Social Representations Of Gender Research Articles

Social representations of gender and their influence in Supported Employment: employment specialists’ experiences in Sweden

Purpose Gender differences have been found in the outcomes of vocational rehabilitation (VR) and in Supported Employment (SE), therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore employment specialists’ (ES) social representations of gender in relation to work and VR and how these social representations influence the ES’s work in the VR process according to SE. Methods The qualitative method of focus group discussions was employed. Ten focus groups were held with 39 ESs from four categories of SE organizations in Sweden. Topic analysis was applied to the transcribed material from the focus groups. Results Five themes with different social representations about gender and disability in relation to VR and working life formed in the analysis: (1) differences in personal and health factors among VR-participants, (2) gender norms in society influencing VR, (3) energy-intensive environmental issues influencing VR, (4) gender-specific interactions in VR, and (5) gendered paths in the welfare system. Conclusion Social representations of higher strains on women with disabilities compared to men with disabilities both in private and working life, which reflect the lived experiences of the ESs, is a possible explanation for gender differences in VR and working life for persons with disabilities. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION Gender differences in the outcomes of vocational rehabilitation (VR) interventions have been noticed worldwide. In this study, pervasive social representations about gender and disability in relation to VR were found, but also unconsciousness about gender among VR professionals. Therefore, awareness of gender is necessary in VR. Individualized and person-centered approaches to VR like Supported Employment, although considered best practice, might hide structures like gender, which could lead to reproducing discriminating processes and therefore not achieving gender equality in VR. Therefore, knowledge of discrimination is important in VR. Gender-sensitivity in vocational rehabilitation models with a person-centered and individualized approach is needed and there might also be a need to systematically tailor vocational rehabilitation models to reach gender equality in the outcomes of the interventions. Therefore, gender equality indicators are needed for VR models, to evaluate model effectiveness from a gender perspective.

Social Representations of Gender: A Contextual Construction in Schools

Social representations of gender (SR), namely, beliefs, values, attitudes, and symbolic content about gender affect people’s behavior and relations to others in social life. Gender representations help explain gender violence among the adolescent population. A qualitative study was conducted to explore the gender SR of teachers and students from two cities in Colombia: Bogotá and Ibagué. Multimethod data collection was performed using a word-association task with 37 teachers and a collaborative cartoon construction task with 284 students from both cities. Thematic analysis and triangulation were performed on this data. Knowledge and informational sources were explored in-depth among students and teachers. The analysis of gender representations revealed rather traditional views: binary representations of gender roles, gender relations, physical characteristics, and behavioral expectations for men and women. The study also found differences between the two educational contexts, scarce references to sexual diversity, and a nuance of tragedy in female gender roles and relations.

Social representations of gender as an educational function and integral development from the complex-existential analysis of everyday life

The subject remains in a constant exchange and interaction betweenhis experience, the confirmation he perceives from the other and thepositions he assumes in the situation, taking into account the above,the subject will relate in this way to the world, creating roles andrelational positions. Objective. To understand the socialrepresentations of early childhood educators about gender in theireducational function and integral development. Materials andmethods. The work is based on a qualitative methodology of socialrepresentations and a complex-existential analytical approach.Results. It is found that educators perceive conflicts around genderand how it is perceived, in addition to the fact that there should be aninteraction for the integral development of students, as well as anopenness towards knowledge for gender equality and equity.Conclusions. The relationships between teachers and the other rolespresent in the intersubjective field of education favor the educationalfunction, integral development, as well as the dialogue of knowledge.

Gender Binary Thêmata in Social Representations of Sexual Minorities: A Ten Year Scoping Review

Within the frame of Social Representations Theory, gender binarism and heteronormativity can be considered as themata that make sexual minorities emerge as a norm-challenging social object. Recent social change in the acceptance and regulation of LGBT identities and relationships suggests some kind of transformation in the representations of sexual minorities in order to make these social objects more familiar and acceptable. This scoping review analyzes research articles on social representations of sexual minorities and of gender-related phenomena in sexual minority populations from the last 10 years. The aim of the review is investigating the social representations of gender in sexual minorities in order to understand to what extent these representations might be normalized within the gender binary thema, and to what extent they might be rather transforming the gender frame in order to reduce its binary and heteronormative frame. After searching for scientific contributions in the 5 major social science data bases, 97 articles were screened and 28 were included in the review. Results suggest mostly that social representations of sexual minorities are still being familiarized within a gender-binary frame. Three different semantic processes of familiarization are discussed: gender-compartmentalization, dehumanization, and subjectification. The latter one seems to be the most relevant in the process of social acceptance of the LGBT population.

'La casa de papel', 'Rita' y 'Merlí': entre nuevas narrativas y viejos patriarcados

Netflix ha venido desafiando, en cierta forma, algunos de los roles tradicionales que ocupan las mujeres en los medios de comunicación. Ha incorporado series que han buscado desestabilizar los estereotipos sexistas clásicos para proponer nuevos protagonismos, otras miradas y diversas posibilidades de ser heroínas. En este artículo trabajamos con tres series que presentan nuevas perspectivas narrativas para mujeres y que centralizan gran parte del argumento en ellas: Rita, La Casa de Papel y Merlí. Se trata de tres historias creadas por fuera de las producciones imperialistas e, incluso, del idioma inglés. A partir de un Análisis Crítico del Discurso pautado por la metodología feminista, analizamos las construcciones de mujeres que se presentan en estas ficciones, así como los estereotipos sexistas que se ponen en juego, se desafían y se formulan en el marco de estos tres programas. Desde el análisis de contenido mediático, nos centramos en las representaciones sociales de género que se producen y se concretan en la nueva apuesta de la industria cultural.
 A pesar de que estas series parecen atender a nuevas demandas de la sociedad, incorporando personajes y narrativas que apelan a la diversidad y a la contestación, es posible sugerir que ese movimiento se dirige más a atraer nichos de mercado en la industria del entretenimiento que a proponer una crítica social más amplia y profunda.

