Transformation Of Gender Relations Research Articles

Gender, public policy and medical knowledge on the pages of Mulherio feminist journal (1981–1988)

Em 1981 um grupo de trabalhadoras da saúde e pesquisadoras feministas criou um periódico que tinha por objetivo debater pautas de movimentos de mulheres e expor práticas de prevenção e profilaxia da saúde feminina. Muitas de suas organizadoras vinham de partidos de esquerda e partiram de seus saberes e repertórios para defender a equidade de gênero e o fim de discriminações, trazendo para a discussão pesquisas e trabalhos científicos. Pensando nisso, este artigo tem o objetivo de analisar como as pesquisadoras que escreviam o jornal feminista Mulherio (1981–1988) utilizaram-se de seus repertórios socioculturais e científicos para tratar do corpo e da saúde feminina. Metodologicamente, opera-se com a análise do discurso a partir de Michel Foucault, o que possibilita ler as imagens e textos em sua historicidade, pluralidade e tensões que lhe foram constitutivas, contribuindo para a constituição de sujeitos e práticas de poder-saber. Tratando-se, portanto, da análise de um periódico que teve considerável circulação, pode-se percebê-lo como produto dos anseios específicos, reproduzindo ou questionando certas premissas científicas e valores socialmente constituídos e articulados às transformações em curso nas relações de gênero.

Women’s Access to Urban Social Services in Çankaya District: A Mix Method Research

The purpose of this study was to develop a comprehensive understanding on women’s access to urban welfare/social services issues and solutions for developing gender sensitive urban welfare/social services. The mixed research were conducted in Çankaya, Ankara, based on the principles of feminist methodology to answer to how the rights to access to urban services of women residents could be achieved by regarding their satisfaction of the urban social services and their daily urban life experiences? Different tools in qualitative and quantitative research methods were used to collect and generate data. Integrated findings that are based on the combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis were presented into two parts; which includes socio-demographic characteristics of the participants and the effective and accessible urban social services for women in Çankaya. It was identified that urban infrastructure and welfare/social services of Çankaya could not respond to the gender needs of women living here and caused to their dissatisfaction about the existing urban services and municipal activities. In conclusion, a new perspective were recommended for developing that focuses on the transformation of gender relations within space and urban services based on the principles of being “free of charge”, “accessible”, “inclusive”, “safe and secure”, “empowering”, “healthy” and “right-based”.

Systematic mapping of gender equality and social inclusion in WASH interventions: knowledge clusters and gaps

IntroductionPoor access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services threatens population health and contributes to gender and social inequalities, especially in low-resource settings. Despite awareness in the WASH sector of...

Caring masculinities at work in later life: Exploring relational care work in retirement

AbstractThe paper reports on research that investigates older men's care practices and how their caring for others opens new ways of exploring the intersections of aging, gender, and care work. Using the concept caring masculinities as a sensitizing concept, the onus is on exploring patterns of power, interdependence, and relationality within men's care practices. Aging masculinities often remain constructed around paid‐for occupational work (in opposition to unpaid care work) despite the transition into retirement. Little work exists on how caring is at work in later life potentially transforming gender relations and enacted masculinities. Moreover, much of the research on aging masculinities have not considered the expansiveness of retirement and the discourses as well as subjective expectations around the activity in later life that create an uncertain terrain of socioculturally structured mandates to be navigated. This paper draws on data from two qualitative interview studies conducted with retired men in England and Germany, in which the role of caregiving emerged as an inductive theme in their narratives. The paper makes a specific contribution to developing empirical and theoretical knowledge of caring masculinities and power relations by providing insights on men's trajectories into caring, and how they make sense of their caring for and about others.

