Gender Role Models Research Articles

Does Cultural Heritage Affect Employment Decisions – Empirical Evidence for Second Generation Immigrants in Germany

In 2010, in 59 percent of the families without migration background in Germany, both partners were in paid work. In contrast, this merely holds for 39 percent of the families with a migration background. Further, in 40 percent of these families with migration history only the father pursued an occupational activity (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2012a). Migration based differences in labor market behavior are mainly explained by highlighting the importance of demographic characteristics, like educational attainment and family composition, and structural variables, such as differences in the institutional and economic environment in the country of origin, assimilation, and social integration as well as the number of years since migration. Instead of focusing on individual and structural determinants of employment choices alone, the main thesis of this paper is that cultural norms regarding existing gender role models within society may play a major role for labor market decisions, especially for females.

Gender Role Models in Fictional Novels for Emerging Adult Lesbians

Novels provide role models for young adult lesbians and thus may influence their identity development. This study focused on 16 lesbian protagonists identified in 11 young adult novels that received 2011 Lambda Literary Award nominations. Content analyses revealed six themes. Three themes defied traditional gender stereotypes: Asserting Oneself, Pursuing Intimacy with Another Woman, and Breaking Free of Constraints to Authentic Self-Expression. Three themes reinforced gender stereotypes: Negative Emotional Experiences Associated with Lesbian Identity, Traditional Masculine Gender Expression, and Traditional Gender Role-Based Sexual Scripts. Each theme is discussed in light of its possible contribution to lesbian identity development.

The construction of hegemonic female gender roles in Serbian/Yugoslav women's magazine Bazar

This paper examines a select sample of popular Serbian/Yugoslav women 's magazine Bazar to address the question: How are the media construction of female gender roles discursively constructed within specific societal circumstances in Serbian/Yugoslav society in three different historical moments (in 1970s, 1980s, 1990s)? How do these hegemonic constructs differ among themselves? Do they correspond with everyday reality and in which way? The major finding of this paper is the existence of three ideal type of hegemonic female gender role models represented in women 's magazine Bazar in three different historical periods (1970s, 1980s, 1990s). These three ideal type models are: (a) the 1970s model of 'super-woman', (b) the 1980s model of 'frustrated super-woman' and (c) the 1990s model of 'escapist woman'. All of them testify how popular women's magazine follows the policy of its publishing house, and official ideological political discourse, through the media construction of hegemonic female gender role. The comparative analysis of these three models of hegemonic female gender roles and their relation toward official ideological political discourse (mediated through the policy of Bazar 's publishing house Politika) shows/confirms that the aggravation of living conditions and the increase of social instability enlarge the gap between media construct of hegemonic female gender role and the everyday reality of the society, in relation to which the HFGR is constructed in particular historical moment.

Helping Girls to Be Heroic?: Some Recent Arthurian Fiction for Young Adults

Study of the female protagonists in several post-2000 novels for young adults reveals that Morris and Reeve provide healthy and flexible models of gender roles and gender identity. In contrast, McKenzie, Springer, and Wood provide restrictive and old-fashioned ones while Kemp presents a dangerously negative model of womanhood.

Sex Differences in the Creation of Fictional Heroes with Particular Emphasis on Female Heroes and Superheroes in Popular Culture: Insights from Evolutionary Psychology

Cultural and psychological perspectives have been used to examine the characteristics of modern fictional heroes, but rarely if ever has an evolutionary approach been applied to this topic, an approach that could be quite enlightening. Evolutionary psychology suggests that sexual selection will have shaped differences in the underlying behavioral tendencies of males and females. Specifically, the higher parental investment of females makes establishing dominance more valuable to males and the helping of family members more valuable for females. If this is true, evolved differences manifesting themselves in the subconscious could influence the characteristics of the fictional heroes created by each sex. Here, I use a preliminary examination of female superheroes from the popular media to help frame an exploration of these predicted sex differences, which is followed by a more systematic approach examining heroes found in recent children's fantasy novels. If there are evolved differences, the female heroes created by men are expected to be more physically powerful and exhibit more displays of physical power than those created by women. In addition, the primary goal of the two types should also differ, with female-generated heroes displaying more concern for family members. Analyzing these characters using evolutionary psychology is compared to previous approaches. If the evolutionary approach proves to be valid, this new method of hero comparisons should be of interest to those studying gender issues and role models for girls.

