Male-dominated Culture Research Articles

Birds, bees and hippies: sex education on TV and in Oz magazine in Britain of the 1960s-70s

ABSTRACT Despite the much-touted ‘sexual revolution’, during the 1960s-70s, at the time most Western education systems avoided sex education. This article identifies contradictory discourses about sex as manifested in two distinct cultural expressions that co-occurred in those years in the UK. The first represented mainstream social conservatism – in the form of short sex education films produced for schools and colleges. The second, more radical alternative was the British-Australian underground magazine Oz, which expressed the sexual freedom of the counterculture. Both are discussed from the perspective of visual cultural history as competing agents of sex education – one reproducing the conservative paradigm, and the other aiming to dismantle it. While the films took a biomedical and preventive attitude to sex and embodied a patriarchal heteronormative approach , Oz supported sexual freedom and shattered taboos about such issues as abortion and sexual diversity, as well as celebrated women’s sexuality. Nevertheless, male-dominant culture was also reflected on its pages, particularly in gratuitous images of female nudity. Despite this visual sexism, the article highlights the magazine as a countercultural entertainment medium educating for sexual pleasure and offering a creative, nonconformist perspective on sex that was way ahead of its time, and also of our own.

The Role of Pink Bus Services in Promoting Women's Mobility: Empirical Evidence from Lahore, Pakistan

Fear and security are the predominant factors that often restrict physical mobility among women. In Pakistani male-dominant culture, women possess different mobility barriers related to privacy, safety, and security. The women-only bus service, known as Pink Bus, is one of the gendered transport initiatives to facilitate secure travel. The study aims to analyse women's perceptions of this service and its role in promoting mobility. The data was collected from a sample of 180 women riding in pink and regular public buses. SPSS was used to analyse the data. Statistics revealed that the pink bus service has failed to meet the users' needs due to its limited availability. Findings further suggest that although this initiative has significantly enhanced security perceptions during the bus ride, there is a need to ensure women's safety while accessing this bus service. The study highlights the importance of safety perceptions in promoting independent mobility among women in Pakistan.

Narrating Marginality: Gender Crisis in Shashi Deshpande’s The Dark Holds No Terror

Feminine sensibilities and gender issues are based on different cultures and diasporic essence. The desire and aspirations of women of different countries are not similar. Their demands are influenced by a number of variables, including familial, societal/racial, marital, economic, cultural, and personal ones. It is considered incorrect to compare Indian feminism to western feminism, which is characterised by radical rules, in such a varied culture. In its early stages, Indian feminism was wholly liberal and addressed every facet of mankind. There hasn't been a significant political or social uprising in India against the male-dominated culture. In beginning, they seek to address the inequality and dissimilarity that existed between males and females. They desired to bridge the gaps between men and women through their social revolt and provide the psychological reason for the male violence against women. Some feminist intellectuals extended the gender issues focusing the intention on rape and other forms of sexual violence. To them, such gender issues of exploitation are because of the male dominant society. They agree with Liberal feminists that material change and patriarchy is the sole reason for women's discrimination. They argue against the existing tradition of love, marriage, and gender inequality and demand equal social rights. The women writers like Shashi Deshpande have used fiction to explore and share their experiences. The myriad conflicts, which they face in everyday lives, are woven into the fictional world of their creation. To Shashi Deshpande, traditional beliefs also play a major role in female discrimination.

Ask a Political Scientist: A Conversation with Catharine A. MacKinnon about Power, Politics, and Political Science

Ask a Political Scientist: A Conversation with Catharine A. MacKinnon about Power, Politics, and Political Science

Issues and challenges for women in creating spaces at decision-making levels: A case study of Pakistan Muslim league-N

In many Western and Asian countries, women’s empowerment has increased significantly, yet women are still underrepresented in political participation and political decision-making. This study explores the political engagement of women in a society that discriminates against them on the basis of their sex, and in a political system that is heavily patriarchal. The study is aimed at exploring the issues and challenges that women confront in political participation and decision-making in the party political space. To achieve this goal, a qualitative approach has been adopted, in which data has been collected and processed in a qualitative manner. This research conducts a case study of Pakistan Muslim League (N) which served as a sample for data collection. Thematic analysis has been used to decipher the comments of important stakeholders interviewed for qualitative data, as described by Braun and Clarke. Although literature has studied the complex of multiple interlinked causes for women’s insufficient and ineffective political participation, this article presents a novel way to explore those issues and a thematic way to understand their complexity. However, the study's findings indicate that women's political engagement and decision-making are hampered for a variety of reasons. A male-dominated culture, lack of social acceptance, structural halts, gender-imbalanced political parties, societal vulnerability threats and an inability to empower women are a few of the main concerns. Numerous specific problems have been identified as well, such as the persistence of historical patterns and the opportunity gap as well as psychological satisfaction and religious excuses for the lack of political participation and the vulnerability of being scandalized, weak economic status and gender sensitivity in the workplace. In Pakistani society, these highlighted variables are so firmly ingrained in the political and social structure that they are mostly taken for granted and go unnoticed.

