Race-Class-Gender Theory: An Image(ry) Problem

For over 100 years, but particularly since the 1980s, scholars have heavily relied on images of race, class, and gender as “intersecting” and “interlocking” forms of oppression and disempowerment. This imagery has helped feminists develop the empirically grounded theoretical premises that (1) race, class, and gender are social structural locations, (2) structural locations shape perspectives, (3) no individual is all-oppressed or all-oppressing, (4) the meanings of race, class, and gender are localized, and (5) race, class, and gender depend on and (6) mutually constitute each other. In this article I synthesize these premises to reveal some opportunities for theoretical development that may inspire a new generation of race-class-gender scholarship. I argue that while intersection is fairly limited as a conceptual image, the interlocking imagery can help us identify how the relationships among these structures of oppression have become institutionalized.

“Limiting Birth”: Birth Control in Colonial Korea (1910–1945)

This article examines birth control as practice and discourse in 1920s and 1930s Korea under Japanese colonial rule and explores links with family planning and reproductive practices in post-1945 South Korea. The control of women’s reproduction held critical implications for meanings of domesticity, marriage, sexual relations, and new womanhood. While a woman-centered position did emerge regarding birth control, the parameters of the discourse, concerns of gynecology, and the material culture of birth control ultimately tied the bodies and health of women to their biological and social roles as mothers.

“Grace Is Deceitful and Beauty Is Vain”: How Hassidic Women Cope with the Requirement of Shaving One’s Head and Wearing a Black Kerchief

Women’s modesty norms are often perceived as governing women’s bodies and as patriarchal oppression. This study challenges these perspectives, offering a deeper, multi-dimensional picture showing that the reality of the women’s life is much more complicated. The article chose to discuss aspects of modesty among women of one of the most extreme Jewish ultra-Orthodox groups, and in particular, to investigate how they experience an extremely demanding requirement—shaving off the hair on their head upon marriage and covering their head with a black kerchief. The findings show that there are a variety of voices among the women, ranging from the view that these practices are desirable, through the view that they empower the women, to the view that they damage one’s attractiveness and are quite painful.

Hygiene, Medicine, and Modernity in Korea, 1876–1910

Modernity in relation to medicine and the body is central to discussions on modernity in Korea. I have chosen to write this paper I have already penned several writings that are related to the topic: modern hygiene, cleanliness, medical service, and medicine. First topic is about the contrast between premodernity and modernity by comparing the prevalence of cholera in the early nineteenth and the early twentieth century. I discussed the new Western hygiene to control cholera decisively contributing to the destruction of the Confucian worldview and the generation of a new colonial modern order as well as preventing an epidemic, cholera. Second topic is about the dichotomy between cleanliness—cultured and uncleanliness—barbarity. Because it was related to the five senses, the discourse of uncleanliness and cleanliness could bring about an immediate effect, which made it the most elementary and primary discourse of modernity in Korea. Third topic is about premodern bodies in topknots and modern bodies in short hair. From among the incidents and topics that I studied then, the most impressive and extreme case regarding the relationship between the body and hygiene was that of the Cut Topknot Act (斷髮令). According to this decree, there were two main reasons for cutting off topknots: hygiene and convenience. Underlying them is the idea that long hair harms political reform and national enrichment. Indeed, this legislation had served as the battleground for a fierce war between modern standards and premodern traditions. Fourth topic is about the modernizing phase of health care system in Korea between 1876 and 1910. The health care system in Korea underwent tremendous changes from 1876 to 1910. In this process, the recently imported Western practices gradually came to occupy the center and existing practices were delegated to the periphery. Final topic is about the sanitation movement that believers of Ch’ ǒntokyo initiated around the twentieth century. This voluntary movement was greatly different from the two external and forced modernizations by Japanese imperialism and Western missionaries.

The 'Problem' of Science in China

The overall ‘problem’ in early accounts of science and/or medicine in China seemed to center upon whether or not China possessed or could acquire modern Western science. However, in the twenty-first century there is now little debate over whether or not China has science. Yet, questions and concerns about science in China linger. The ‘problem’ of science in China has moved away from a paradigm focused on possession or capability, to that of the correct or ethical application of Chinese science and technology. In this essay, I will argue that the shifting of the so-called problem of Chinese science reflects larger Western concerns about the definition and control of science itself, the rise of China as an international power, and the ability to 'compete' in a global market predicated on the creation and application of new science and technologies.

Learning and Experiencing Chinese Qigong in Norway

This article discusses the reception of Chinese qigong in a Western context by focusing on the learning and experiencing of qigong in Norway. Drawing on ethnographic material from fieldwork among participants of a style of qigong referred to as Biyun medical qigong, I in particular explore the variety of body–mind states that Norwegian qigong students experience. I have differentiated five “stages” of Biyun practice. Using these stages as a framework, I demonstrate the gradual progression in the learning of qigong. “Body,” “concentration,” and qi (“life energy”) are all important constitutive dimensions in the practice, but as the learning progresses, qi becomes more and more prominent. Drawing on a definition of the body as “learning to be affected” and “learning to affect” (Despret, Body Soc 10:111–134, 2004; Latour, Body Soc 10:205–229, 2004), I suggest that qigong may be perceived as a practice that, at its core, involves learning to be affected by qi as well as to affect qi.