Misogynistic Influences of Female Managers in Local Governments: A Social Construction or Lived Experience

There is a disdain for women in leadership positions in South African local government, and this can be attributed to manifold factors. Some of these factors may include distrust of women’s capacity or capability and leadership styles, flexibility and consultation in decision-making, issues of values and ethos, demography and social class, and political considerations in South African local government system. The objective of this article is to (1) explore gender roles in South African local government systems, (2) assess distrust of women in leadership positions in South African local government, and (3) explore how the male boss syndrome suppresses the creativity and efficiency of women in leadership positions in South African local governments. Data for this study were derived from female managements in several municipalities in the Northwest Province of South Africa. The findings demonstrate that innovation and a creative mindset are overlooked by male leaders in local government, simply because they emanate from a woman. Further, while women are hailed and acknowledged for their successes in business, science, technology, and innovation, and even have been considered for the presidency, at government levels, the sentiments are different, in that males in the sector consider the local parlance as a settlement for the liberation struggle. In conclusion, the transformation of gender relations may not be dramatic, but disruptions can quicken the process.

Coloniality of Gender and Knowledge: Rethinking Russian Masculinities in Light of Postcolonial and Decolonial Critiques

This article explores how the legacy of European colonialism and its role in transforming gender relations globally, shapes post-Soviet Russian masculinities. It points to historical connections between European and Russian/Soviet colonial projects, both of which relied on the notion of ‘progress’ in gender relations. Drawing on analysis of biographical interviews with a diverse sample of Russian men interviewed in Russia and the UK, this work identifies how the research participants use the core modern/colonial narratives to establish their individual masculinities. Shifting from a common conceptualisation of Russian masculinities as ‘traditional’, ‘conservative’ and ‘macho’, I show that they are instead, closely bound up with the European project of modernity/coloniality. The study advances the analysis of postcolonial masculinities and posits an agenda for decolonisation of sociological research on global masculinities.

‘I Do Not Want Her to be Doing Anything Stressful’: Men’s Involvement in Domestic Work During Pregnancy in Ghana

Drawing on qualitative research from rural and urban areas, this article contributes to evolving social research in Ghana on possible changes in the gendered distribution of domestic labour. Formulated within debates on ‘doing gender’ and ‘undoing gender’, this study examines the extent to which acts of gender transgression may potentially occur during peak reproductive periods in the lives of Ghanaian couples. The findings of the study indicate that the participants reiterated normative gendered definitions of men as primary providers and women as primary domestic caretakers. Nonetheless, it was noted that during their partner’s pregnancy, men in both urban and rural areas were willing to modify their daily schedule to incorporate more housework. Simultaneously, men’s involvement in all or most of the household chores was perceived as potentially dangerous to the gendered balance of labour in the family and could, according to the participants, stimulate laziness among female partners. Despite the apparent resistance to male performance of domestic chores, the article argues that men’s willingness to do housework during their partner’s pregnancy may be an early indicator of slow but steady transformations in gender relations in Ghana.

Seeking Rights from the Left: Gender, Sexuality, and the Latin American Pink Tide ed. by Elisabeth Jay Friedman

