Mixed-gender Settings Research Articles

Interactive, Artistic, Fun, and Weird: Exploring Facilitators and Challenges to Youth Engagement across In-Person, Virtual, and Hybrid Pregnancy Prevention Programs

Although U.S. adolescent birth rates in general have declined in recent decades, they continue to be a primary public health concern due to notable disparities among adolescent birth rates. In response, pregnancy prevention program development has increasingly focused on understanding how to better serve the needs of adolescents in underserved populations. To inform future program development and implementation efforts, this qualitative study explored which attributes of programs facilitated and hindered youth engagement. We collected data from educators (N = 43) and a subset of youth program participants (N = 249) from programs implemented by 14 organizations in different community-based settings. We used three data collection methods: (1) post-session surveys completed by educators, (2) post-program implementation interviews with educators, and (3) individual and focus group interviews with youth participants. Qualitative analyses revealed that educators who skillfully facilitated interactive activities and safe and inclusive learning environments promoted engagement. Feeling uncomfortable and awkward during program activities, learning in mixed-gender settings, and COVID-19 disruptions hindered engagement. Additionally, we found that youth participants had conflicting views on learning about sexual relationships at churches. Participants and educators had conflicting views on the benefit of youth attending programs with previously acquainted friends.

Working Out Desire: Women, Sport, and Self-Making in Istanbul

Working Out Desire: Women, Sport, and Self-Making in Istanbul

I’ll take the check!: a longitudinal replication analysis of gender biases in bill placement from restaurant servers

ABSTRACT Traditional gender scripts in restaurants assume that men wield money, while women are framed as ‘accessories’ who do not pay restaurant checks in mixed-gender settings. While some research has addressed how servers replicate this script at U.S. restaurants, no previous research has looked at this practice longitudinally over time. This study explores how bill placement practices are connected to gendered power dynamics via observations of server and customer interactions about the restaurant check placement. Drawing from audit studies from the 1970s and 2010s, this study examined historical trends in gendered check placements. Comparing data from the 1970s in Phoenix, Arizona, we examined data from an audit of 176 visits to restaurants in Phoenix in the 2010s. This study sent out two-person teams of one cisgender man and one cisgender woman, with the woman always requesting the bill. Results found little change between the 1970s and 2010s, as the majority of servers placed the bill in the middle of the table. That said, the percentage of men receiving the bill surprisingly increased over time, while the number of times women received the bill decreased to almost never. This data contradicts accounts of a decrease in sexism and sexist behaviour over time. Further, the type of restaurant and server characteristics (such as age and gender of server, average check price, type of food served) did not influence bill placement tendencies. Implications for understanding the behavioural practices of sexism, the patriarchal coding of restaurant check placement and the importance of tracking and studying mundane expressions of sexism are explored.

BEYOND BAIS YA'AKOV: ORTHODOX OUTREACH AND THE EMERGENCE OF HAREDI WOMEN AS RELIGIOUS LEADERS

The twentieth century witnessed an array of fresh models of Jewish women's educational and religious leadership. Quite understandably, the majority of the scholarly focus has been on burgeoning egalitarian trends featured in the new roles for women within liberal Jewish denominations and among the Modern Orthodox. Yet increased appreciation for gendered perspectives within Jewish studies has also led to recognition that seemingly conventional female roles, once viewed as purely supportive in nature, have evolved into platforms for voicing uniquely feminine styles of Jewish authority. This article offers an initial portrayal and analysis of a relatively new phenomenon: the American female non-hasidic Haredi outreach activist. It does so, first, by locating these figures within overall trends of American Haredi Jewry as well as in relation to the broader phenomenon of Orthodox feminism. The central contention is that inasmuch as American Haredi Orthodoxy vehemently opposes many of the changes advanced by the Modern Orthodox sector, a “silent” revolution is actually taking place within its own elite frameworks. The instigation for the emergence of new religious leadership roles for Haredi women is the increasing focus of this sector on outreach to the non-observant, and the recognition that woman can be especially effective in these capacities. Yet such activities demand types of public behavior, often in mixed gender settings, that are inconsistent with the messages of strict modesty put forward within Haredi female education. Moreover, some of the female Haredi figures have begun to advance the notion that their functions are not merely vehicles for increasing engagement with Judaism, but actually represent a new empowered model of Orthodox women's leadership and activism.

