Production Of Gender Inequalities Research Articles

The role of academic conferences in the [re]production of gender inequality in business disciplines: not just a STEM problem

PurposeIn this paper the authors seek to understand how academic conferences [re]produce deeply embedded gendered patterns of interaction and informal norms within the business disciplines.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on Acker's (2012) established and updated theory of gendered organisations, the authors focus on the role of academic conferences in the reproduction of gendered practices in the business disciplines. The authors surveyed academics at top universities in Australia and New Zealand who had attended international conferences in their discipline area.FindingsAcademic conferences in the business disciplines communicate organisational logic and act as gendered substructures that [re]produce gendered practices, through the hierarchy of conference participation. Even in disciplinary conferences with a significant proportion of women delegates, the entrenched organisational logic is manifest in the bodies that perform keynote and visible expert roles, perpetuating the notion of the “ideal academic” as male.Practical implicationsThe authors call for disciplinary associations to formulate an equality policy, which covers all facets of conference delivery, to which institutions must then respond in their bid to host the conference and which then forms part of the selection criteria; explicitly communicate why equality is important and what decisions the association and hosts took to address it; and develop databases of women experts to remove the most common excuse for the lack of women keynote speakers. Men, question conference hosts when asked to be a keynote speaker or panelist: Are half of the speakers women and is there diversity in the line-up? If not, provide the names of women to take your place.Originality/valueThe contribution of this study is twofold. First is the focus on revealing the underlying processes that contribute to the [re]production of gender inequality at academic conferences: the “how” rather than the “what”. Second, the authors believe it to be the first study to investigate academic conferences across the spectrum of business disciplines.

Birth cohort, ageing and gender ideology: Lessons from British panel data

Individuals' gender attitudes influence their behaviors, and adherence to traditional gender ideology is an important mechanism contributing to the (re)production of gender inequalities. In developed nations, the ‘gender revolution’ was accompanied by marked societal shifts towards gender-egalitarian attitudes, but these trends have recently stalled. In this paper, we re-examine the role of birth cohort and ageing in influencing gender ideology through the lens of life-course theory and leveraging British panel data. We contribute to the field by considering cohort-differences in ageing effects on gender ideology and documenting within-cohort variability in such effects. We find that (i) people from older cohorts hold comparatively more traditional gender attitudes, (ii) the effect of ageing on gender ideology is positive, (iii) there are cohort-differences in these ageing effects, (iv) gender-attitude trajectories are less predictable in younger than older cohorts, and (v) factors capturing life-course experience explain little of the cohort differences. Our findings highlight important avenues for future research on gender ideology change, and offer insights into the likely pace and direction of social movements towards gender egalitarianism.

Do women’s pre-birth relative wages moderate the parenthood effect on gender inequality in working hours?

Abstract Although young couples increasingly divide paid and ​unpaid work equally, the transition to parenthood is associated with the production of gender inequality. Given the rising prevalence of female breadwinner households in Europe, this paper assesses whether the parenthood effect on gender inequality in employment is counteracted in couples where women were the main income providers before the onset of family formation. Using longitudinal micro-data (1999–2010) from the Belgian Crossroads Bank for Social Security and the National Register, population-averaged logit models assess the effect of pre-birth relative earnings on parental employment strategies following the transition to parenthood. Results indicate that a female main earner constellation positively relates to egalitarian and female-oriented employment strategies. Although pre-birth relative earnings affect the magnitude of the negative relationship between parenthood and gender inequality in paid work, male-oriented parental employment strategies continue to occur most, even among female main earner couples. Hence, variation in pre-birth relative earnings cannot fully account for the rise in gender inequality in employment following the transition to parenthood, suggesting that cultural as well as structural factors limit parents to opt for an egalitarian employment division.

Institutional processes and the production of gender inequalities: The case of Australian child support research and administration

This article analyses the administrative and research capture of child support data as a case study of how institutional data collection processes are performative in perpetuating gendered inequalities. We compare interviews with 19 low-income single mothers and their longitudinal survey responses from the same research to reveal how low-income women strategically or inadvertently ‘smoothed’ their experiences when responding to data collection processes. This directly resulted in material and symbolic costs in the form of reduced welfare benefits and limited evidence with which to lobby for policy reform. These processes in turn provided benefits to fathers and the state in the form of reduced child support liabilities and enforcement action, and welfare outlays, respectively. We conclude that current administrative and research data collection practices provide a limited and gendered evidence base for administrative justice and policy reform.

Invisible Violence: "Media (Re)Production of Gender Inequality in Italy

Compared to other European countries, opportunities are limited for Italian women to fully and equally participate in Italian social life. In order to better understand Italian women’s social position and the gender inequality that persists in Italy, this research applies Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic violence. Specifically, symbolic violence is used to explain depictions of women the Italian media. Because social institutions such as the media, that reach large audiences, have the ability to transmit dominant cultural representations, they also transmit representations of the roles of masculinity and femininity. This ability permits media outlets to depict images of the gendered status quo. These representations and depictions often reinforce gender domination in the form of promoting and reifying gender inequality. This research therefore illustrates how the Italian media misrepresent and stereotype women in television and news by limiting their social roles and status in these outlets, a form of symbolic violence. These limited social roles are also seen in Italy’s social reality where women are less likely to be represented in different spheres of social life, like politics. These persistent and prevalent stereotypes and images in the Italian media reify the economic, social, and cultural disadvantage of women in Italy that contribute to continued masculine dominations in all spheres of social life. The implications of symbolic violence in the Italian media and media in general are then discussed.

