Masculine Values Research Articles

Reproductive Rights and Ecofeminism

The U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in its Dobbs decision in June 2022 came as a shock. Yet, upon reflection, the decision simply reinforced what history has shown: women’s rights and opportunities have always been subject to controls, fluctuations, and specious rationales. Dobbs is one in a long line of legal edicts in the U.S. and elsewhere that either allow or curtail and control female agency, including reproductive agency. The decision’s devastating consequences for U.S. women’s reproductive lives are damaging enough, but they are only part of the story. In addition to its hobbling effects on reproductive rights and justice, the Dobbs decision goes hand in hand with the underlying causes of today’s unparalleled environmental emergency. This article argues, through ecofeminist theory and feminist and Native American climate fiction, that Dobbs is a catalyst for understanding the role of patriarchy—as a particularly insidious form of androcentrism—in the destruction of our planet. Evidence is mounting to support claims made by ecofeminists since the 1970s: patriarchy and resulting masculinist values have been foundational to the extractive and exploitative attitudes and practices regarding marginalized peoples, colonized lands, and racialized entitlements to natural resources that have endangered the earth’s biosystems.

Recruiting for high reliability: attracting safety-minded applicants through language on company webpages

ABSTRACT Objective Job candidates are attracted to companies where they see their values fit in based on clues from recruitment materials. Safety-critical companies may aim to attract safety-minded applicants, through signals indicating that the organisation prioritises safety. Research shows that language related to safety outcomes (versus other outcomes) in recruitment materials can inform the preferences of safety-minded applicants. Rooted in theorising that high reliability organisations (HROs) are highly safety-focused and have low masculinity values, this study investigates the extent to which the relationship between company attractiveness and safety-focused and femininity-focused language used to describe the company, is moderated by potential applicants’ safety attitudes. Method In a within-subjects vignette study, participants (N = 197) rated the attractiveness of four fictitious companies, based on company webpages, and reported on their individual safety attitudes. Results Participants with higher safety attitudes rated companies as more attractive when language used in company descriptions focused on safety (and not business). This effect was amplified when the company description also emphasised low masculinity (i.e., feminine) values. Conclusions To attract applicants with higher safety attitudes, companies may benefit from using language that is focused on femininity, in addition to safety.

Exploring (Semi) Professionalization in Women’s Team Sport Through a Continuum of Care Lens

Professional team male-dominated sports have been built on masculine values; however, these values are challenged by the increasing number of women athletes entering this workplace. In this research, we explore the suitability and gender appropriateness of existing management processes and practices through three women’s professional and semiprofessional leagues. Drawing on a feminist perspective of continuum of care, players (n = 36) and organizational representatives (n = 28) were interviewed to gain insights into how athletes and organizations contend with their rapidly evolving workplaces. Framed around the values of affirmation, empowerment, and belonging, the continuum of care contrasts players’ everyday experiences of care with how organizations administer care. The research contributes through application of the feminist continuum of care. We present considerations for the management of female professional athletes in ways that are careful and an alternative value system that is affirmative, inclusive, and empowering.

Masculinity and Uncertainty Avoidance as Instruments for Cultural Intelligence Development

This paper shows how students' perception on the dominance of masculinity values and uncertainty avoidance characteristics relates with the level of students' cultural intelligence. In order to examine the phenomena, the research was conducted on a sample of 146 exchange programme students (ERASMUS exchange programme). The results indicate a positive and significant correlation between the variables uncertainty avoidance and determinants of cultural intelligence. Furthermore, the obtained results indicate a negative correlation between students' perception on dominance of masculinity values and metacognitive and motivational cultural intelligence, while relationships with cognitive and behavioural cultural intelligence were statistically non-significant. The results of this study can help teachers, researchers, and economic and social policy makers to build educational models that will help students develop an awareness of cultural disparities. As a result, individuals will be able to focus their efforts on developing and shaping the individual mental dimensions necessary for successful adaptation to the international environment.