Career chance events of highly educated women with doctoral degrees in South Korea

PurposeThe purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how highly educated women respond to career chance events in a Korean context where traditional cultural values and male-dominated organizational culture coexist.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted 50 semi-structured interviews with highly educated women operationalized as women with doctoral degrees in and out of Korea. The authors used a collaborative research process with a team of ten Korean-born researchers who have built consensus on research themes through discussions on the collection and analysis of a large data set, thus reducing the researcher bias issue inherent in qualitative research.FindingsIn an analysis of the interview data collected, the authors report on three themes: before obtaining a doctoral degree, during and after their doctoral study and responses (coping strategies) to chance events in their careers. Highly educated women’s pursuing a doctoral degree was a way to maintain work–life balance in Korea where women are expected to take a primary caregiver role. After obtaining a doctoral degree, participants struggled with limited job opportunities in the male-dominated higher education. Women’s unplanned and unexpected chance events are intertwined with the male-dominated culture in Korea, and career interruptions as such a chance event, whether voluntary or involuntary, happened largely due to family reasons. In this context, highly educated women responded to chance events largely at individual and family levels and articulated the need for support at organizational and government levels.Research limitations/implicationsThe study findings confirm the literature that women’s careers are limited by traditional family roles in non-Western countries where strong patriarchal culture is prevalent. Particularly, women’s career interruptions surfaced as a critical chance event that either disrupts or delays their careers largely because of family issues. Future research is called for to identify both individual and contextual factors that influence women’s decisions on voluntary and involuntary career interruptions as their responses to chance events.Practical implicationsBased on highly educated women’s coping strategies largely at individual and family levels, we suggest national human resource development policies put in place not to lose out on the opportunity to develop highly educated women with doctoral degrees as a quality workforce for a nation’s sustainable economic growth. Additionally, organizations need to be aligned with the government policies and programs for the provision of developmental programs for women in the workplace, beginning with highly educated women’s career planning, while creating organizational culture to promote gender equality as a long-term goal.Originality/valueThe participants’ voluntary career breaks helped them care for their children, be involved in their children’s education, reflect on work–life balance after having long hours of work for many years and move forward with personal satisfaction. Voluntary career breaks can be understood as highly educated women’s unique way of responding to chance events.

Critical Mass and Critical Representation

Women’s critical mass helps change male-dominated cultures and promote women’s career advancement, but its effects vary across organizational domains and are sometimes constrained by persistent gender structures and power relationships inside and outside workplaces. By analyzing a nationally representative sample of China’s private companies, this study examines how women’s representation, not only in sheer numbers but also in certain powerful positions (e.g., owners or shareholders), affects women’s leadership potential. Despite evidence of positive trends in women’s leadership in the Chinese corporate context, women’s representation has been hamstrung by institutional legacies (e.g., partial state ownership). The effects of women’s representation also differ by industrial sector. Women are more likely to reach senior management in low-tech, labor-intensive industries, where women dominate the workforce, than in industries with higher technological demands, where men dominate the workforce. Women owners or shareholders matter more for the promotion of women CEOs in higher-tech companies. Our study contributes to the literature on gendered organizations by offering insights on how transitional institutional forces and large industrial systems converge and interact with women’s representation to affect their upward occupational trajectory in developing contexts.

Saudi Women's Attitudes Toward Advocacy for Women's Rights

There is a growing women's rights advocacy movement in Saudi Arabia—much of which explicitly targets the male guardianship system. In this system, Saudi women are restricted by the male-dominated culture and face obstacles that hold them accountable to their male guardians. Recent changes in this system have become crucially important to women's lives, but still, leave women lacking full freedom. This exploratory study provides a thematic analysis of 16 Saudi women's advocacy perspectives by focusing on the deeper meanings of their expressed attitudes toward the male guardianship system in Saudi Arabia. Analysis revealed conflicting attitudes toward women's advocacy for women's rights. Women who were hurt by the system raised concerns about being labeled as advocates. They feared being socially judged and having their families shamed for advocating against social norms and principles of Islam. These concerns led them to use fake social media accounts to support advocates. Those who supported the male guardianship system expressed their worries about the next generation being influenced by outside ideologies and abandoning their Islamic values. This paper concludes with recommendations for future social work practice and scholarship.