Reviewed by: Seeking Rights from the Left: Gender, Sexuality, and the Latin American Pink Tide ed. by Elisabeth Jay Friedman Juliana Restrepo Sanín Seeking Rights from the Left: Gender, Sexuality, and the Latin American Pink Tide. By Elisabeth Jay Friedman (ed). Durham: Duke University Press, 2019, p. 344, $29.95. Latin America has made significant gains in the legal protection of women's and sexual minorities' rights, including comprehensive laws against gender-based violence, political participation, and some legal protections for LGBT+ folks. These advancements are somewhat recent, coinciding with the so-called Left Turn that started with the election of Hugo Chávez en Venezuela in 1998. The increased legal recognition of women and LGBT+ rights is sometimes lauded as an achievement of the Pink Tide. However, as Elisabeth Jay Friedman and the contributors to Seeking Rights From the Left: Gender, Sexuality, and the Latin American Pink Tide make clear, the relationship between progressive gender and sexuality policies and the Left is not as clear and straightforward as some suggests. Friedman's book offers a more nuanced comparative perspective building on Mala Htun's (2003) and Htun and S. Laurel Weldon's (2010) framework for analyzing gender and sexuality policies. Seeking Rights from The Left shows that, despite advancements, Left-wing governments in Latin America "relied on heteropatriarchal relations of power" and engaged in "strategic trade-offs among gender and sexual rights" (p. 3), promoting maternalist and familist policies instead of transformative policies to achieve gender and sexuality justice. The contributors evaluate the Left's policies in diverse areas, including welfare, redistribution, and poverty; political representation; violence against women; and bodily autonomy and reproductive rights. Importantly, the book finds that there were important advancements in regards to poverty alleviation and women's political participation. Despite the significant increase in women's political participation, which surpassed 25% regionally, and in some countries reached 50% in national legislatures, Left governments frequently engaged in "Pinkwashing:" advancing (some) LGBT+ and women's rights to obscure blatant and broader violations of human rights – including those of women and LGBT+ folks. In addition, policies and perspective that challenge heterosexual and cisgender men's privilege –what Friedman calls 'countercultural' policies – not only did not significantly advance during the left turn but in some cases were reversed. What explains these variations? Seeking Rights from the Left finds that state institutionalization and alliances between the left and religious forces are key determinants in the types of gender and sexuality policies that governments adopt. But good will and strong institutions are not enough. Rather, the strength of women's, feminist, and LGBT+ movements, and their ability to make alliances among themselves and with state actors in women's policy agencies and anti-discrimination institutions are key for advancing the policies with the [End Page 243] most potential to undermine heteropatriarchy. Importantly, Seeking Rights from the Left shows that improvements in the descriptive representation – that is, increased numbers of women in politics – are not an indicator of a country's move toward significant and transformative policy changes in support of women and LGBT+ rights. Despite these limitations, there were some important transformations promoted by some of the governments of the Pink Tide. In the recognition and protection of women's and LGBT+ rights, Uruguay stands out as the country with the most significant progress. Despite few women in Congress, feminist and LGBT+ activists used a variety of mobilizational strategies and built alliances to secure protections for some rights, including abortion, affirmative action for trans folks, and marriage equality. Even in this more welcoming context, poverty-relief and social welfare policies still relied and entrenched traditional gender roles. The limits of the left turn are even more evident when looking at the most radical governments: Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Bolivia. Although all these countries made important advancements in reducing poverty and inequality, progress relied on the instrumentalization of women's organizations and the reproduction of maternalist and heteronormative views of the state and the family. In the two most extreme cases, Nicaragua and Ecuador, the Left turn not only failed to transform gender relations, but significantly reversed women's rights – despite international praise for (very limited) advancements in the protection...

Imperial Romance: Fictions of Colonial Intimacy in Korea, 1905–1945 by Su Yun Kim