Representation of the Transgender Population in Electronic Health Records: Implementation Strategy in the Public Health Care System of Buenos Aires City.

Electronic Health Records (EHR) face the challenge of collecting data about patient's gender identity in order to provide standardized and quality data to manage public policies in order to improve health disparities of the Trans population. Innovation in Health Information Technologies (HIT) develops in the midst of a cultural change process related to social representations of gender in favor of a diversity perspective. Understanding the health field as a complex adaptive system, the changes in the systems must consider multiple factors in every stage of the process. It is relevant to consider the people involved in it and the culture in which they are embedded. This article describes the implementation strategies of functionality that represents the transgender population in the EHR of the Public Health Care System of the Buenos Aires City.

‘For Fun’: (De) Humanizing Gisberta—The Violence of Binary Gender Social Representation

In 2006, Gisberta Salce Junior died inside of a pit, in an abandoned building, after being tortured for 3 days by a group of teenagers, in Porto, Portugal. Gisberta was a transgender woman who had moved to Portugal from Brazil in the 1980’s. In this paper, we explore the media coverage of her death as an illustrative case of existing social representations of gender, resulting in two main findings: that even those who are seen as communities of support and recognition perpetuate discourses of gender binary norms, and that the only apparent possibility to humanize and transcend these norms is materialized in artistic performance and production, which allows for a more emotional connection to the ‘subject’ as a human individual rather than a mere transgression. The analysis of articles about Gisberta revealed that there is a very strong social representation of gender as a binary, consisting rigidly of female and male poles. As such, the social representation of those individuals who transgress this binary, embodying alternative performances of gender, as was the case with Gisberta, is reduced to their sexuality, their embodiment of something other than the gender binary. Different perspectives were identified: media, the courtroom, the teenagers, LGTB activists and the arts. Through this analysis and division, it was possible to conclude that these binary norms are embedded to the extent that they permeate even the discourses of those who tend to speak for trans people, in such a way that it seems almost impossible to escape them, with one powerful exception: that of artistic expression, which seems to be the only topos from which true recognition is achieved. This case is an extreme example of the necessity to transcend gender norms and allow for recognition of individuals as such.

Social representations of gender: The women/mothers as an instrument for development in the Chilean Government's Ethical Family Income program

This article constitutes a critical reflection, from a gender approach, on the main aspects of the Chilean government program for overcoming poverty and/or extreme poverty: Ethical Family Income. Through the review of official documents, press releases and academic research, our main objective was to understand and analyze the representations of gender present in the social program and its implications for women, who have been identified as the main recipient. According to the analysis made, it was possible to see the instrumentalization of the women in their role as mediators between public policy and their families. The foregoing has led to the reproduction of traditional gender roles, which circumscribes women to a reproductive-domestic role, and not as a subject of rights.

Social Representations of Gender in Peer Interaction and Cognitive Development

AbstractThe paper discusses how social representations of gender and their development in childhood relate to the structuring of communication on collaborative problem solving in the educational context and the consequences of such communication dynamics for learning and cognitive development. In the theoretical framework and the empirical work outlined an emphasis is given on the articulation of different levels of analysis (intra‐personal, inter‐personal, inter‐group/positional and ideological/social representations) (Doise, W. 1986. Levels of Explanation in Social Psychology: European Monographs in Social Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) in a way that explanatory power is increased for understanding the often contradictory findings in the literature around gender talk in mixed‐sex dyads in the educational context.

Expressing social gender identities in the first year of school

Tests and spot observations were undertaken in first year classes in four primary schools to study children’s knowledge of and employment of social representations of gender. The use of these resources in children’s expression of social gender identities was re-assessed at the end of the first year in two classes.

Social representations of gender and young children's play: A replication

Forty target children aged 3 to 4 years were observed playing with gender stereotyped toys with both a boy and a girl partner in a replication and extension of an earlier study of toy choice in action and pretend play (Lloyd & Smith, 1985). The findings which were replicated were: (1) in action play girls used girls' toys more and boys used boys' toys more, (2) in pretend play girls used girls' toys more but no differentiation occurred in the use of boys' toys. The absence of pair‐type effects which were found in the earlier study raises questions about socio‐psychological aspects of the replication design.

The social representation of gender and young children's play

Toy choice and vigorous play with toys were observed in 60 pairs of children aged 19 to 42 months playing with gender stereotyped toys, first with their mothers and then with a familiar same or opposite gender peer. Choice of opposite gender toys was greater in the action play of mixed pairs. In pretend play, only girls in the oldest age group chose girls' toys more frequently and used opposite gender toys less in mixed pairs. Boys engaged in significantly more vigorous play with toys but the difference between the play of boys and girls was not statistically significant in the peer condition. The ability of girls to access social representations of gender was invoked to account for their more mature, gender differentiated behaviour.