Male Chauvinism, Cultural Hybridity and Racism in the Society of Indian Sub-Continent: A Study of Bollywood's Film Pinjar Semiotically

The words racism, cultural hegemony, and male chauvinism are frequently used in Indo-Pak literature and film. The Indian Subcontinent is known for having a male-dominated culture, a fusion of several ethnic and racial groups, and a society in that men dominate. The movie Pinjar, based on a novel, depicts various cultures, conventions, beliefs, and traditions from the time before and after the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent while showcasing numerous literary and critical facets. This research on the movie Pinjar focuses on racism, cultural hegemony, and male chauvinism. This particular video has used the semiotics framework—the study of signs, colors, and language—as the main framework to follow all the relevant elements.

Nexus Between Women’s Identity and Marriage

The globe is said to be patriarchal so it has created the identity of women that is based on their marriage. How does marriage create an identity for women? The objective of the study is to examine the perception of people towards marriage, women’s identity, and its connection. It is analyzing the connection between women’s identity and marriage and explores the women’s identity. It is a qualitative case study of four women. The method of study was qualitative as researchers had selected four married women purposively and then took face-to-face interviews mainly focusing on the objective. After that researchers transcribed those recorded qualitative data and analyzed them. The researchers again consult with respondents to maintain the validity and reliability of the data. In conclusion, people’s perception in society is that the identity of the woman is always linked with her marital status after reaching certain age prescribed by society as the age to get married. It means there is a very close relation between marital status and the identity of women because of the male-dominated culture of the world. A male-dominated culture brings much psychological and social torture to the women who want to create their own identity in the world.

Evaluation of Women's Empowerment in a Community-Based Human Papillomavirus Self-Sampling Social Entrepreneurship Program (Hope Project) in Peru: A Mixed-Method Study.

IntroductionUnderstanding community women's relational and financial empowerment in social entrepreneurship could be the key to scaling up community-based human papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling programs in low- and middle-income countries. The Hope Project, social entrepreneurship in Peru, trains women (Hope Ladies) to promote HPV self-sampling among other women in their communities. This study aims to evaluate the Hope Ladies' relational and financial empowerment after participating in the program.Materials and MethodsWe evaluated the Hope Ladies' experiences of empowerment in social entrepreneurship using a parallel convergent mixed methods design. The Hope Ladies participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews (n = 20) and an eight-questions five-point Likert scale survey that evaluated their relational (n = 19)/financial (n = 17) empowerment. The interview and the survey questions were developed using three empowerment frameworks: Kabeer's conceptual framework, International Center for Research on Women's economic empowerment indicators, and the Relational Leadership Theory. Deductive content analysis was used to evaluate the interviews with pre-determined codes and categories of empowerment. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the survey results. Qualitative and quantitative data were integrated through a cross-case comparison of emergent themes and corresponding survey responses during the results interpretation.ResultsAll Hope Ladies reported experiencing increased empowerment in social entrepreneurship. Interviews: The women reported challenges and improvement in three categories of empowerment: (1) resources (balancing between household and Hope Lady roles, recognition from the community as a resource, camaraderie with other Hope Ladies); (2) agency (increased knowledge about reproductive health, improved confidence to express themselves, and ability to speak out against male-dominant culture); and (3) achievement (increased economic assets, improved ability to make financial decisions, and widened social network and capital, and technology skills development). Survey: All (100%) agreed/totally agreed an increase in social contacts, increased unaccompanied visits to a healthcare provider (86%), improved confidence in discussing reproductive topics (100%), improved ability to make household decisions about money (57% pre-intervention vs. 92% post-intervention).ConclusionsThe Hope Ladies reported improved relational and financial empowerment through participating in community-based social entrepreneurship. Future studies are needed to elucidate the relationship between empowerment and worker retention/performance to inform the scale-up of HPV self-sampling social entrepreneurship programs.

