Men's Gender Identity Research Articles

Becoming a Man: A Longitudinal Study of Men's Gender Identity Development

This longitudinal study builds on an earlier study of college men's gender identity development (Edwards & Jones, 2009). The findings from the 5- and 10-year follow-up interviews affirm the grounded theory of the original study. The longitudinal aspects of the study also illuminate how men navigated their gender performance and the different gender expectations of them later in life. The participants also described a process of becoming that included both identity exploration and integrity reflection. The findings have implications for student affairs practice, men's development, and identity development research.

Of Masks and Men? Gender, Sex, and Protective Measures during COVID-19

AbstractSince the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, men have been consistently less likely to report wearing a protective face mask. There are several possible reasons for this difference, including partisanship and gender identity. Using a national live-caller telephone survey that measures gender identity, we show that men's gender identities are strongly related to their views of mask wearing, especially when gender identity is highly salient to the individual. The effects of this interaction of sex and gender are shown to be separate from the effects of partisanship. While partisanship is a significant driver of attitudes about face masks, within partisan groups, men who report “completely” masculine gender identities are very different from their fellow partisans.

Living with a ‘women's disease’: risk appraisal and management among men with osteoporosis

Background There is clear evidence that men suffer from osteoporosis (OP) in increasing numbers, but that men commonly remain underdiagnosed, undertreated and experience poorer outcomes than do women. The widespread sociocultural association of OP with postmenopausal women reflects their greater risk for developing the disorder, but the sexing of OP as a women's disease disadvantages at-risk men. Methods This paper reports on qualitative data gathered from 23 community-residing men who have an OP diagnosis. Results Interviews with men reveal that the sexing of OP as a female disease may affect men's risk appraisal. Men clearly associate OP risk factors with women and accordingly may feel protected from the disorder. Subsequent to diagnosis, men's OP-related risk management strategies reveal that men's gender identity constrains their ability to enact risk-reducing behavior. Conclusions Men may internalize the association of OP with women and incorporate it into a sense of perceived invulnerability to the condition, which, in turn, contributes to delayed diagnosis and treatment. Limited male-specific treatment and support options as well as social expectations of male gender performance play roles in men's health behavior.

Come on my son! Examining fathers, masculinity and ‘fathering through football’

This paper critically considers the concept of fathering through sport by examining the fathering practices of men whose sons played elite junior football at a UK professional club. The paper presents data from participant observation of 33 fathers and in-depth interviews with 18 fathers. The paper outlines how hegemonic masculine discourses inherent in football encouraged various disempowering fathering practices. Fathers were able to legitimize these as being necessary for ensuring sons were tough enough to cope with the demands of adult professional football. The integration of ‘football father’ into men's gender identity construction is also considered and highlights further complexities in the fathering through sport process with some men being dependent on sons continuing to participate for their sense of selves. This is shown to bring particular pressures to the father/son relationship and can have damaging consequences for them as both men and fathers if sons' involvement in elite junior football is terminated.

Feminist Therapy for Men: Challenging Assumptions and Moving Forward

Feminist therapy has a unique history in counseling and psychotherapy. This unique history has had an impact on the development of the modality which includes combining methods and ideologies from diverse therapeutic frameworks while still maintaining a core set of principles. While intended originally for women, feminist therapy is argued here also to be a useful resource for men. The traditional masculinist perspective, assumed to be appropriate for men, is argued to not address diverse experiences men bring to therapy, but rather to support dominant prescriptive desires of a patriarchal culture. Utilizing tenets from various feminist theories, this article will argue how men can benefit from feminist therapy when practitioners reject essentializing men, recognize diversity in men's gender identity, help male clients understand the effects of normative masculine conformity and assist them in understanding their varying engagements with male privilege.