Be Active Together: Supporting Physical Activity in Public Housing Communities Through Women-Only Programs

Low-income and minority groups in the United States have low levels of physical activity that contribute to health inequities. In public housing communities, both built and social environments are key factors that impact residents' physical activity levels. To develop and evaluate women-only physical activity programs that provide women from cultures in which physical activity in mixed-gender settings is not acceptable (e.g., Muslim women) with physical activity opportunities. We describe the use of community-based participatory research (CBPR) process and evaluation feedback from our initial research and evaluation phases, including focus groups, to shape interventions. Active community engagement in all phases of research, including cultural tailoring of interventions, and decisions about location and affordability, was critical. Implementing interventions in public housing is feasible, but requires frequent feedback from residents and correction. The use of CBPR resulted in the implementation of a successful, culturally appropriate set of physical activity interventions, specifically for Muslim Somali women. Housing authorities should consider incorporating recreational facilities on site and women-only opportunities to provide venues for physical activity.

One-year change in energy and macronutrient intakes of overweight and obese inner-city African American children: Effect of community-based Taking Action Together type 2 diabetes prevention program

Taking Action Together (TAT) was a controlled community-based intervention protocol developed to reduce risk of T2DM among low-income, high BMI, 9–10year old African American children. A secondary hypothesis of this study was that there would be greater improvements in the treatment group in dietary intakes and physical activity. To evaluate the primary study objectives, multiple linear regression models were employed, with 1year change in dietary variables as dependent variables. Intervention group status was the independent variable of interest and BMIz was included as a covariate in all analyses to adjust for group differences in baseline obesity status of the children. The findings from this analysis suggest that 1year change in dietary intakes in boys was associated with group intervention status, with boys in the treatment group reducing their intakes of energy and fat to a significantly greater extent than boys in the control group. Differences in energy intakes were not significant, however, for girls. Based on the differences in gender response to our comprehensive TAT intervention, we conclude that interventions designed for and delivered only to African American girls might be more successful than those delivered in mixed gender settings.

Alcohol & Drug Abuse: What Is "Women-Focused" Treatment for Substance Use Disorders?

Alcohol & Drug Abuse: What Is "Women-Focused" Treatment for Substance Use Disorders?

Gender Voices in Electronic Discourse: A Forum in Ukrainian

The present study analyzes electronic discussion forums in Ukrainian from a gender linguistic perspective. First, it tests hypotheses about the egalitarian vs. hierarchical nature of electronic communication. Second, it delineates a set of genderlect features found in electronic communication in Ukrainian. Finally, based on the discourse-oriented Speech Act Empathy Hierarchy (Kuno and Kaburaki 1975/1977, Kuno 1987), the analysis demonstrates that linguistic choices signal distinct discourse orientations of females and males in electronic communication space. Namely, in mixed-gender settings, on the continuum Speaker >< Addressee >< Others, females operate more locally: Speaker >< Addressee >(< Others). Males operate with the two opposite ends of the continuum: Speaker >(< Addressee >)< Others. The analysis emphasises that both genders have a range of speech strategies that are situational; however, in some settings, males and females negotiate meaning and perceive their relationship with the addressee/others differently.

Gender and humor in social context

This critical review of research on gender and humor describes a theoretically and pragmatically fruitful framework for studying the intersection of these topics. Gender is conceived as a system of meanings that influences access to power, status, and material resources. Humor is conceived as a mode of discourse and a strategy for social interaction. Within this theoretical framework, it is argued that women and men use humor in same-gender and mixed-gender settings as one of the tools of gender construction. Through it and other means, they constitute themselves as masculine men and feminine women. At the same time, the unique properties of humor make it a valuable tool of gender deconstruction. In the political humor of the women's movement, and in the conversational humor of women friends, resistance to dominant social constructions of gender can be voiced.