Gender Space Research Articles

Correction to: Re-reading Gendered Space at Ko`a and Household Shrines on Hawai‘i Island and O‘ahu

Correction to: Re-reading Gendered Space at Ko`a and Household Shrines on Hawai‘i Island and O‘ahu

Hybrid gender colonization: The case of muxes

AbstractThis study explores what can be learned from listening to and engaging deeply with muxes, the third gender of Mexico's indigenous Zapotec community. We examine indigenous peoples' forms of gender organizing, work, and activism through extensive fieldwork in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca, Mexico and intellectual engagement with scholarship on gender, coloniality, and third space theory. The empirical case showcases how muxes organize and defend their gender identity vis‐à‐vis processes of colonization and hybridity. The findings reveal unique forms of indigenous knowledges, gender activism, and gender organizing and are categorized into six themes: language and subjectification; work, social structure, and sexuality; religion and myth; esthetics and beauty; work discrimination and gender‐based violence; and emancipation and queer activism. The analysis explains the possibility of becoming of different gender/ethnic identities and multiple hybrid representations of agency and repression. We critically examine novel insights on how indigenous gender organizing is paradoxically appreciated and revered while also inciting discrimination and violence. The empirical findings help us reconsider theoretical discourses of ongoing (de)coloniality and the third space of gender organizing.

New Zealand’s Policing Efforts in the Pacific: Gender Programs, Practices, and Performances

Research increasingly identifies gender equality as being vital for the achievement of lasting peace and prosperity. New Zealand Police have delivered a range of capacity-building projects and programs in Pacific Island countries over many years. In this article, we examine the gendered impact of two such programs and consider how they have been delivered by New Zealand’s police officers. Although specific gender-focused programs helpfully prioritize gender, they can also unhelpfully create silos; however, gender-focused programs are likely to be most impactful when combined with certain practices and performances of gender. Drawing on observational research, we suggest that some male police personnel operating in communities may have significant gendered impacts by role modeling a form of “caring masculinities.” The demonstration of caring values by men potentially constitutes a vital contribution toward achieving deeper and broader structural change in the gender space. Practices and performances of gender should be elevated and evaluated alongside targeted program goals.

The secret and gendered lives of the underground

The underground—for decades the invisible ‘other’ of landscape and terrain in geography—has emerged in political ecology literature as the source of ‘stuff’, or material things, resources and commodities that are not deemed intrinsically valuable until extracted. As a corrective, this paper offers a feminist political ecology perspective that brings subaltern women’s voices to the forefront, and argues that the underground is co-constituted as a gendered space by gendered humans. As evidence, I take the readers on a journey into the belly of a coalmine where humans labour, and bring out women’s voices that narrate their experiences and imaginations to create the underground as a space teeming with social life. These alternative and gendered narratives reinstate the diverse, complex, and secret lives of this netherworld, draw attention to the politics of imagining space, and potentially shift geographers’ focus to interpreting the underground as a gendered social space.

Visualising gendered space and informality: a photo essay

In this visual essay, I engage with the use of public and parochial realms by male and female vendors in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Using data from a qualitative case study in Sattola slum and its surrounding public spaces in Dhaka, Bangladesh, this visual essay examines the ways in which male and female vendors use of space varies due to the gendered nature of space. The findings suggest that female vendors mostly use parochial realm due to the gendered nature of public space.

Sexual identity and Fascist space in Milena Milani'sStoria di Anna Drei

Milena Milani's 1947 novel Storia di Anna Drei serves as an analysis of Fascist ideology regarding women. In the text, the protagonist pushes back against the regime's oppressive attitudes, allowing for an exploration of female sexuality and authenticity. Milani sets this critique against the backdrop of both pastoral and urban landscapes, demonstrating how the physical world can become a gendered space. In doing so, she significantly expands the cultural debate during the ventennio on the comparative merits of the countryside versus the modern city. The regime promulgated competing narratives about these sites, narratives that Milani challenges as she demonstrates how both spaces can prove harmful to women.

Gendered space: Women's presence and use of space in Sabzeh-meydan of Tehran Bazaar

As a traditional male-dominated space, Tehran Bazaar has been witnessing a surge in the presence of women and their activities for more than two decades. Building on Rose's paradoxical spaces, this study focused on a qualitative, ethnographic analysis of Sabzeh-meydan in Tehran Bazaar (which is the main entrance area of the bazaar) as a contested space and examined how women negotiate the norms and compete with men for appropriating space. Our findings suggest that although Sabzeh-meydan is a gendered space, women attempt to solidify their presence and extend the scope of their activities in this traditional space using specific tactics that resemble those applied in other traditional environments in the MENA region. They demonstrate respect for the existing norms to reinforce their presence, but they make use of even limited opportunities to add variety to their behavior. Particularly, by penetrating into the more enclosed inner parts of the space, women paradoxically affect the masculinity that seeks to control their presence and behavior in Sabzeh-meydan. These findings highlight the fact that improvements in the physical qualities of traditional urban spaces without considering the existing cultural and social context do not necessarily result in the maximum use of urban spaces by different social groups.