Reviewed by: Imperial Romance: Fictions of Colonial Intimacy in Korea, 1905–1945 by Su Yun Kim David Krolikoski Su Yun Kim. Imperial Romance: Fictions of Colonial Intimacy in Korea, 1905–1945. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2020. Pp. 204. US$49.95 hardcover, US$32.99 ebook. Imperial Romance: Fictions of Colonial Intimacy in Korea, 1905–1945 by Su Yun Kim explores the contentious relationship between Korea and Japan during the colonial period through the lens of intercultural romance. The monograph is primarily a work of literary scholarship that surveys representations of heterosexual relationships between Japanese and Koreans. Readers of colonial fiction will be familiar with this trope, but no English-language studies have tackled the subject in comparable depth. The choice to frame the book around intercultural romance enables Kim to reconsider canonical texts by the likes of Yi In-jik, Yi Kwang-su, Yom Sang-sŏb, and Yi Hyo-sŏk from a fresh perspective, illuminating strands of desire and apprehension related to assimilation through marriage. [End Page 565] As one might imagine, the topic of romance between a Japanese and Korean couple in the early twentieth century is a minefield. The legacy of colonial Korean literature itself has been stained by the history of collaboration. In South Korea, literature that was written in service of the Japanese empire has been labelled ch’inil, a term that innocuously means “intimacy with Japan” but bears the stigma of national betrayal. Decolonization efforts after liberation in 1945 were cut short in the chaos that resulted in the establishment of two separate states on the peninsula. Collaborators were not punished by the new South Korean government, a state that initially relied on largely the same police apparatus that was previously employed by Japan to maintain order. Due to this fraught history, collaboration remains a sensitive subject more than 75 years later. Kim explains that depictions of relationships between Japanese and Koreans in colonial literature have been read schematically through a nationalist framework: “Narratives that end with a successful marriage are considered to be ‘pro-Japanese,’ while those that depict an unsuccessful marriage are deemed ‘resistant-nationalist’” (12). Imperial Romance will be of interest to readers who want to learn more about collaboration and assimilation in the context of colonial Korea and the Japanese empire. In this respect, the monograph serves a useful companion piece to earlier English-language studies such as Intimate Empire by Nayoung Aimee Kwon, Japanese Assimilation Policies in Colonial Korea by Mark Caprio, Primitive Selves by E. Taylor Atkins, and Romance, Family, and Nation in Japanese Colonial Literature by Kimberly K. Kono, among others. Caprio and Atkins both explore the Japanese perspective, analyzing top-down policy in addition to cultural products. Kono’s study, like Kim’s book, analyzes fictional depictions of intercultural relationships, but her focus is on Japanese literature. Meanwhile, Kwon investigates collaboration in the context of Korean literature, arguing for a more nuanced approach to this sensitive issue that rejects the binary of collaboration versus resistance adopted by numerous earlier studies. She too mostly uses Japanese-language sources. In Imperial Romance, Kim combines readings of Korean fiction (and a handful of films) with historical research based on the analysis of periodicals and government-general documents. In comparison to previous studies, her monograph is tighter in focus, allowing for a more thorough investigation of a single issue throughout the colonial period. Romance (yŏnae) is certainly a subject ripe for further discussion. In Korea, the term gained currency in the early 1920s as an import from abroad. As Kwon Boduerae has argued, the emergence of romance coincided with the transformation of gender relations in Korean society. The notion that an individual could choose their own partner signalled the dawn of a new era for women in particular. No longer restricted to the household, some women took on new roles in society: working in bars, studying at foreign universities, etc. The so-called “new women” (sin yŏsŏng) became a symbol of change for progressives, but were also stigmatized by others for their embrace of Western fashion and cultural norms. These women could also fall in love on their own accord, prioritizing their...

‘The fearful khan and the delightful beauties’: The construction of gender in secondary school textbooks in Kazakhstan

This paper analyses how secondary school textbooks enact gender in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. As a ‘gender paradox’, with universal literacy and yet a higher representation of women at the tertiary level co-existing with multi-sectoral gaps at the expense of women, Kazakhstan offers an interesting context to empirically investigate the taken for granted relationship between education, gender equality and sustainable development. Poststructuralist discursive analysis is complemented with non-discursive methods to illuminate how textbooks entrench gender power relations, construct dominant masculinities and enact emphasised femininities, producing gender hierarchies and naturalising gendered national belonging. Possibilities for transforming gender relations in and through education are discussed.

“Patriarchal reset” in the asia pacific during COVID-19: the impacts on women’s security and rights

COVID-19 has disrupted social, economic and political life across the Asia Pacific region, with particularly deleterious impacts on women. Rather than equitably affecting all, COVID-19 has brought about a “patriarchal reset”, exacerbating women’s health and care labour burdens and heightening the physical violence against women and other threats to women’s human rights. This paper examines global health governance in the region from a feminist political economy perspective. We ask how has the pandemic and associated lockdowns affected women’s safety and access to economic resources and services on the one hand, and ‘women, peace and security’ (WPS) practitioners’ capacity to safeguard women’s rights in fragile settings on the other hand? We examine the gendered impacts of COVID-19 based on two surveys of WPS practitioners during 2020. Significant rises in domestic and gender-based violence, reduced access to reproductive health services, and increased income insecurity were all perceived and/or experienced during COVID-19 restrictions. WPS practitioners delivered services to mitigate these effects of COVID-19 despite overall less funding than before COVID-19. With the benefit of primary data, we explore how a more radical approach is needed to understand and transform gender relations in light of gender-based violence and depletion of women’s labour.