I’m a young student, I’m a girl … and for some reason they are hard on me for smoking: The role of gender and social context for smoking behaviour

Despite considerable population declines, smoking has become increasingly socially stratified, a trend that emerges as salient when examining smoking according to gender. However, there is a dearth of comparative research with regard to smoking inequalities among men and women. The goal of this exploratory study was to examine how three elements of the social context (identity, body, agency) are gendered and the way in which they differentially shape men's and women's smoking practices. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 23 adult smokers living in Toronto and Montréal, Canada stratified by socio-economic position and gender. Our results show that: (1) women express considerable dissonance between gender identities and smoking behaviour, whereas men's gender identities seem to reinforce smoking behaviour; (2) women's smoking was tied to gendered representations of the body, with the fear of weight gain factoring into their smoking maintenance, whereas concern about the body was absent among men; (3) women suggested wanting, but not having agency over their smoking behaviour while men suggested having agency but little urgency to quit smoking. Our exploratory study points to the possibility that gender remains important for shaping smoking practices among adult smokers and that smoking among some women may be characterised by a greater sense of dissonance and tension than among some men. Addressing gender inequalities in the health discourse surrounding smoking may help reduce the current gender disparities in smoking patterns.

College Men's Experiences as Men: Findings and Implications from Two Grounded Theory Studies

Many problematic behavioral trends and issues involving men on college campuses have been well documented in the recently published discourse on college men and masculinities. Yet, empirical explanations as to why these trends and issues persist and what college educators can do to effectively address them are largely absent from this discourse. In response to these knowledge gaps, the shared findings that emerged from two grounded theory studies of college men's gender identity development are presented in this article. Based on these findings, recommendations for supporting the gender identity development and success of college men in ways that benefit campus communities are offered.

Constructing Masculinities in Juvenile Corrections

Juvenile reoffending is a costly and perplexing social problem. However, research and theory concerning juvenile reoffending have neglected to examine how young men's gender identities are constructed in the context of a juvenile justice system in which behavior reform through various therapies is a primary goal. This study draws on observational fieldwork in two residential correctional facilities and interviews with incarcerated juvenile male offenders to understand how masculinities are shaped within these institutional settings. They find that in the two settings, hegemonic forms of masculinities involving competition, hierarchy, stoicism, sexism, and homo-phobia were reinforced through institutional and interpersonal mechanisms. While alternative gender identity expressions were offered through various therapies, they were largely suppressed. This illustration of how masculinities are constructed in juvenile corrections provides a new way to examine the inner workings of institutions that are geared to change the attitudes and behaviors of the young men whom they serve.

Men's accounts of depression: Reconstructing or resisting hegemonic masculinity?

There is evidence that depressive symptoms in men are often undiagnosed and untreated. It has been suggested that men may find it difficult to seek help because culturally dominant (or hegemonic) forms of masculinity are characterised by emotional control and a lack of vulnerability, while depression is often associated with powerlessness and the uncontrolled expression of emotion. However, very little research exists which examines men's experiences of depression. We analysed 16 in-depth interviews with a wide range of men with depression in the UK Our analysis explored associations between depression and men's gender identities. We found that, as part of recovery from depression, it was important for men to reconstruct a valued sense of themselves and their own masculinity. The most common strategy was to incorporate values associated with hegemonic masculinity into narratives (being ‘one of the boys’, re-establishing control, and responsibility to others). While this strategy could aid recovery, there was also evidence that the pressures of conforming to the standards of hegemonic masculinity could contribute to suicidal behaviour. In contrast, a minority of men had found ways of being masculine which were outside hegemonic discourses. They emphasised their creativity, sensitivity and intelligence, explicitly reflected on different models of masculinity and redefined their ‘difference’ as a positive feature. Our research demonstrates that it is possible to locate men who can, and will, talk about depression and their feelings; thus generalisations about depressed men always being silent are misleading. While some men will have the resources to construct identities that resist culturally dominant definitions of masculinity, many others will find it more useful (and perhaps less threatening) to re-interpret potentially feminising experiences as ‘masculine’. Health professionals need to be aware of the issues raised by men's narratives which emphasise control, strength and responsibility to others.

The technology question in feminism: A view from feminist technology studies

Feminist research on technology tends to view technology either as neutral or as determining, drawing implications for women that are either overoptimistic or overpessimistic. By contrast, feminist scholarship within the field of technology studies, or feminist technology studies, is more ambivalent politically, and sees technology as socially constructed, or coproduced, alongside gender. This paper elaborates this framework by exploring various ways in which technology may be gendered, drawing in part on recent research on engineering. It focuses, in turn, on gender in and of technological artefacts; on the durability of masculine images of technology; on gender in the detail of technical knowledge and practice; and on the place of technology in (some) men's gender identities. This framework provides a more sound basis for understanding the ambivalence about technology which many women experience and, thus, for a praxis which steers a cyborgian course between uncritical endorsement and outright rejection of technology.