the play of alternative languages of desire. Malayalam cinema has had two kinds of women directors, one who tries to puncture this logic from within the male bastions of popular cinema, and the second who strives to be an ‘other’ to the mythmakers of the phallic order. The article attempts to read the first mode of intervention using the Marxian specular metaphor of the camera obscura as a hierarchical apparatus of ideological inversion where the real is substituted by a spectacle of the illusory. To analyse the latter, the article puts forward the metaphor of camera dentata – that modus of representation which seeks to topple the patriarchal and capitalist ideological predispositions of the cinematic apparatus, thus rendering it capable of diminishing the power of phallic signifiers and ‘the moral panics of sexuality’ they engender.

Jaipur Literature Festival, the Gendered Literary Field, and the MeToo Movement in India

As the literary field in India begins to become more complex, layered and diverse in terms of its gender representation despite the stubborn persistence of many aspects of its “tradition” male bastion character, the most celebrated and successful literary festival in the country emerges as a microcosmic manifestation of this tussle for power. Based on an autoethnographic account of the literary festival over eight editions and a close narrative of the sessions in its 2018 and 2019 editions along with a look at how these editions were reported in the media, and placing them within the frame of scholarship researching literary festivals as representations or fragments of “public culture”, this article looks at gender representation at the Jaipur Literature Festival in the immediate aftermath of the two waves of the MeToo Movement in India.

Toward a “reconfiguration of the material and ideal foundations” of gendered entrepreneurship?

PurposeThis paper aims to analyze social sex relations by hypothesizing a reconfiguration, in a future time, of the “material and ideal foundations” of gendered entrepreneurship.Design/methodology/approachThe approach consisted in adopting the gender approach in order to identify, on the one hand, the material and ideal elements that underlie the dominant entrepreneurial ethos; on the other hand, to question, starting from a “heuristic hypothesis”, the emergence, in a future time, of representations, behaviors and practices opposable to the dominant entrepreneurial ethos.FindingsThe research outcomes reveal that by investing in traditionally male bastions, women develop entrepreneurial dynamics detached from any gendered approach. This approach suggests how the representations, behaviors and practices related to the dominant entrepreneurial ethos can be modified.Originality/valueAt a great distance from some “naturalization of competences”, this paper deals with the modalities that contribute to overcoming the principles of gender differentiation. It proposes a theoretical framework to understand how the mobilization of the gender approach, characterized by the lack of differentiation of skills, invites, from a “heuristic hypothesis”, a questioning of the dominant entrepreneurial ethos.

Attitude towards Women in Fighter Flying Among Aircrew of IAF: A Pilot Study

Indian Air Force (IAF) has been pioneer in the Indian Armed Forces which accepts new technology and concepts readily. Accepting women in fighter flying was the last male bastion in IAF waiting to be demolished which finally happened in 2015. The first batch of women fighter pilots have been inducted into IAF and have started operational flying in the Squadron. It has been shown that at times policy decision leads to change in attitude of a cohort. However, this can be proved only if there are objective data available prior to policy decision and after considerable time of its implementation so that the change can be investigated scientifically. This pilot questionnaire was designed to understand prevalent attitude towards women in fighter flying in IAF. In addition, Attitude towards women Scale was used on the same subjects to understand their attitude and answer of the pilot questionnaire. The aim of this pilot study was to obtain a baseline data for use in the future for evaluating any change in attitude towards women due to change in policy by allowing women in fighter flying. This pilot study was a part of bigger study planned on the subject.

Theaterdramaturgien von der Aufklärung bis zur Gegenwart by Evelyn Deutsch-Schreiner