Irma Bandiera and Maria Goretti: gender role models for communist girls in Italy (1945-56)

Irma Bandiera and Maria Goretti: gender role models for communist girls in Italy (1945-56)

Bathrooms, Baseball, and Bra Shopping: Lesbian and Gay Parents Talk about Engendering Their Children

Drawing on an integrated theoretical lens of vocabularies of motive, gender interactionism, and queer theory, the authors explore how eighteen lesbian mothers and twenty-two gay fathers negotiate the cultural narratives of heteronormativity and gender essentialism as they imagine and participate in constructing their children's gender. Findings highlight the extent to which participants' parenting fantasies and realities occur within a context of heightened gender accountability that they manage for their children. The authors show how the practice of securing gender role models for their children is one way that non-heterosexual parents manage this accountability. Next, the authors introduce “queer ruptures” in participants' narratives and detail the subtle ways that they destabilize the existing heteronormative gender order. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for empirical and theoretical development.

Mind the (gender) gap

This paper presents the "Mind the Gap" initiative that aims to encourage female high school pupils to study computer science (CS) in high school. This is achieved by increasing their awareness to what CS is, and exposing them to the essence of a hi-tech environment and to same gender role models. Female software engineers at Google's Israel R&D Center in collaboration with the Israeli National Center undertook the initiative for computer science teachers. We describe the initiative and its impact on the female pupils' interest in CS. One of our conclusions is that even a short visit to a hi-tech company, in this case - Google, has the potential to change pupils' perception of what CS is and to increase their interest in CS and their desire to study it. One could easily adapt this initiative to other companies and scale it to infl uence a rather large population.

Family Gender Role and Guilt in Spanish Dual-Earner Families

In dual-earner families the balance between work and family demands facilitates the development of guilt feelings when parents perceive a non-fulfillment of their responsibilities in childcare. Specifically, women who aspire to personal and professional development on the basis of more egalitarian gender role models must deal with the traditional stereotypes that maintain an intensive maternity mandate that prioritizes the family. On the other hand, for men the role change is primarily in the family setting with the development of a new father role more involved in the care of their children, which is not easily compatible with the more traditional breadwinner role. This study explored the feelings of guilt about parenting in 251 employed Spanish parents with children between 3 and 6 years of age, through the Scale of Guilt Feelings about Parenting, and its relationship with traditional stereotypes of maternal and family role. The scale addresses diverse situations pertaining to child rearing in which work requirements do not allow parents full availability for the care of their children. This availability is present in the model of intensive maternity and in the new father role model. Results indicate the presence of similar and high levels of guilt in fathers and mothers, although in men guilt is related to a non-traditional family role ideology, whereas in women guilt is related to a more traditional maternal role stereotype.

Locating Indian Women in Colonial Korea

This paper analyzes the representation of Indian women in Korean print media during the 1920s and 1930s. Special attention is given to Sarojini Naidu, a poetess and nationalist. Indian women, in particular Naidu, were focused upon during this period. These were strong and proactive women who brought about change in society, a view that was politically motivated. By describing Indian women in a positive manner, the Korean media obliquely sought to criticize their own oppressive colonizers. Just as the image of Indian women as passive victims had been partly used to rationalize British colonial intervention, the representation of strong Indian women helped the Koreans indirectly to critique colonial control. This Korean perception, however, did not imply a progressive or liberal trend. Despite the positive interpretations of strong Indian women and the efforts made to present gender role models portraying Indian women as energetic to their Korean counterparts, the underlying attitudes in all such reports and comments were extremely patriarchal in that they focused on women with authentic and proven femininity.