What lies behind gender inequalities in HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan African countries: evidence from Kenya, Lesotho and Tanzania

Within sub-Saharan Africa, women are disproportionately at risk for acquiring and having human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is important to clarify whether gender inequalities in HIV prevalence in this region are explained by differences in the distributions of HIV risk factors, differences in the effects of these risk factors or some combination of both. We used an extension of the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition approach to explain gender inequalities in HIV/AIDS in Kenya, Lesotho and Tanzania using data from the demographic and health and AIDS indicator surveys. After adjusting for covariates using Poisson regression models, female gender was associated with a higher prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Kenya [prevalence ratio (PR) = 1.73, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.33, 2.23 in 2003] and Lesotho (PR = 1.39, 95% CI = 1.20, 1.62 in 2004/05), but not in Tanzania. Decomposition analyses demonstrated two distinct patterns over time. In Tanzania, the gender inequality in HIV/AIDS was explained by differences in the distributions of HIV risk factors between men and women. In contrast, in Kenya and Lesotho, this inequality was partly explained by differences in the effects across men and women of measured HIV/AIDS risk factors, including socio-demographic characteristics (age and marital status) and sexual behaviours (age at first sex); these results imply that gender inequalities in HIV/AIDS would persist in Kenya and Lesotho even if men and women had similar distributions of HIV risk factors. The production of gender inequalities may vary across countries, with inequalities attributable to the unequal distribution of risk factors among men and women in some countries and the differential effect of these factors between groups in others. These different patterns have important implications for policies to reduce gender inequalities in HIV/AIDS.

Resistances to gender mainstreaming in organizations: toward a new approach

Purpose – For decades, numerous mechanisms have been adopted to accelerate the progression of women in decision-making levels, and many organizations have developed programs to promote gender mainstreaming. In practice however, literature has shown that experience in gender mainstreaming faces many important challenges and under-representation persists at higher organizational levels. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This research brings together the results of two case studies on gender equality in the higher echelons of public and private sector organisations in Canada (Québec) and Morocco. Based on the analytical framework used as a theoretical basis for the analysis of change and resistance to gender mainstreaming, the data were revisited to explore common trends and patterns, despite the differences in context. Findings – The analysis shows that common factors support and limit women's progress in organizations. Equity initiatives are limited to the technical agenda and scant effort goes to managing political and cultural dimensions. The study shows that those dimensions play a central role in the production of gender inequality and that actions and measures targeting political and cultural dimensions must be prioritized. Originality/value – An improved conceptual framework is proposed for practical interventions and theory building. The new matrix feeds into the reflection for a new learning approach for organizations who want to achieve gender mainstreaming, to better identify the dimensions that should be addressed or to assess the measures taken and their impact and also offers a basis for new studies and research to test the matrix, its usefulness for theory building for intervention.

Contradictions in the (still) gendered structure of Portuguese newspapers' production and discourse

This article discusses the access of women to Portuguese newspapers against the background of a more general debate over the role of the media in the (re)production of gender inequalities in western societies. On one hand, we stress the qualitative and quantitative developments of women's participation as journalists in newspapers, by comparing the results of previous investigation in the Portuguese context with the statistics of our own research and with the statistics provided by the last Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) and by The International Federation of Journalists. In addition, we show how gender inequalities are manifested and (re)produced in and by newspaper texts and images, by combining Critical Discourse Analysis and visual social semiotics and by comparing our results with the ones provided by the GMMP. We analyse relevant structural written and visual categories and their implications in terms of gender ideologies and inequalities in one daily edition of Portuguese quality newspapers.

Gender and organizations: The (re)production of gender inequalities within Development NGOs

Synopsis Non-governmental organizations play an important role in development. However, as in other types of social organizations, evidence exists of gender inequalities in their structure and internal functioning. This article, based on qualitative research, addresses the question of inequality within Development NGOs in a developed country, Spain. We analyze the fact that NGOs are regarded as gender neutral and the reasons behind this belief. We also address a twofold issue: on the one hand, the fact that inequality leads to the invisibility of gender issues within NGOs and, on the other, the disproportionate visibility of situations inconsistent with traditional gender norms.

Gendered career‐making practices: On doing ambition or how managers discursively position themselves in a multinational corporation

Although in the last decades there have been an increasing number of female managers, few make it to top management positions. In this study we want to gain insight into the persistence of the ‘glass ceiling’ by analyzing, from an ethnomethodologically informed discursive approach, how managers discursively position themselves in career making practices. Our study is located at the Dutch site of a multinational corporation where no women were found in higher positions, despite their growing presence in management positions. We aim at unraveling the implied membership competencies to participate in career making practices. In line with research on gendered organizations we consider these competencies to be gendered. In a detailed discursive analysis of interview material we identified an underlying paradox of ‘doing ambition’. We conclude that the women in this study who are ‘doing ambition’ are inevitably caught in a double bind position. The (re)production of gender inequality can be understood in terms of this double bind that is normalized in the organization. We argue that the discursive approach demonstrated in this article, is suitable for gaining insight into the often paradoxical demands managers, and especially women, face in daily career practices.