The role of leverage as mediator the effect of male CEO masculinity face on research & development

This study aims to prove the support of Agency Theory and Behavioral Consistency Theory as a solution to explain the role of leverage in mediating the influence of male CEO masculinity on research and development. This study uses a quantitative approach with a population and research sample using companies on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2017–2021. This study collects facial images identified as male CEOs from data on the Indonesia Stock Exchange website and company websites and utilizes Google search. The data analysis method in this study uses Structural Equation Modeling which connects theories, concepts and data that can be applied to research variables. The findings explain that decreasing and increasing leverage has an impact on increasing and decreasing the masculinity value of male CEOs as well as increasing and decreasing the value of research and development. The implications of the results of this research can assist the Indonesian Institute of Accountants in developing Financial Accounting Standards No. 19 in Indonesia. The theoretical implications of the results of this study can be explained through Agency Theory, Behavioral Consistency Theory and Upper Echelon Theory. The policy implications of the results of this study can provide empirical evidence that the higher the face value of masculinity for male CEOs has an impact on increasing leverage and research and development costs, conversely the lower face value of masculinity for male CEOs has an impact on increasing the value of leverage as well as research and development, and leverage mediates the effect of face male CEO masculinity on research and development costs.

Animalizing women and feminizing (vegan) men: The psychological intersections of sexism, speciesism, meat, and masculinity

AbstractImages of sexualized women depicted as animals or alongside meat are routinely used in advertising in Western culture. Philosophers and feminist scholars have long theorized that such imagery reflects the lower status of both women and animals (vs. men) in society and argued that prejudiced attitudes towards women (i.e., sexism) and animals (i.e., speciesism) are interconnected, with meat‐eating as a core symbol of masculinity. Addressing these key ideas from ecofeminist theory, we review the psychological evidence on the associations between sexism, speciesism, meat, and masculinity. Research on the animalistic dehumanization of women provides evidence that sexism and speciesism are psychologically entangled and rooted in desires for group‐based dominance and inequality. Furthermore, research on the symbolic value of meat corroborates its masculine value expressing dominance and power, and suggests that men who abstain from meat consumption (e.g., vegans) are feminized and devalued, particularly by those higher in sexism. We conclude that a greater recognition of the interconnected nature of patriarchal gender relations and practices of animal exploitation, including meat‐eating, can help in efforts to improve the status of both women and animals.

What is the ‘problem’ of gender inequality represented to be in the Swedish forest sector?

Gender equality in natural resource management is a matter of sustainability and democracy for Sweden’s government, however the country’s forest remains a highly gender-segregated sector. We examine how gender inequality is problematized within Swedish forest and rural policy documents using the What’s the problem represented to be? (WPR) approach. We build on previous efforts to investigate gender inequality in the forest sector by expanding the critical analysis to rural development policy. We conduct interviews with forest experts, owners, and practitioners to shed light on where there are gaps within the policy representations and uncover alternative policy options that are presented. Our findings corroborate that gender inequality is represented to be a technical problem, with policy measures aiming to increase the number of women within a forest sector that continues to maintain rigid conceptions about forestry production values. While there are claims of success in the increase of women within the sector in aggregate, there is little change in the numbers of women in decision-making positions. Forest policy relies upon women to bring growth and sustainability to the forest industry, while rural policy expects women to halt rural population decline. Our findings suggest that merely trying to fit more women into a mold that has been shaped for and by inflexible forestry and masculine values is an impediment not only to gender equality but also to the inclusion of other social groups and ideas in the changing rural landscapes of Sweden.

Corps, culture et société: une lecture de L’enfant de sable et La nuit sacrée de Tahar Ben Jelloun

This article aims to study the vision of Tahar Ben Jelloun towards the body through which the social and cultural situation of the Maghreb countries is clarified. The Moroccan author charges the body with the Arab-Muslim tradition, with male domination and culture, with the erasure of women in society. Hadj Ahmed Souleïmane, in a country that favours men, after having had seven daughters, he feels dishonoured, castrated, finally to repair this evil and rehabilitate his honour, he makes his daughter a boy, from birth, who will be the man of the family, his heir, not only of material goods but essentially of the values of masculinity and patriarchy. He manipulates both his daughter’s body and her way of thinking, teaching her how to become a man according to tradition, also inspecting her body, her reactions and her actions. The body is thus polysemous, through which we understand Ben Jelloun’s vision of gender, culture, family education, society, the male/female relationship and religion. Ben Jelloun uses the body for subversive reasons in order to deconstruct society’s vision of the body, of the values and culture that determine society. In his work, the body thus consists in condemning and denouncing.