The effect of cartoon movies on children's gender development

Cartoon movies which are necessary sources of fun for children also have educational aspects. Innocent display of cartoons which give many subtle messages include various negativities. One of these negativities is related with the characters’ gender. Characters in cartoon movies include females, males, animals and inanimate objects. While male and female characters’ roles are shaped according to existing stereotypical role models in society, animal and inanimate characters have anthropomorphic characteristics like walking on two feet or speaking. Such characters have their places in these movies with their human-like characteristics. Animal and inanimate characters are sometimes designed on the bases of stereotypical female and male role models and sometimes these characters are seen as asexual or homosexual. In some cartoon movies, transformations between sexes draw attention. For example, a character designed as female can be transformed into male via a magical process. Such changes of sex, asexuality and representation of characters according to the stereotypical role models are alarming. The fact that children spend much of their time watching television and especially choose such movies augments these concerns. Children coming across with such complicated gender role models will affect them negatively in the future years of their lives.This study, “The Effect of Cartoon Movies on Children's Gender Development”, will analyze these cartoons in which complicated gender role models are presented critically and propose some solutions to this problem.

Value transmissions between parents and children: Gender and developmental phase as transmission belts

This study applied the gender role model of socialization theory, the developmental aging theory, and the topic salience perspective to the investigation of parent–child value transmissions. Specifically, we examined whether the bi-directionality and selectivity of value transmissions differed as a function of parents' and children's gender and children's developmental phase (adolescence versus emerging adulthood). Transmissions between parents and children from 402 Dutch families on the topics of work as duty and hedonism were studied across a 5-year period using structural equation modeling. As expected, we did not find convincing support for the general models of gender socialization and developmental aging. Instead, parent–child value transmissions appeared to be qualified by value salience. Particularly, high salience of work as duty for fathers was related with great paternal involvement in transmissions on this value orientation and high salience of hedonism for sons and adolescents was linked to transmissions from these groups to parents.

Girl Power: Risky Sexual Behaviour and Gender Identity amongst Young Spanish Recreational Drug Users

Against a background of significant social change experienced by Spanish women from the 1960s onwards, new gender identities and conflicts have emerged. These factors have barely been taken into account in the research work done in Spain. This article looks into the conversations of young people concerning their relationship with risky sexual behaviour, recreational drug use and sexual identity. Drawing from a qualitative study of discussion groups and semi-structured interviews with young recreational drug users, the article suggests that there are at least two models of femininity among the recreational drug consumers that have taken part in this study. First there is a traditional romantic model whereby young women associated risky sexual behaviour with being in love or trusting in the partner. Here the young woman does not link her sexual behaviour to the effects of using recreational drugs but, rather, to the characteristics of her emotional relationship. Second, there is a model of new values and gender roles that are closer to those traditionally associated to males, where the young women use recreational drugs as a form of empowerment to take on new situations concerning their sexuality. The article analyses the perceptions of risk among the different identity groups, along with the negotiations to begin sexual relations and the use of the condom in these groups of recreational drug users. Issues for policy and practice are also briefly considered.

Gender Role Models . . . who needs 'em?!

This article examines the use of socialization theory in social workers' considerations of child development. The author analyses assessments of lesbians and gay men who applied to foster or adopt children, in order to demonstrate social workers' reliance upon `gender role models'. Drawing upon feminist work, the article goes on to critique socialization theory, before outlining versions of `gender' found in discourse theory and ethnomethodology. Using these methodologies, the author proposes that gender role theory does not describe a child development `need', but rather constructs a particular account that is limited and conservative. The article considers the implications of this reliance upon socialization theory for lesbian and gay foster care and adoption, and instead proposes that social work should develop less restrictive accounts of gender and sexuality.

Far from Mundane: Theorising Heterosexism for Social Work Education

Despite social work's commitment to diversity and social justice, anti‐oppressive practice in relation to sexuality is afforded little attention in key texts. In comparison to other social divisions, there appears to be little theoretical analysis of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) oppression and few practice models. Drawing on Thompson's work, a framework for understanding the processes and structures which maintain sexuality oppression is proposed. This analysis identifies the legal, social and political inequalities in the everyday lives of LGB people. The paper examines how heterosexism can help to theorise LGB oppression and aims to translate the term into its ‘full richness’ by using three conceptual domains: normalising heterosexuality, compulsory heterosexuality and intersections with other oppressions. (i) The family is a key site in which heterosexuality is normalised. Children and family social workers are likely to encounter a range of beliefs in which LGB families are constituted as inferior: children lack appropriate gender role models, children will grow up gay, children of same‐sex parents are bullied and gay men are a threat to children. (ii) The compulsory status of heterosexuality has depended on the erasure of LGB existence: sexuality issues are not addressed in the academic or practice curriculum; LGB people are represented as ‘just the same’ as heterosexuals (services which meet their needs and circumstances are not considered); and LGB service users remain invisible to social workers. (iii) Heterosexism intersects with racism, sexism and disabilism in processes which include othering, treating everybody the same and invisibilisation. This paper offers a theoretical foundation for heterosexism on which emancipatory practice with LGB people can be developed.