Gender, Space, and the Female Spiritualist in Rhoda Broughton’s “Behold, it was a Dream!” (1872) and Mary E. Braddon’s “the Shadow in the Corner” (1879)

ABSTRACT British women’s supernatural tales written during the nineteenth century challenged the ideals of Victorian femininity and restrictive gendered roles such as wife and domestic servant. The female medium, through her power of communicating with spirits and establishing authority during séances, also transgressed femininity through her freely expressed behavior in front of sitters and skeptics. The real-life female medium, I argue, inspired the ghost stories of Victorian women writers such asRhoda Broughton and Mary E. Braddon. In this paper, I contend that the female spiritualist in Broughton’s “Behold! It was a Dream” (1872) and Braddon’s “The Shadow in the Corner” (1879) illustrates her authority in the domestic sphere by portraying anxiety of the bedroom. This paper utilizes an intersectional theoretical framework of Michel Foucault’s docile bodies and Sandra Bartky’s feminine docile bodies to demonstrate how the societal, policing gaze compelled Victorian women to perform femininity even in the domestic sphere – a space where women assumed they had authority. I also examine how the intersections of gender and class affect the female spiritualist’s transgression of gendered space. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the influence of spiritualism on British women’s ghost stories, especially tales that illustrate the horrors of patriarchy.

The Winter Garden: Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room and the Dialectic Deconstruction of Separate Spheres

Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room (2009) breaks down the nineteenth-century dichotomy of public and private spheres. Catherine Givings exists in her parlor, which is separated from her husband's operating theatre where he treats hysteria patients by inducing orgasms with electric vibrators. Following much feminist dramatic precedent, Catherine is trapped in the domestic sphere, unable to make meaningful relationships. The private space of the parlor and the public (in its association with medical science) operating theatre interpenetrate one another, compromising the ideology of nineteenth-century gendered spaces. However, only when Catherine and Dr. Givings are transported to the winter garden—a third space outside the normal bounds of the public/private binary—can they connect emotionally. Ruhl's play models this alternative space of human connection to advocate breaking down of contemporary gendered binaries and hierarchies.

Men and masculinities studies in Vietnam: A brief review

AbstractIn recent years, men and masculinities in Southeast Asia has begun to receive more attention from scholars as the result of increasing attention to intersections of race, gender space, colonialism, and place in countries such as Vietnam. This article provides an overview of current research on men and masculinities in Vietnam. It finds research on Vietnamese masculinities is predominantly understood through (i) concepts of Confucianism, with a particular focus on traditional ideas about gender and gender relations in kinship structures; (ii) considerations of Vietnamese masculinities post Đổi Mới (Renovation) and the impact of women's engagement in the labor market; and (iii) a focus on men as “at risk” or vulnerable, including a focus on alcohol consumption and engagement in domestic violence. We highlight limited focus in areas of sexuality and sexual practices, reflexive engagements with concepts of masculinity, focus on men residing in urban centres, considerations of bodywork and body project practices, and an overall Western approach to the study of masculinity in Vietnam. We conclude with a call for further research on men and masculinities in Vietnam framed through postcolonial epistemologies and research methodologies.

The space between two closets: Erin Parisi mountaineering and changing the trans* narrative

ABSTRACT Erin Parisi is attempting to become the first trans* person to ascent the highest mountain on each of the seven continents, through her project TranSending 7. Erin seeks to create alternative trans* narratives that are based on the possibility of positive futures, as opposed to negative tropes of a limited life from the decision to transition. Multiple semi-structured interviews were conducted with Erin to understand her experiences and how narratives she hopes to present, not only impact upon her own sense of self, health and well-being but also present opportunities for others. Data were analysed via reflexive thematic analysis. Analysis highlights for Erin a paradox for many trans* people in moving from one closet to another, where being invisible as a trans* person is the ultimate goal. Erin’s desire to shape positive trans* narratives acknowledge the gendering practices that take place within the climbing community and a sense of her having to ‘earn the right to climb’. Erin’s endeavours demonstrate an alternative way individuals can be situated ‘in the sunshine’ between these two spaces, where personal growth is not only possible but rich, meaningful, and progressive. In drawing upon theoretical concepts informed by possible selves theory, this research seeks to untangle the gendered space of the mountain for shaping positive and transformational trans* narratives for individuals positioned within these gendered boundaries. It also seeks to identify stronger and more positive possible futures for other trans* people and youth.