Features of personality traits in smoking students — residents of the Northern territories of Russia

AIM: To identify psychological factors of the risk of tobacco addiction among students of the European North of Russia.
 MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study involved 137 students of Arkhangelsk state universities, comprising 37 men and 100 women aged from 17 to 25 years, preselected for a number of characteristics (born in Arkhangelsk or the Arkhangelsk region; raised in a full, socially prosperous family; without financial and household problems; without chronic somatic and neurological diseases). Identification and analysis of tobacco smoking experience were carried out by retrospective self-assessment of the subjects. The psychological status of the respondents was determined by assessing the indicators of the Freiburg multifactorial personality questionnaire (FPI); accentuations of temperament and character, suggestibility, frustration, irritability and resentment; adventurousness, behavioral, social, professional, economic, political activity, and social destructiveness. The WilcoxonMannWhitney method and Fishers F-criterion were used for statistical analyzes.
 RESULTS: In the group of smoking men, high values of hyperthymia (Me=18 units), masculinity (Me=8 units), sociability (Me=9 units), behavioral activity (Me=7 units), and social activity (Me=7 units) were recorded. In the group of smoking women, high values of exaltation (Me=24 units), masculinity (Me=8 units), sociability (Me=9 units), and social activity (Me=7 units) were recorded.
 CONCLUSION: This study reports, for the first time, the features of personality traits in smoking boys and girls permanently residing in the Northern territories of the Russian Federation. Psychological factors of the risk of tobacco addiction formation in boys and girls permanently residing in the Northern territories of the Russian Federation have been determined.

The Whore and the Madonna: The Ambivalent Positionings of Women in British Imperial Histories on Southeast Asia

This article examines how British imperial historians of the early twentieth century, the zenith of the colonial era, approached the writing of British colonial women into their histories. In the early nineteenth century, hundreds of British women went out to the British colonies in Southeast Asia, yet to date, their stories and experiences have largely been neglected by historians. In general, the nature of the imperial project, with its emphasis on masculinist values of conquest, territorial expansionism and despotic administration, left little scope for the inclusion of women’s experiences and contributions in its histories. This article focuses closely on how British historians of the period of high imperialism approached writing about two prominent women, the wives of an imperialist hero, Stamford Raffles. It shows how conventional assumptions about women were entangled with prevailing gendered ideologies, such as the madonna/whore stereotypes, which in turn were enmeshed with notions concerning Orientalism, class and race. The result was a deeply ambivalent portrayal of these colonial women, which awkwardly brought together divergent elements of sexual scandal, wifely devotion, literary achievement, delicate health, career promotion, emotional care taking and judgments about beauty. These positionings tell us more about contemporary cultural discourses than they do about the women themselves.

Unraveling the work–life policies puzzle: How the ‘ideal worker’ norm shapes perceptions of policies legitimacy and use

The development of work–life policies—e.g., employee assistance programs, on-site childcare, flextime, part-time, compressed week, and so on—is increasingly important for a growing number of organizations. Though such programs provide benefits for both employees and employers, usage rates are still low. Scholars have called for research that addresses this phenomenon and more particularly explains the underlying processes of individual decision-making concerning work–life balance, and describe why and how certain social groups differ in their approaches to policy use. Our inductive study –based on 44 individual interviews- aims to address these issues. We found that the policies are used differently depending on the employees’ social group, and that certain salient social identities—such as gender, parenthood and managerial status—shape their use. Such programs are a structural and cultural change for organizations and often present an opportunity for redefining the centrality of work. Indeed the values inherent in them, including resting and taking time for oneself or for one’s family, may conflict with the traditionally masculine values associated with the ‘ideal worker’, intuitively linked to performance and production of positive results. The clash between the two, which permeated the interviews, causes employees to fall back on the social identity or identities they find meaningful. Our findings show three main strategies that individuals use when they feel that their social identity is threatened: (1) engage in workaround activities to avoid using work-life policies; (2) try to compensate for policies use (by engaging in projects outside one’s job or doing overtime work) ; and (3) significantly limit policies use. These results contribute to literature by showing that many managers and men do not feel legitimate to use work-life policies and find workarounds to manage without them, thus perpetuating stereotypical masculine norms. We demonstrate that the identity threat that underlies work-life policies taking may help women in the short term, but also contributes to their discrimination in the long run as well as is detrimental to the work-life balance of men.

WANITA TOMBOY: BAGAIMANA PANDANGAN ISLAM, PERSPEKTIF GENDERNYA?