Women’s perspectives on career successes and barriers: A qualitative meta-synthesis

Despite scholarly debate on the topic of success, how women define career success remains unclear. For many decades, research on the concept of success has largely used quantitative methods to assess the external aspects of success in a male-dominated culture. Using a total of 18 articles from 1999 to 2020, this qualitative meta-synthesis aims to gain detailed insights into women’s definitions of career success and to capture their perspectives on the barriers they face. A systematic search was conducted across four databases: Sociological Abstracts, SocINDEX, SCOPUS, and Google Scholar. This study is novel in that it is the first synthesized research that qualitatively studies the concept of career success. From this review, three distinct themes regarding women’s definition of career success emerged: (1) having support, (2) having accomplishments, and (3) feeling belonging. This article also establishes three themes regarding the obstacles to women’s career path toward success: (1) work–family/work–life imbalance, (2) gender bias/gender discrimination, and (3) the lack of mentors and role models. In contrast to previous research, the findings of this qualitative meta-synthesis indicate that while women define career success individually, they acknowledge that the professional objective aspects of success are important or even central to them in their life. The limitations of the study are noted, and the implications and future research directions are discussed.

The gender recontest gap in elections

This paper documents an important but mostly overlooked reason for female underrepresentation in politics: gender gaps in the recontest likelihood of candidates. Using hand-collected data on 116,185 candidates in four consecutive local council elections (2001–2016) in a German state, we provide evidence for a gender recontest gap among both incumbent and non-incumbent candidates. Female candidates are 4 to 5 percentage points less likely than male candidates to run again conditional on previous candidacy. Studying mechanisms, we find that women are likely held back by incompatibilities between family obligations and political duties as well as a culture of male dominance in local politics.

Female Representation in Corporate Governance and Influence on the Firm’s Performance in Botswana

When concerned to discuss role of women in corporate governance of Africa, gender discrimination and inequality become highly prominent. Thus, the current study aims to evaluate the gender inequality and female representation in the corporate governance of Africa, with special reference to Botswana, and analyze its impact on firm’s performance. To attain the objective of the current study, the research followed qualitative systematic review methodology. Through this methodology, the research relied on the review of already published reports and literature. The data was collected through authentic journals, whereas the articles were accessed through scholarly search engines. The findings revealed that women’s participation as corporate governance is too low in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in Botswana. This is because the traditional approach of male dominant culture and gender inequalities. Only 16% women are provided opportunities to participate as corporate leaders, whereas decisions are mostly taken in the hands of male staff. Though men are considered as great leaders, but still the economy of Botswana is showing -8% declines, which reflects poor firm’s financial performance

Alisa Seleznёva, a girl alone in outer space: rethinking gender, family and state in late-Soviet children’s science fiction and animation

ABSTRACT This article investigates the potential of children’s literature and animation in late-Soviet Russia to subtly reflect the ways in which state ideology and public attitudes towards societal development and social institutions transform, merge with, mimic and come into conflict with one another. The article focuses on a comparative analysis of two Soviet children’s science-fiction texts about the character Alisa Seleznёva, otherwise known as ‘the girl from the future’. These texts are Kir Bulychёv’s novella Alisa’s Journey (1974) and Roman Kachanov’s animated adaptation of this same tale, The Mystery of the Third Planet (1981). The article argues that the emphasis on the experience of a female character, underrepresented in male-dominated Soviet culture, and the choice of a child protagonist is an expression of scepticism towards the normative social roles found within nuclear families, professional and school environments, and the gender behaviours promulgated by the Soviet master discourse.

Equity and Efficiency in Women-Empowered Contract Farming: An Explanatory Case Study on the Tea Estate Sector of Sri Lanka

Essentially, equity and efficiency are integral parts of any economic activities of sustainability though the correlation and causation between those two constructs are not considered significant. This study intends to evaluate if the contract farming system is a sustainable solution to the prevailing socio-economic aspects of the labor productivity problem in the tea estate sector of Sri Lanka, where female workers are highly depressed. This study has employed the survey strategy within the instrumental case of a selected tea estate to assess equity and efficiency of women-empowered contract farming system. The analytical results for gender equity on input and performance indicators have proven that gender equity is maintained in contract farming at the sample tea estate. The efficiency analysis results revealed that the output elasticity of tea bushes is significantly lower for female farmers than male farmers. However, there is no such significant difference revealed in the output elasticity of labor between gender groups. These findings explicitly reveal that the female workers in the tea estate sector are capable of managing labor although they are dominated by males in the domesticity. It further implies that a transformation of the male-dominant culture of the tea estate community would enhance the entrepreneurial and leadership capabilities of female workers if they are provided with equal opportunities and freedom.