Reviewed by: Theaterdramaturgien von der Aufklärung bis zur Gegenwart by Evelyn Deutsch-Schreiner Dagmar C. G. Lorenz Evelyn Deutsch-Schreiner, Theaterdramaturgien von der Aufklärung bis zur Gegenwart. Vienna: Böhlau, 2016. 351 pp. The Graz-based theater scholar Evelyn Deutsch-Schreiner offers, in her study Theaterdramaturgien von der Aufklärung bis zur Gegenwart, an incisive, innovative approach to the history and practice of German-speaking theater from the Enlightenment to the present day with a focus on dramaturgy. Embedded in her project are analyses of major Austrian representatives and their interaction with German and non-German theater practices and personalities. Deutsch-Schreiner begins by examining the changing tasks and missions of the dramaturge as literary advisor to directors and theater companies, script and program designer in charge of programming and scheduling, market researcher, and hands-on consultant. These roles differ from one historical period to another and depend on the inclinations and talents of the individual dramaturges. Deutsch-Schreiner’s project is inclusive and far-reaching. It explores the history of German dramaturgy beginning with a pace-setting essay on Lessing and his theoretical and practical contributions to the development of German-speaking theater. The discussion then proceeds to markedly different dramaturges such as Schiller, Brecht, Heinar Kipphardt, Dieter Sturm, and the Swiss dramaturgy represented by the exile Kurt Hirschfeld. Finally, Deutsch-Schreiner records the entrance of female dramaturges into the traditionally male bastion by examining the work of Stefanie Carp and Nadine Jessen and their impact on contemporary theatrical practice. In the unfolding mosaic, Austrian dramaturgy, represented by Joseph Schreyvogel, Arthur Kahane, and Hermann Beil, figures prominently, both in its own right and as a force influencing and fertilizing German theater. Through their contacts with German and international actors and theorists and their appointments at German and international stages, these Austrian dramaturges transported the stage tradition of Vienna and Salzburg across Europe and, during the Nazi era, across the Atlantic. Deutsch-Schreiner’s approach is inclusive and supranational. She explores German dramaturgy and the genre of drama more generally within the cosmopolitan and increasingly professional context as part of European and Western conventions and aesthetics. She notes that the trajectory of the first theater journal, a model for Lessing’s undertakings, aimed to be international in character and fostered a universal concept of theater (31). Schiller, the first freelance dramaturge, likewise emphasized his cosmopolitism and envisaged [End Page 188] enlightened audiences. Still, Deutsch-Schreiner takes into consideration the dependency of the dramaturge upon local conditions and requirements, e.g. the Weimar stage, and she notes a change in paradigm in the late eighteenth century when the Burgtheater was named the German Nationaltheater. The influential Viennese dramaturge Joseph Schreyvogel perpetuated the Enlightenment tradition with Schiller as his model, but, as Deutsch-Schreiner writes, as a critic and practitioner he also supported Austrian authors such as Grillparzer, whom he discovered and mentored, thus providing new thematic and formal trends. His production of König Ottokars Glück und Ende, Deutsch-Schreiner argues, made Grillparzer’s play the iconic patriotic Austrian drama. The study also discusses the impact of the Austrian censorship laws since Maria Theresia on the history of theater as well as the stifling effect of the normative aesthetics and forms of expression designed to repress liberal ideas. By placing Arthur Kahane, Max Reinhardt’s first dramaturge, in a central position in her study, Deutsch-Schreiner stresses the importance of Vienna’s Jewish bourgeoisie as an innovative element in the development of theater. Relocating to Berlin, Kahane and Reinhardt played an important role in the cultural interchange between the two capitals and as an integrating force in northern and southern theater life. Deutsch-Schreiner traces these personalities’ activities at a variety of theaters and thematizes Kahane’s interest in American authors such as Eugene O’Neill, jazz, and modern musicals. For Deutsch-Schreiner Kahane’s death on the eve of the Nazi takeover (and the banning of his books) as well as Reinhardt’s death in exile mark the end of a vibrant theatrical culture, which, as she implies, was opportunistically invoked in the postwar era to appropriate Reinhardt’s theater as iconically Austrian. Following a review of...