In essence, a woman's fitrah is to have a meek nature. However, nowadays many women resemble men or are often also called tomboys. One of the causes of tomboyish behavior is like the poor education taught by his parents. A person's behavior will be influenced by the habits that exist in his environment. Unconsciously, the environment will help educate the child's good and bad qualities. Thus, the role of parents is very important so that the child does not fall into these damned traits. Narrated from Ibn Abbas radhiallahu'anhu, he said, "The Messenger of Allah shalallahu'alaihi wa salam circumcised the men who resembled the women and the women who resembled the men" (HR Bukhari). In the environment I saw, there was a woman whose style was worthy of a man.' Sometimes in the community environment, it is a little disturbed because of the presence of tomboyish women around their environment. Tomboy comes from English. Seca... Abstract: In essence, a woman's fitrah is to have a meek nature. However, nowadays many women resemble men or are often also called tomboys. One of the causes of tomboyish behavior is like the poor education taught by his parents. A person's behavior will be influenced by the habits that exist in his environment. Unconsciously, the environment will help educate the child's good and bad qualities. Thus, the role of parents is very important so that the child does not fall into these damned traits. Narrated from Ibn Abbas radhiallahu'anhu, he said, "The Messenger of Allah shalallahu'alaihi wa salam circumcised the men who resembled the women and the women who resembled the men" (HR Bukhari). In the environment I saw, there was a woman whose style was worthy of a man.' Sometimes in the community environment, it is a little disturbed because of the presence of tomboyish women around their environment. Tomboy comes from English. Linguistically, it means the nature of women that is synonymous with activities that are usually associated with male roles. Feminine it is a trait within the self that accentuates the gentle side of womanhood. Why tomboyish women (have the nature of maleness) look cool, while feminine men (have female traits) are labeled negatively. This shows that after all gender construction in society not only harms women, but also harms men. This is because not all men can conform to the values of masculinity constructed by society. How the human condition is created is essentially the best form according to Allah Almighty. If the Creator says so, then we as beings are truly unsavory to label ourselves as rudimentary and worthy of being changed.

Factors associated with individual and couple participation in online sexual health research with Latinx sexual minority men.

Latinx sexual minority men (LSMM) have higher rates of HIV incidence than most other ethnic and racial groups. Given that transmission risk is higher among primary partners, it is critical to identify factors that would facilitate partner recruitment into couples-based sexual health research studies. The present study utilizes a sample of index participants (n= 625), which includes 530 LSMM who did not recruit their partner and 95 LSMM who successfully did so (N = 625). Participants completed measures of communication styles and cultural values of masculinity. Findings suggest that caballerismo (chivalry/nurturing) and constructive communication were significantly and positively associated with the odds of recruiting one's partner in an interaction model. Consideration of cultural factors and communication style may enhance the efficiency of recruitment of LSMM and facilitate partner engagement.

Fat is feminine: A qualitative study of how weight stigma is constructed among sexual minority men who use Grindr

Why is weight stigma so potent among sexual minority men? We propose that sexual minority men may be more vulnerable to weight stigma because of factors not captured by existing measures – for instance, men’s perception of fatness as less masculine and/or more feminine. To investigate, we qualitatively examined how 17 sexual minority men (Mage = 28.52, SDage = 1.63, range: 18–49) described fatness in their discussions of body ideals and appearance pressures. We generated two themes: (i) Masculinity is a currency that fat men have less of and (ii) Fatness is stigmatized or fetishized. Participants described appearing masculine (i.e., lean, muscular) as particularly valuable within the gay community – opposingly, fatness was framed as unmasculine and undesirable. Fat men’s treatment was understood as rarely divorced from their body size, either being stigmatized or fetishized because of their weight. Finally, being unattracted to fat men was constructed as a personal preference that ought not be criticised. These findings suggest the value of masculinity within the gay community may exacerbate weight stigma experiences and internalization among sexual minority men. Future research should account for the anticipated effects of fatness on men’s masculinity and clarify whether sexual preferences and fetishization should be subsumed in weight stigma definitions.

LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION AND THE PHENOMENON OF THE GLASS CEILING

In recent years there has been an increase in the presence of women in management positions. However, many studies have shown that women are treated stereotypically in the workplace. In particular, both the biological and the social sex as it is formed through stereotypes and prejudices, create obstacles, inhibiting the promotion of women to leadership positions. These obstacles are usually invisible and are the so-called Glass Ceiling phenomenon. As a result, women are under-represented in high-ranking positions as they are evaluated by different criteria than men. In the field of education, although the majority of teachers are women, the leadership of the educational units is presented to belong to men in a way that exudes "hegemonic masculinity" (Daraki, 2007), since it is governed by masculine values. Nevertheless, women have entered the field of work education dynamically, with the result that the 20th century is characterized as a century of women. Of course, the "weak sex" has given and gives many struggles in its effort to break the Glass Roof and strengthen its position in the labor and social sector.