Women slave owners face their historians: versions of maternalism in Atlantic World slavery

ABSTRACT Foster investigates the current debate over the status of free women in Atlantic World slavery. This debate is marked not only by competing perspectives among professional historians but by conversations between historians, filmmakers, novelists, genealogists and popular writers. Traditionally, this kind of complex interaction has produced fictional icons like Scarlett O'Hara and Melanie Hamilton of the novel and film Gone with the Wind, figures that influenced southern Americans' ideas of themselves and academic historians' models of gender roles within slavery. As American slavery is more frequently assessed within a full Atlantic World and transnational context, the 'free woman within slavery' question has grown radically more nuanced and contradictory in a relatively short period of time. Particularly suspect is the older idea that servitude and race-based slavery systems served to expand paternal privilege and authority. Foster's article is oriented around the question of whether a multicultural 'maternalism' might have existed to complement or compete with paternal authority within slavery. The first section explores the paradox of free women, acting as metaphorical 'mothers' to enslaved dependents, being portrayed by male contemporaries as desexualized and sexually debauched. The second section shows the restricted way that some historians have defined 'female mastery' and the sometimes very different and less restricted ways free women described their own brands of 'mastery'. The third and final section surveys recent film and novels to assess the possibilities and limitations of achieving a transatlantic perspective on maternalism in current, historically informed popular culture. This review concludes by arguing that all these historical, historiographical and popular materials help to illustrate a new model of New World slavery, one deeply influenced by unstable Atlantic World gender hierarchies far more contradictory, complex and multicultural than the venerable 'Scarlett v. Melanie' debate and expanding paternal privilege ideas are able to encompass.

Empty spaces, new possibilities

This article responds to contributions to the special issue of Lesbian & Gay Psychology Review, volume 7(1), on lesbian, gay, polyamorous and queer parenting and families. The author draws upon Foucault’s work to suggest that new relational possibilities might be imagined via the practices of lesbian and gay parenting. After briefly reviewing his own involvement in research on gay and lesbian foster care and adoption, the author goes on to discuss questions about gender role models, methodological debates on the nature of research knowledge, and the emergence of narrative/discourse analysis within lesbian and gay parenting studies. The author discusses and responds to a number of problems raised by the contributors, and emphasises an approach to gay and lesbian parenting studies based upon a discursive concern with power/knowledge.

Reconfiguration of hegemonic models of (male and female) gender roles in the process of transformation of Serbian society

Hegemonic gender role is specific configuration of different gender performances and practices that represents socially accepted answer on concrete (economic, political and social) circumstances within given society in particular historical moment. Analytical insight into their content and direction of change could provide us better understanding of other social structures and aspects of social life of society/ culture/sub cultural community/social group within which hegemonic gender role has been formulated and practicized. In that sense this research shell try to recognize them as a legitimate source of data about societal process of structural transformation of Serbian society during the last two decades.

Exile and Identity: Polish Women in the Soviet Union during World War II by Katherine R. s> Jolluck (review)

