Negotiation Of Gender Identity Research Articles

Performing Gender in the Workplace

Organizational cultures shape and reinforce socially appropriate roles for men and women. Drawing on a performativity framework, which assumes that gender is socially constructed through gendered “performances,” this study employs interviews with and observations of six women faculty members to examine how dominant discourses define and maintain the formation of gender roles within a community college context. The experiences of one of these faculty members, a welding instructor, are highlighted. Results indicate that the women faculty members performed a variety of stereotypical feminine gender roles based on (a) socialization experiences external to the college, (b) socialization within the college's organizational culture, and (c) the individual's construction and negotiation of gender identity.

Strategic Transformation: Cultural and Gender Identity Negotiation in First-Generation Vietnamese Youth

This article explores the various ways in which recent Vietnamese immigrant students form cultural and gender identities as they transition to U.S. schooling. Using data from a 2-year qualitative study that tracked the social and academic adjustment processes of recent Vietnamese immigrant youth, this article examines the tensions that students struggle with as they bring their own values and practices into the school site. The findings suggest that gender functions as a complex social category for recent immigrants that shifts across social contexts. The authors argue that accounting for a full picture of gender identity more accurately captures the manner in which recent immigrant students adapt to U.S. schooling.

Singaporeans in China: transnational women elites and the negotiation of gendered identities

The burgeoning literature on transnationalism involving skilled migrants––based largely on the view from the developed world––have generally paid little heed to “elite” women and the reproductive sphere. We argue that women play many roles in elite transnational migration streams and must be given full consideration as part of the “transnational elite.” Attention is given to the way women––both “tied” and “lead” migrants––negotiate gendered identities as they participate in Singapore's regionalisation process, a state-driven initiative to extend the national economy by leveraging on growth in the region. Empirical material for the paper is mainly based on in-depth interviews with married women who were part of a larger project involving interviews with 150 Singaporeans who had lived, or were living, in China. In examining the movements through transnational space between Singapore and China, it is clear that patriarchal norms continue to shape women's understandings of their own identities vis- a ̀ -vis men's. Singapore women who move as accompanying spouses (the majority) find themselves giving up careers to focus on their domestic role in China (in the absence of access to “suitable” paid domestic service), and are not so much “deskilled” but “re-domesticated”. The exceptional few women who ventured into China as entrepreneurs experienced considerable strain holding together geographically separate spheres of productive and reproductive work across the transnational terrain. Both sets of “stories” alert us to the need to include “elite” women––whether accompanying spouses or independent entrepreneurs––in our understanding of “transnational elites.” This will contribute to the urgent task of ensuring that both productive and reproductive work are valorized in equal measure in conceptualizing transnationalism.

Contextual Variations in Young Women's Gender Identity Negotiations

This article explores young women's strategies for seeking personal power and resisting gender-based stereotypes in a wealthy, suburban, White community and a working-class, urban, community of color. Semi-structured interviews with 27 young women were used to examine contextual variations in these gender identity negotiation processes. Both groups of young women were acutely aware of women's subordinate social and cultural position and this awareness contributed to some negative feelings about being female. However, their strategies for locating strength in their identities varied by social contexts. Moreover, the two groups of young women encountered distinct sets of stereotypes in their respective communities. Forms of resistance to these stereotypes led to significantly different behavior patterns. These comparisons build a richer theoretical understanding of the contextual dimensions of young women's gender identity negotiations.

Literacy Learning as Gendered Identity Work

Drawing from a six-month ethnographic study, this article explores the negotiation of gendered identities through classroom literacy practices in an urban high school, paying particular attention to how gendered identities are interwoven with those of race, class, and other social identities during literary discussions. I draw upon the notion that identity is multifaceted, shaped through language, and deeply context-dependent to show how students were able to hold multiple, gendered subject positions—like debater, athlete, and smart student—simultaneously. At the same time, however, the gendered identity work that students engaged in through textual and oral discourse was constrained by the other subject positions they held outside of class and by the people with whom they were interacting. Findings suggest that educators must recognize that literacy learning, as a form of interpersonal communication, is not only an academic endeavor but also a negotiation of social identities and thus a social practice that can delimit or offer new possibilities for students' self images and life choices.

Relocating Gender and Rural Economic Strategies

In recent decades, increasing entrepreneurial activities among women have contributed to shifting livelihood strategies at the household, community, and regional scales. In this paper I examine home-based work in an economic network to highlight the intersection of gender and economic practices in rural Appalachia. The research demonstrates that these livelihood strategies both construct and are shaped by dynamic material conditions and social processes in place. Economic restructuring in the central Appalachian region has led to the reworking of economic strategies, despite a continued reliance by households on homework and informal activities. The case study for this project is an economic network comprised of sixty home-based workers who produce knitwear for regional and national markets. In-depth interviews and extensive fieldwork are used to examine the complexity of shifting economic livelihoods in the rural Appalachian context. The analysis focuses on the (re)negotiation of gender identities by home-based workers in the context of economic restructuring. The discussion also shows how participation in these activities contributes to economic and social empowerment. Overall, this study offers a critical approach to the economy, work, and gender in a way that analyzes diverse economic practices and the construction of gender identity in a rural, economically marginalized region.

TO VEIL OR NOT TO VEIL?

The increasingly pervasive practice of veiling among Muslim women has stimulated a great deal of scholarly investigation and debate. This study brings empirical evidence to bear on current debates about the meaning of the veil in Islam. This article first examines the conflicting meanings of the veil among Muslim religious elites and Islamic feminists. Although the dominant gender discourse among Muslim elites strongly favors this cultural practice, an antiveiling discourse promulgated by Islamic feminists has gained ground within recent years. This study then examines how these discursive disputes affect gender identity negotiation among veiled and unveiled Muslim women living in Austin, Texas. Interviews with these women highlight how their gender identities reproduce and reformulate existing Muslim gender discourses. Special attention is paid to the subjective disparities and points of congruence between both groups of respondents. This study concludes by suggesting avenues for future research on the intersection of gender, religion, and cultural difference.