Something is Working—But Why? Mixed Rooms in the Norwegian Army

In a qualitative study of masculinities in the Norwegian Armed Forces, we found the expected sexual harassment and some more unexpected episodes of what we name solidarity masculinity. But we also uncovered some possible and surprisingly positive effects of male and female conscripts living together in so-called mixed rooms. The rooms seemed to function in a way that promoted mutual understanding, de-sexualization and reduced sexual harassment. Our findings gained a lot of attention in the media worldwide, and they have also been tested empirically by other Norwegian researchers using quantitative methods. Although their findings strengthen our hypothesis that “something is working” inside these mixed rooms, we are doubtful about the validity of some of their findings and how they interpret them. We doubt that what is experienced by putting young women and men in the same room for 7–8 weeks can tell us much about the possibilities of breaking through the glass ceiling for women in male-dominated organizations, or speaks in favour of higher quotas for women in male bastions. The effects of these rooms might best be understood as a kind of gender-positive secondary socialization in cultures where gender equality enjoys a high standing. Strong leadership, common goals, and equal positions also seem to be needed in order to get the desired effect of reduced stereotypes. This finding is in line with the contact hypothesis postulated by Thomas Pettigrew in his studies of integration. To our knowledge, our study is the first on mixed rooms in the Armed Forces, despite the fact that they have been in use in Scandinavia for almost 25 years.

Demythologizing Draupadī

Draupadī, the wife of the five Pāṇḍavas in the Mahābhārata, is a much discussed character who has been interpreted in various ways, for example as a tragic character, the heroine of the epic, and even as a witch who is responsible for causing mass destruction, the Kurukṣetra war. With all the associated complexities, Draupadī remains one of the most intriguing of characters, a figure who has baffled readers and critics alike over the ages. The present study seeks to analyze the explications of one of the most haunting episodes of the Mahābhārata, the disrobing of Draupadī, as portrayed in contemporary folk art and theatre, which seek to demythologize one of the most controversial characters in the canon of Indian literature and deconstruct the Phallocentric ideology that informs the epic. The study takes into consideration Saoli Mitra’s play, Nāthavatī anāthavat (“Five Lords, Yet None a Protector”), which is an attempt to view Draupadī through “a pair of woman’s eyes,” together with Teejan Bai’s dramatized rendering of Draupadī cīrharaṇ. It seeks to draw comparisons with the original epic as well as between the works of these two theatre artists and their style of narration in order to evaluate how far they have succeeded in providing radically different interpretations of the character while providing the essential message of the episode. These two artists share some striking characteristics as they take up the rural folk tradition and enter the male bastion, using dramatized theatrical techniques, such as live music and dance to act out multiple roles, all the while recontextualizing the episodes, often offering a social critique, demythologizing the myth, and presenting the essential message of the epic that is expressed in mythical terms.

Women Legal Professionals in Lucknow: A Study of Gender Discourse in Courts of India

There are one hundred eighty one women legal professional registered as advocates in Central Bar Association of Lucknow in list of valid voters, 2012 as against around three thousand five hundred thirty one male counterparts. Her population of one against twenty not only creates a kind of a psyche of minority segregated from mainstream but also promotes innumerable kinds of dimensions of their victimization. The post-colonial industrialization, urbanization and modernization of traditions forced her to acquire degrees first for the marriage market then for acquiring professional degrees to cope with the rising standard of living without having required transformation of mindset predominantly dominated by gender inequality since antiquity. After a prolonged legal battle she ultimately also entered into a male dominated bastion of legal profession. The gender discourse of men and women legal professional of Lucknow District Court revolving around her own individual perceptions, family problems and discouragements, vicious atmosphere in the court, discrimination on the parts of clients and judges, veiled sexual behaviourism of male professionals and in spite of all such negativities her determination for survival among male bastion was the foremost objective of collecting empirical data in the single court of Lucknow. The present research paper based upon interviews of around seventy three women practitioners attempts to study her overall conditions for survival and determination of struggle for continuity and existence.

Women in the club: gender and policy making in the Senate

In the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, Democrats and Republicans were locked in a fierce battle for the female vote. Democrats charged Republicans with waging a war on women, while Republicans countered that Democratic policies actually undermined women's rights. The women of the Senate wielded particular power throughout, planning press conferences, appearing on political programs, and taking to the Senate floor over gender-related issues such as workplace equality and reproductive rights. The first book to examine the impact of gender differences in the Senate, Women in the Club is an eye-opening exploration of how women are influencing policy and politics in this erstwhile male bastion of power. Gender, Michele L. Swers shows, is a fundamental factor for women in the Senate, interacting with both party affiliation and individual ideology to shape priorities on policy. Women, for example, are more active proponents of social welfare and women's rights. But the effects of gender extend beyond mere policy preferences. Senators also develop their priorities with an eye to managing voter expectations about their expertise and advancing their party's position on a given issue. The election of women in increasing numbers has also coincided with the evolution of the Senate as a highly partisan institution. The stark differences between the parties on issues pertaining to gender have meant that Democratic and Republican senators often assume very different roles as they reconcile their policy views on gender issues with the desire to act as members of partisan teams.