764 SEER, 8i, 4, 2003 Jolluck, Katherine R. ExileandIdentity.PolishWomen in theSovietUnionDuring World War II. Pitt Series in Russian and East European Studies. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 2002. xxiv + 356 pp. Illustrations.Notes. Bibliography.Index. C28.50. THIS book is about the experiences of female Polish deportees in the Soviet Union during World War II, based on a thorough study of the testimonies/ depositionswrittenby the women themselveson theirevacuation from Russia in I942. Katherine R. Jolluck follows the women from the evening Soviet soldiers arrested them, on theirjourney in cattle trucks from Poland to the Russian interior, to prisons, work camps and Kolkhoz in some of the most inhospitable regions of Russia, and throughout the period of their exile. She examines the living conditions of the women, theirreactions to their situation and theirsurvivalstrategies. However, this book is far more than a descriptive narrative of the Polish women's lives. Nor is the topic limited to the years of the deportation. Indeed the book's subtitle belies the breadth and depth of its subject. In order to tackle the key issue of identity Jolluck's study is thematic, comparative and analytical,and takesinto account historical,cultural,economic, geographical, national, psychological and gender factors.This broad and varied framework helps Jolluck to untangle the complex relationship between female and national identity. It also provides the non-Polish expert with a good understandingof the society fromwhich these women were taken. The book has numerous other strengths.Although this study has personal significancetoJolluck, shemaintainsher academic detachment and is, asBeth Holmgren put it, both 'compassionate and analytical' (see her comments about ExileandIdentity on the back cover). I would also add non-judgemental. Jolluck allowsthe women to tell theirown storyand to be themselves,without apologising for, defending or applaudingtheir actions. This book is not about women who 'broke the mould' and defied societal expectations about how they should behave, or who followed theirown path, careeror lifestyle.These were not exceptional women who succeeded in male dominated fields, nor were they 'emancipated' according to the Soviet or the present day Western model of gender roles. They were women of their time, from all walksof life, trying to deal with extraordinarycircumstances.And asJolluck makes clear, theirway of coping with their ordeal was to cling to and assertthe traditional notions of woman as mother and carer, as the 'weakersex' and the one who serves others, notions which were still predominantly accepted in Poland. Indeed it was this sense of identity that helped the women resist the national regime they had been taken prisoner by and the day-to-day local regime of their place of exile. Seeing themselves as the mothers of the next Polish generation motivated and helped women to defy the authorities.Forexample, in defiance of the policies of Sovietization, they continued to educate their children in the Polish language and national traditions (p. I20). On other occasions, it was the perceived violation of gender roles that spurred the women into action: hearing men weeping as they were beaten led to women screamingand shouting or hunger-strikingin protest (p. I28). REVIEWS 765 Jolluck maintainsher detachment and does not 'intervene'when the Polish women express what would be seen now as racist comments about the other national minorities of Poland and the Soviet Union, and about the Russians themselves.Rather she discusseshow the women used theirviews about other nationalities to construct their own national (female) identity. Female Poles felt all the more strongly Polish and feminine when faced with women from other national groupswhose gender rolesand generalbehaviourwere alien to those of the Poles. Similarly, women of other nationalities who showed behaviourwhich was similarto that considered appropriatefor Polishwomen were sometimes given the statusof honoraryPoles. Another major strength of ExileandIdentity is that it does not focus all its attention on Polishwomen and addresseshow Polish men and children were treated in exile and how they coped with the experience. (Indeed, the identity of Polish exiles project could still be taken further.)The comparison of the women's testimonies about their experiences and those written by men, as well as the juxtaposition of how each sex portrayed the other is particularly useful and important. We see how men and women expressed...

Family Migration and the Relative Earnings of Husbands and Wives

This article focuses primarily on determining the economic consequences of family migration for husbands and wives in matched married-couple families, using data from waves 1 and 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households. The analysis is designed to determine whether or not the return to migration for husbands and wives is similarly affected by their relative earning potential, as predicted by the human-capital model of migration. The study's secondary contributions include its estimation of the effect of moving on earnings for both husbands and wives within matched married-couple families and its avoidance of the problems of self-selection bias and unobserved variable bias associated with cross-sectional models by using panel-data methods. The results indicate—as predicted by the gender-role model of family migration—that the effect of family migration on individual earnings is largely a function of gender: family migration causes an increase in the husband's income and no change in the wife's income even if a wife has a greater earning potential than her husband. Thus, the study does not support the human-capital argument—that family migration decisions are egalitarian and symmetrical, such that each spouse's absolute and relative earning power is given equal weight in the migration decision. This research makes a strong statement that the gender-role model of family migration is of greater utility for understanding family migration behavior than the human-capital model of family migration.