Mediated immobility and fraught domesticity: Zoom fails and interruption videos in the Covid-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Protracted pandemic shut-downs, which began in Spring 2020, rapidly relocated workplaces to domestic spaces. This article explores how “home” as a distinctly gendered space has been recalibrated in the pandemic to accommodate a range of new uses. Detailing the ever-increasing scrutiny of and technological intrusion into the home/private space, we examine the now curtailed mobility of professional class workers and the conspicuous gendering of new work-at-home arrangements made visible in “Zoom fails” and viral videos of interrupted experts. Analysis of these “interruption” videos catalogues the ways male authority is destabilized through domestic chaos and technological failure. Temporal frameworks are employed to explore dominant aesthetics and affective qualities of viral interruption videos highlighting how children tend to provoke anxiety, manifest to different degrees and in differently gendered registers depending on whether an interview subject is male or female. By comparison, pets appear to carry no such connotations and seem to be a uniformly welcomed presence. Conceiving of the interruption as an ambivalent temporal event, we argue that these videos stage the collision of professional and domestic identities in a way that presses on the charged thematics of time-keeping and care-giving.

Negotiating Gendered Spaces and Contextualizing the Female Body: Reading Indian Films

AbstractIndian films, both mainstream Hindi and those in regional languages, have successfully portrayed the everyday sociopolitical and cultural maps of Indian life. No doubt, contemporary filmmakers have experimented with forms and techniques and have also given enough space to address gender issues to provide empowerment. Recent films like Ki and Ka (2016) and The Great Indian Kitchen (2021) have used visual media to represent varied dimensions of gender performances, to negotiate gendered spaces, and to ask pertinent questions about women’s bodies. Using the cinematic narrative, I explore deep‐rooted marriage‐and‐family structures that are layered within the patriarchal psyche that limits women’s freedom and sexuality. Through analysis, I explore how these films subvert and negotiate “naturalized” gender dictums and allow us to reorient our thoughts on gender.

A Bakhtinian Investigation of the Gendered Space as a Dystopian Chronotope in Atwood’s The Year of the Flood (2009)

This paper seeks to investigate the possibility of regarding gendered spaces as dystopian chronotopes in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Year of the Flood (2009). The current research attempts to examine the process through which spaces are stratified into gendered ones, characterized by a masculine supremacy and feminine inferiority. Following a geocritical approach, the spatial landmarks and references that are found in the novel are scrutinized in order to examine the process through which space is categorized on a gender basis. The temporal indicators of the chosen work are studied interchangeably with their accompanying spatial presentations using Mikhail Bakhtin’s views on the literary chronotope. This latter looks into how the configurations of time and space are represented through language and discourse. Finally, the present research concludes that gendered spaces presented in Atwood’s novel constitute dystopian chronotopes because they epitomize one of the manifestations of dystopia.

Appraisal of Trends in Mathematics Education Curriculum: Gender and Indigenous Knowledge Perspectives

This paper is based on analysis of curriculum and experiences generated from mathematics teachers’ educators and desk review of curriculum document.It also focuses the critical appraisal of the curriculum Trends in Mathematics Education on gender and indigenous knowledge perspectivesThiscourse is recently revised and approved by theFaculty of Education for Masters level students of Mathematics Education. This course has been designed and prepared to trace the trends of various aspects of teaching and learning mathematics education. It critically assessedthe social, cultural, and inclusive educational issues and problems including gender and indigenous knowledge (IK) in teaching and learning mathematics practices at different levels from school to the university. The findings of the study shows that in the context of present curriculum Trends in Mathematics Education, there is little bit space for gender and IK but it is not sufficient. The opinion of teachers revels that some of the teachers integrated the issue of gender and IK on pedagogy, assessment and research. We can apply gender responsive pedagogy by inspiring students to make gender-reflections, generate greater equality in the classroom, and stimulate students to become gender-actors in society at large.

Druze Women and Gender in Druze Society: A Systematic Literature Review

This systematic literature review on Druze women and gender in Druze society reviews central conceptual themes from existing publications to chart future research trajectories. Using a meta-ethnographic methodology, this literature review covers Druze women’s experience of gendered realities in higher education, economic participation, marriage, family life, and health. Our systematic literature review allows us to offer two propositions on existing published knowledge pertaining to Druze women and gender in Druze society. First, we propose that scholarship on Druze women and gender in Druze society constructs Druze women’s experience of gender as not only discursive but material. We incorporate the process of women’s relationship with prohibitive mechanisms of gendered space and men’s experience of masculinist subjectification into an existing term: the spatialization of everyday life. Second, quantitative analysis reveals a disparity in publications between Israel and other countries such as Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. We propose that this disparity relates to the concept of “Druze particularism” while emphasizing their difference vis-à-vis Islamic religion and Arab culture. We suggest that future research thoroughly covers other national contexts and inter-national comparisons of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the diaspora, especially in education, economy, and health. Future research trajectories could include examining contemporary sociolegal research on the legal regime that governs family life, research on Druze men from an explicitly feminist perspective, or publications of influential Druze women.