One size fits all? The social construction of dis-employ-abled women

This article is based on an evaluation of a labour-market training programme for women with ‘mental health problems’ in a social workplace in Belgium. The research team explored the retrospective insider perspectives on the work aspirations of the women involved in the programme to identify critical dynamics in their high drop-out from the social workplace. The central findings provide evidence of a prevalent one-size-fits-all discourse in these practices wherein complex and interrelated processes of discrimination take place that are based on both disability and gender. The findings demonstrate that the social workplace functions as a male bastion, in which the oversized overalls that women are forced to wear are symbolically relevant. In conclusion, we discuss and challenge the dominance of the neo-liberal norm of economic productivity and employability.

I’ve got a Gal in Kalamazoo: Rotary International, change and the outsourcing of gender

Summary Over approximately the past four decades, women have entered organizations that traditionally were male bastions. Usually, the appearance of women is gradual over a period of time. This paper presents the case of an almost instantaneous change in organizational gender composition and explores the gendered nature of the organization twenty years after the “disruption.” We examine the effects of the admittance of women on the gendered nature of Rotary International's North American organization. The iterative effects on and of the organizational culture are explored through textual analysis of The Rotarian , the North American RI magazine. We argue that, although the gender order is disrupted on the surface, the gendering is ultimately maintained in the organization through an outsourcing of gender.

(Studium der) Rechte für Frauen? Eine Frage der Kultur!

The universities did not remain unaffected by the social and cultural transformations of the First World War. Thewomen's movement had already secured access for women to the Faculties of Philosophy and Medicine at the Habsburguniversities (1897 and 1900 respectively), but the Law Faculty still remained closed to them - as did Theology.The war not only gave the women's movement a boost but also showed that there was a need (although mostly only'apparent' in very specific areas) for legally educated females, for example in welfare, youth welfare in particular.The women's associations backed up their claims to equal rights with references not just to the constitution but alsoto the idea of culture: they contended that it was unworthy of a 'Kulturstaat' such as Austria-Hungary not to allowits women access to education when it had become the norm elsewhere. Since 1871 in particular, Austria-Hungaryhad sought to represent itself as a 'Kulturstaat' (cultured state), in contrast to the Prussian 'Machtstaat' (powerstate). Above all, the Viennese Professor for Constitutional and Administrative Law, Edmund Bernatzik, supportedby his daughter Marie Hafferl-Bernatzik, petitioned alongside the women's associations for women to be admitted tothe study of law. The struggle over the law faculties as male bastions was intimately connected to the progression ofthe war for Austria-Hungary. Jurisprudence had always been an integral part of the governmental system: the titleDoctor iuris was a necessary prerequisite for any position in the higher echelons of the Austrian civil service wellinto the twentieth century, and most influential politicians generally came from the ranks of law graduates. Accessto knowledge about the law and the state was therefore a direct qualification to act in and on the law and the state.This action became all the more significant as the Habsburg Monarchy gradually disintegrated. Political consequenceswere not drawn from the accelerated social change until the upheaval of 1918/19, when the law facultieswere also finally opened to women.

Women and Parachuting: Writings of the Outsider's Experience

Marked by a military history, parachuting – as a sport – mobilised some traditional values of manliness, such as bravery and fearlessness, technical control and physical involvement. However, in the France of the 1950s, some sportswomen attempted to penetrate the parachuting world and to challenge this male bastion. Michèle Savary and Colette Duval were among these women. Moreover, these sportswomen recorded their experiences in autobiographies and prose memoirs. Relying on the methodological reflections of gender/women's studies and using a literary approach, this article reveals the gendered resistances that Savary and Duval had to overcome. Vexations, discriminations and stigmatisations concerning female parachutists were numerous. This paper will focus on the strategies adopted by these two sportswomen in order to ‘exist’ in a male world. By analysing their stories, it will offer a new and original approach to the history of women's sport.