MAPA: Co-Creating New Narratives for the 21st Century

This article presents the MAPA Social Innovation Lab and elaborates on the elements that influenced and/or led to constructing new narratives based on a plurality of views and multiplicity of people from different classes, gender and age, in different positions of power. It addresses the short period during with the lab itself was held, the tensions that arose on account of the very characteristics / particularities of the group’s participants, and the breadth and complexity of a co-constructed narrative. The social innovation lab was held in 2019 and was based on Theory U. It consisted of 37 leaders invited to rethink a social model anchored in the feminine-masculine duality starting from the central question: What does the new narrative of feminine and masculine values for the 21st century look like? We present three central principles that underpin the process and, from the point of view of a movement still under construction, we consider important issues for developing a MAPA experience as well as the limitations and possibilities that became (and have become) evident over the course of our MAPA journey.

Semiotic of Female Masculinity in Videogame 'The Last of Us Part II'

This study aims to interpret the signs of semiotics in the videogame The Last of Us Part II (TLOU Part II) which reflect the values of female masculinity initiated by Judith Halberstam (1998). Through Roland Barthes' (1977) semiotics theory, this study analyzes the denotative and connotative meanings of visual and verbal signs from the characters of the videogame TLOU Part II. The source of this research data comes from screenshots of the videogame walkthrough which is then focused into 12 data for qualitative descriptive analysis. The 12 data were analyzed for their denotative and connotative meanings, then followed by description of the female masculinity category initiated by Judith Halberstam. From this study it was found that the 2 characters studied, namely Ellie and Abby, each fulfill several of the 5 categories of female masculinity initiated by Judith Halberstam, namely Butch Realness, Femme Pretender, Male Mimicry, Fag Drag, and Denaturalized Masculinity through visual and verbal signs from video games. They each show the appearance, gesture, nature, culture, and ideology of female masculinity

Men’s Health Across the Lifespan: Post Traumatic Growth and Gender Role in Male Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

Background: Due to societal stereotypes around masculinity (i.e. men should be strong and able to physically resist an offender), male survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA) frequently experience sexuality and gender role crises, as they tend to blame themselves for not protecting themselves. The negative effects on male and female survivors of sexual abuse are well documented. There is some evidence to suggest that female survivors may experience post traumatic growth (PTG) although less is known regarding male survivors and PTG. Aims: To explore the PTG processes involved in the development of positive gender roles and sexuality in male survivors of CSA. Method: Recruitment through national male survivor support organisations and social media resulted in a sample of 12 participants from the UK, EU and USA. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed and analysed using social constructionist thematic analysis. Results: The parallel processes of “struggling and changing” and “developing and growing” were evident in the PTG journeys of participants. Eight subthemes were developed relating to gender role redevelopment to illustrate the experienced positive change: “Turning point,” “Redefining masculinity and sexuality,” “Reconnecting,” “Determination,” “Appreciation of life,” “Living by masculine values,” “Attunement” and “Stronger person” in the context of a central “environmental” theme. Conclusions: This study has provided much-needed empirical support for the development of positive gender role and sexuality following CSA and has enabled conceptualisation of PTG in male survivors.

Beyond Fragments: The Canadian State and the Origins of Alberta Political Culture

This article traces the origins of Alberta political culture to an unlikely source: the federal government’s immigration marketing posters from the early-twentieth century. Through a qualitative document analysis of the “Last Best West” campaign, the findings reveal how the Government of Canada helped cultivate values of settler colonialism, populism, individualism, frontier masculinity, and moral traditionalism among the settler population. The article closes with a discussion of how these values continue to influence Alberta politics today.

Leadership Style in Relation to Gender Role and Masculine Values: Being Daoist Water‐Like or Agentic?

Based on the Daoist water‐like theory in relation to leadership and gender, the current study aims to compare two leadership styles (Daoist water‐like and Agentic) and their relation to the gender role of leaders and the masculine values of perceivers. A 2 × 2 × 2 between‐subjects factorial experiment (leader gender, leadership style, and perceiver masculinity value) was conducted to examine the favorability, empowerment, and democracy (FED) of the leader by using vignettes as stimulus materials. Participants (N = 383) were recruited from MTurk and were randomly assigned to evaluate the leader candidate in the vignette. Overall, the results indicated that Daoist water‐like leadership was perceived as more FED than agentic leadership. Moreover, Daoist water‐like male leadership was seen as the most FED, while the agentic male leadership style was seen as the least FED. Finally, perceivers with low masculine values tended to view the Daoist water‐like leadership as more FED than agentic leadership, while perceivers with high masculine values did not endorse agentic over Daoist water‐like leadership. Implications of the Daoist water‐like leadership in relation to the gender role of the leader and masculine values of the perceiver are discussed.