Unveiling the veiled: Wikipedia collaborating with academic libraries in Africa in creating visibility for African women through Art+Feminism Wikipedia edit-a-thon

PurposeThis study aims to show that digital literacy can serve as a tool for effecting social change and highlights the achievements of an academic library in digital content creation using the Wikipedia platform.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted qualitative research method, Interview and document analysis were used for data gathering. Data gathered were analysed using content (conceptual) analysis.FindingsFindings showed that the library has created or edited digital content for various categories of women, such as women in academia, industry and politics. These entries have received more than eight million views over a period of two years, which shows that the entries are being utilised. However, the editing exercise had been confronted with challenges such as accessing reliable citations in terms of the notability and verifiability policy of Wikipedia amongst others.Practical implicationsCurrently, people rely more on online resources for their research, leaving physical library resources unused. Even, more students start their research online using Wikipedia. Thus, libraries could create visibility for their physical material using regularly visited sites like Wikipedia and its sister projects such as Wikidata; otherwise, these physical materials will remain invisible to the people that needed them.Originality/valueContributing to Wikipedia by creating a new entry or editing an existing one can help students to deepen their knowledge about a subject; Wikipedia editing may serve as an avenue for improving information literacy skills. Drawing from the theory of cyberfeminism as used in the study, information and communications technology has the potential to empower women and transform gender relations.

Women, Land Tenure Dynamics and Land Sales in Rural Areas. The Case of Syukula Village, Tanzania

Abstract Women’s engagement in rural land sales has been a significant aspect of land tenure dynamics with varied implications to their livelihoods and wellbeing. However, the factors that influence women’s decisions and the modalities of such engagement have not received much attention in social analysis, specifically with regard to women’s perceptions, responses and actions towards land sales, especially in situations of land shortage. In the context where multiple and interacting factors are continuing to transform rural land tenure patterns, this article discusses the varied implications of recent land sales to women, with possible extension of their vulnerabilities, yet also re-invigorating women’s agency regarding land ownership rights. Using a feminist political-ecological perspective, this article shows how women act under constraining circumstances to transform gender relations and patterns of land ownership with varying outcomes to their wellbeing. The findings also suggest deeper interrogation on the capacities of grassroots structures obligated to oversee land tenure security for communities and upholding women’s rights of access to land.

Creating new discourses for new feminisms: A critical socio-cognitive approach

Drawing from a critical and socio-cognitive approach to discourse analysis, this paper analyses the discursive creativity deployed by feminists in the production of slogans for the last 8M (International Women's Day) rallies from 2018 to 2020 in Spain. Findings show how the creative discourse strategies identified in the 8M banners, recontextualization and multimodal metaphor in the main, triggered by new feminist movements (Feminism 4.0, Feminism of the 99%), as well as by salient socio-cultural events taking place within the community, are construing a new discourse of optimism, festivity and empowerment, that is helping to transform gender relations in Spanish society.

Shifting gender perceptions of female Nepalese students in Brisbane, Australia

This article explores the changes in how Nepalese female students living in Brisbane, Australia, experience shifting expectations and perceptions of gender roles. It reviews a range of literature from migration studies, geography and humanities to investigate the interrelation between gender and migration, and the ways in which transforming gender relations among the Nepalese migrants in Australia might eventuate. Specifically, the article looks at how traditional gender roles are continued or discontinued by disclosing the lived experiences of a small cohort of Nepalese female students. A summary of qualitative interviews and ethnographic observations are used to highlight how their changing perspectives on traditional gender relations result from living in the changed socio-cultural settings of the host country, and the inherent challenges of implementing the changes in conventional interpretations of gender-based roles after returning to their home country.