Gender Perceptions towards Diversity Management Practices in the Public Sector

This study aims to examine the differences in the perception of male and female employees towards diversity management and their work outcomes in a highly male-dominated culture in the Public Sector. A quantitative survey of 114 public sector employees was analysed using structural equation modelling. Overall, the findings reveal that diversity management has a positive and significant impact on both genders’ work outcomes of affective commitment, organisational commitment, job satisfaction, work group performance and inclusiveness of organisational culture. However, the male employees reported lower levels of organisational commitment than the female employees. This study highlights key suggestions for policymakers and public managers, such as diversity strategy, top leadership commitment, diversity training programs, team bonding exercises, strengthening of family-friendly programs and other suggestions. The theoretical contribution of this research is the integration of representative bureaucracy theory, commitment management theory and social cognitive theory for a robust argument for diversity management in the public sector. Studies on gender perceptions in developing small island countries are rare. This study is the first of its kind in the subject country. It identifies the distinct gender norms in society and the role of diversity management.

AI and Posthuman Romance in Literature and Film

From Pygmalion’s Galatea in Greek mythology to Joi in Blade Runner 2049, literary and cinematic writers explored the possibility of men’s heteronormative romantic relationships with women created by art and technology. In recent decades, with artificial intelligence growing even more powerful, writers can even imagine digital, virtual, or robotic beings capable of becoming heterosexual men’s ideal romantic partners, who may even be capable of reproduction. This paper examines the representation of digital, virtual and robotic female companions depicted in literature and film: “Helen O’Loy” (1938), HER (2014), Ex-Machina (2015), and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). While this history of creative imagination mirrors the male-dominant culture of Silicon Valley and even suggests an implicit desire to return to the old misogynistic gender politics, the reception of these works points to an interesting cultural, psychological, and literary insight into the changing paradigms or “algorithms” of romantic love and gender relations in our posthuman era. Sooner or later, “digisexuality” may become one of the widely recognized sexual identities.

Women Representation in Pakistani Television Dramas: A Critical Discourse Analysis

The current study aims to investigate the representation of women in Pakistani television dramas that reflect the female stereotypical image of women in society. The drama discourse is analyzed through the lens of the critical discourse analysis model by Fairclough (1995). The study explores that women represented in Pakistani dramas are bold or assertive, or they are restricted to conventional norms by male-oriented society. The methodological approach adopted to analyze is suitable to study the independent and dependent variables. The critical discourse analysis model is applied to describe,explain, and interpret the drama discourse. For data analysis, three dramas, “Cheekh” and “Khaani,”have been selected from different Private television channels to ensure the validity of the analysis. The leading female roles in these dramas confront the feminist issues in a patriarchal society. Even in this modern era, Pakistani women are still struggling against odds for injustice and equality, where male-dominated culture is challenging as ever for women to survive. This research will help researchers to work on the different themes of television dramas related to feminist issues.

Leveraging Women’s Leadership Talent to Promote a Social Justice Agenda in Ethiopian Schools

Background: Research that identifies and celebrates the positive attributes of women educational leaders advancing a social justice agenda in traditionally male-dominated, Sub-Saharan African (SSA) societies is sparse. Studying female educational leadership in SSA conceptually brings to the fore issues associated with the intersectionality of gender, leadership, pervasive abject poverty, and cultural mores from a critical theory lens that runs counter to the White, western, male conceptions of leadership underlying much of the existing literature in the field. Purpose: With a focus on Ethiopia, we sought to understand the way in which women educational leaders, as traditionally oppressed groups in a patriarchal society, utilize their past marginalization as they advance a social justice agenda to promote educational opportunities for traditionally underserved students, particularly females. Research Design: Using transformative leadership as our theoretical lens and semi-structured interviews as our methodology, we conducted a grounded phenomenological study of eight Ethiopian women who were in educational leadership positions ranging from assistant principal to regional supervisors. We recruited the women leaders through direct contact, reputational nomination, and leadership positions they held. Findings/Results: Our findings paint a portrait of these female leaders as tenacious and determined, with a strong sense of self-agency and moral courage, whose identities are born out of their humble beginning and multi-focal understanding of issues from being female, from poor communities, submersed in male-dominated culture. These identities drove the participants to work towards emancipatory policies to acknowledge and intervene in “power differences” that directly influence school performance for girls and women in Ethiopia. Conclusions/Recommendations: Increasing workforce diversity with respect to gender, recasting leadership preparation programs as equity-oriented institutions, and addressing key public policies to support women in leadership positions are foundational recommendations that can lead to gender equity in education in Ethiopia.