Women of the Great Barrier Reef

In the late 1970s, Carden Wallace was at the beginning of her lifelong exploration of the Great Barrier Reef — and indeed, reefs all over the world. For Wallace, who is now Emeritus Principal Scientist at Queensland Museum, the beginning of her Reef career coincided with the emergence of both feminist and environmental movements that meant her personal and professional lives would be entwined with a changing social, cultural and political milieu. In this article, we couple the story of Wallace’s personal life and her arrival in coral science to identify the Reef as a gendered space ripe to explore both feminist and conservation politics. The article is part of a broader Women of the Reef project that supports a history of women’s contribution to the care and conservation of the Reef since the 1960s. In amplifying the role of women in the story of the Reef, we find hope in the richness of detail offered by oral history to illuminate the ways discourse on the Reef and its women sits at the intersection of biography, culture, politics and place. In these stories, we recognise women’s participation and leadership as critical to past challenges, and to current and future climate change action. By retelling modern Reef history through the experiences and achievements of women, we can develop new understandings of the Reef that disrupt the existing dominance of patriarchal and Western systems of knowledge and power that have led us to the brink of ecological collapse.

Gender and Public Space: Mapping Palimpsests of Art, Design, and Agency in Shahbag, Dhaka

Public space is an essential social infrastructure for the continuous negotiation of city life and democracy because it offers (ideally) an interactive platform for people from diverse social and cultural backgrounds and the forms of public life they cherish. This contribution inquires how public space’s design and materiality play a fundamental role in popular struggles for social justice. By focusing on the differentiated access of women to public space, the role of gender in its design, and appropriation through a feminist intersectionality lens, this article aims to understand better the complex interplay between urban space and its non‐human material agency vis‐à‐vis citizen mobilizations, movements, and socially engaged art interventions. Drawing from extensive participant observation and spatial analysis, the exemplary public space of Shahbag Chattwar (a public square/plaza) will shed light on the “gendered spatiality” of pivotal popular mobilizations and reclamations from the historical momentum of the 1952 language movement, over the 2013 contemporary Shahbag protests, and to the 2020 anti‐metro rail protests at the Dhaka University campus. Analyzing urban space as a “palimpsest,” this research reflects on both historic and ongoing scenarios of popular protests as they repeatedly occupy public space and leave spatial traces through spatial design and art. In sum, the article seeks to gain insight into public space as a principal site of contestation and negotiation of juxtaposed layers of gendered dynamics, civil rights, secularism, and fundamentalism.

Gender Issues and Space in Esan Festivals and Ceremonies

The paper examines the areas of discrimination against women in Esan cultural activities. It focuses on the spaces in which women are marginalized especially in festivals and cultural ceremonies. To actively demonstrate this sidelined participation of women, the New Yam festival and the Efae ceremony are highlighted. In evaluating the marginal spaces of women, the study adopts the tenets of patriarchy and the feminist theory to see the specific attitudes and instruments of marginalization. It identifies patriarchy, as the major cause of discrimination and also shows that the situation persists till date because women offer no resistance to their plight. The paper intends to incite women to open their eyes to their unpalatable position.

Doing feminist participatory action research for disrupting traditional gender discourses with Indonesian Muslim kindergarten teachers

The purpose of this article is to explore the authors’ and the co-authors’ reflexivity in feminist participatory action research, conducted in three kindergartens in Indonesia, aiming to disrupt traditional gender discourses in early childhood education settings. Kindergarten is one of the most gendered spaces that perpetuate the binary between femininities and masculinities. This research takes place in Indonesia, one of the most populous Muslim countries in the world. The first part of the study deals with our own reflexivity as university lecturers, middle class and Muslim women, and we use these as a departure point to understand multiple positioning taken by our nine co-researchers as kindergarten teachers, women as well as Muslims and how these influence their gender understanding. The second part of the study discusses the journey of our co-researchers from having gender blind to more gender flexible attitude. As the co-researchers began to acknowledge their personal values, they were better able to apply gender flexible pedagogies to their kindergarten context. The co-researchers also demonstrate different forms of action in implementing gender flexible pedagogy. Our study suggests continuous reflexivity and the possibility of translating gender flexible pedagogy into the co-researchers’ local context were essential factors in this action research.