Clapping with Two Hands: Transforming Gender Relations and Zoonotic Disease Risks through Community Conversations in Rural Ethiopia

Gender inequalities and zoonoses are major concerns in livestock production systems worldwide. Livestock producers are at high risk of zoonotic diseases due to direct and indirect contact with their livestock and livestock products. Gender differences and inequalities in roles, access to and control over resources, decision-making, and cultural norms influence exposure to, perceptions, and management practices for zoonotic disease risks. Using participatory action research, we tested the effectiveness of community conversations in changing gender relations and practices that expose livestock keepers to zoonoses in three districts of rural Ethiopia. Our findings show that community conversations change mindsets and practices regarding gender roles, access to and control over resources, decision-making in households, handling livestock, and consumption of animal-source foods. Behavioral change happens when women and men diagnose and understand the problem, reflect on the beliefs/norms that determine their practices, make shifts in cognitive and emotional mental models, commit, and take actions. This has practical and policy implications for interventions that aim to change behavior. The process requires nurturing collaborative relations, trust-building, community-driven social learning, enhancing local capacities, breaking belief traps, and complementarity to existing interventions.

Gender Relations, Gender Equity, and Community Sports Spaces

This study employs a spatial analysis to critically examine gender relations within an Australian football and netball community sports club that has sought to address gender inequity and promote the participation of women across the club. Notable changes included increased female representation in the club’s decision-making structures, growing numbers of female members, and the establishment of a women’s and girls’ football section. Using an in-depth case study that combined interviews and observations over a 6-month period, we investigated the impact these changes have had on transforming gender relations and in challenging perceptions of the club as a privileged space for its male members. The study utilized spatial and feminist theory to illustrate that, despite the club’s efforts to change gender relations, men who are able to embody dominant forms of masculinity (i.e., high ability and able-bodied) continue to be privileged within the club environment. The article highlights the importance of spatial analysis in illuminating the ways in which various micro-level practices preserve dominant gender relations within community sports. The findings reinforce that although a greater number of women and girls are participating in community sport, this alone is not significantly reshaping gender relations. Policies seeking to promote gender equity in sport need to enforce changes in club environments in addition to focusing on increasing women’s participation.

Empowering Difference

Despite increasing attention to gender issues in the humanitarian sector, the notion of gender equality as a humanitarian goal remains largely rejected, as some argue it would require interfering with cultural values and practices, and thus lie beyond the remit of humanitarianism. This paper questions this by examining the close relationship between certain humanitarian goals, and cultural values and practices. It ultimately calls for a gender-transformative humanitarian action that recognises and supports local feminist actors, in an effort to transform gender relations both in local communities and within humanitarianism itself.

Re-defining the Stay-behind Indonesian Men: Changing Masculinities in the Context of Women’s Transnational Migration

Over the last four decades, international contract migration has become a major livelihood strategy for rural denizens in Indonesia; more than 80% of the contract migrants recorded by the Bureau of Manpower were women caregivers and housekeepers to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. The feminization of migration has catalyzed a profound transformation in gender relations in sending communities, as men who stay behind are increasingly forced to renegotiate their gender practices in the absence of their wives. Based on 12 months ethnographic research conducted in Hong Kong and Indonesia, this paper situates changes in gender relations in the context of a new global economy that increasingly incorporates working-class women to the exclusion of men. I argue that left-behind men, despite economic precarity, may take on new roles as primary child caretakers and secondary providers to compensate for their inability to play the traditional breadwinner role. Departing from the feminist literature on “failed patriarchs,” which has assumed that working-class men shun housework because they cannot cope with female breadwinning, my study argues that some left-behind men experiment with women’s gender roles by partaking in childcare, housekeeping, and financial management, even while engaging in waged labor outside the home. My study, in short, engages the burgeoning literature on masculinities and migration by conceptualizing the manner in which working-class men embody a plurality of marginalized masculinities—masculinities that are subordinated due to class, race, sexuality, gender, and other axes of domination—in response to the erosion of the male breadwinner model.

Engaging men to transform inequitable gender attitudes and prevent intimate partner violence: a cluster randomised controlled trial in North and South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo

IntroductionThe study objective was to understand the effectiveness of Engaging Men through Accountable Practice (EMAP), a group-based discussion series which sought to transform gender relations in communities, on intimate partner...