A Time for Silence: William Lloyd Garrison and the “Woman Question” at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention

The World Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840 is remembered most as the event that inspired Lucretia Coffin Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to organize the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention. Few scholars, however, have analyzed the debate proceedings that ultimately resulted in women’s exclusion from the convention. An analysis of the convention proceedings questions Wendell Phillips’ strategy of speaking on behalf of the women, arguing instead that William Lloyd Garrison’s strategy of silence was the more rhetorically astute response to the exclusion of women. Garrison’s silent protest not only attracted more attention to the women’s rights cause, but also inspired women to speak on their own behalf.

Flowers for Mom, a Tie for Dad: How Gender is Created on Mother’s and Father’s Day

Mother’s and Father’s Day celebrations were investigated to understand how gender is created on these two occasions. Fifty-three heterosexual couples were interviewed about family holidays. Mother’s Day was given more attention than Father’s Day. Families spent more time celebrating; they were more likely to eat out, and were more likely to celebrate with others. Mothers were also more likely to receive gifts than fathers. The gendering of the holidays was reflected in the more stereotypical gifts received on Mother’s and Father’s Day than on birthdays, and in that mothers were more likely to report relief from chores on Mother’s Day than fathers were on Father’s Day (p < .01). Families in which women worked full-time and whose husbands contributed substantially to domestic labor were as likely to celebrate in gendered ways as traditional families were. These holidays reflect and promote hegemonic notions of the gendered nature of motherhood and fatherhood.

Knowledge, Embodiment, Skill and Risk: Anthropological Perspectives on Women’s Everyday Technologies in Rural Northern China

Knowledge organisation, embodiment of knowledge and knowledge representation are important issues for an anthropology of technology, which seeks to explore the ways in which people find and shape everyday solutions to social and technical challenges. This article discusses the impact of skill and of risk prevention on women’s decision-making, as well as on the domestication and appropriation of new technologies. Particular attention is paid to non-synchronicity as a retarding factor and to the obsolescence of skills as a critical moment in the transformation of socio-technical systems in twentieth century rural northern China as elsewhere.

How Could a Scientist Become a National Celebrity?

In Korea, scientific excellence has been perceived as one of the key elements of modern nation-building. Moreover, from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, the government represented biotechnology as the future engine of the economy. Hwang succeeded in representing himself as the hero of Korean science by appropriating the public eagerness for scientific achievement. However, he relied on nationalist rhetoric too often against criticisms, which eventually made a considerable part of the public turn skeptical about his integrity. Although various forms of techno-nationalism are still pervasive in Korea, Hwang’s scandal has given a valuable chance for reflection on the relationship of science and nationalism.

“I Can Provide for My Children”: Korean Immigrant Women’s Changing Perspectives on Work Outside the Home

Whether immigrant women’s introduction to paid labor empowers them with greater autonomy or exacerbates their oppression has been debated variously in the scholarship on gender and migration. In this paper, the author examines Korean immigrant women’s perspectives on work outside the home after migration. Based on in-depth interview data, the paper emphasizes Korean women’s own interpretations of work and motherhood, and highlights the ways in which they define and redefine work in relation to other aspects of their post-migration experiences. The analysis finds that income producing work is not empowering in and of itself, but contingent upon other post-migration challenges such as economic downward mobility and women’s changed roles as working mothers. Furthermore, women’s perception of work fluctuates over time. The findings suggest that paid work should not be simply interpreted as an empowering change, but the linkage between work and other aspects of immigrant women’s post-migration realities needs to be more closely examined.

Reporting Sexual Harassment: The Importance of Organizational Culture and Trust

Few victims of sexual harassment at work file complaints. The current study looks at ways in which the organizational climate, including trust in the system and fear of reprisal, impacts victim decisions to file complaints. A military sample offers the advantage of a work context with formalized reporting processes and a highly segregated and gendered work environment. The findings indicate that fear of coworker backlash keeps victims from seeking organizational relief. Such non-formal consequences of reporting should be addressed in future workplace sexual harassment policies. The findings also suggest that widespread mishandling of complaints erodes trust in the grievance process, which may in turn influence future responses to sexual harassment. The discussion highlights the limitations of current cross-sectional research designs for identifying the causal order of this trust-filing relationship and suggests ways in which future quantitative studies may be designed to gain a broader understanding of the dynamic relationship between organizational context and victim response.

The State of American Boyhood

The existence of a “boy crisis” in the United States is a topic of public policy debate. This study examines the state of American boyhood, using not only the commonly reviewed indicators of school achievement but also mental health, premature death, injury, delinquency, and arrests. Boys are in trouble in many areas: low rates of literacy, low grades and engagement in school, high dropout from school, and dramatically higher rates of placement in special education, suicide, premature death, injuries, and arrests. Girls, however, suffer from other problems, especially depression, suicidal ideation and attempts, and eating disorders, and are less likely to achieve at the very highest levels in mathematics and science. This study argues that both boys and girls suffer from characteristic problems, but the issues affecting boys are serious and neglected.

Life After Experiences of Infertility Treatment: Akirameru—The First Step for Empowering

Although there is some awareness of how women in infertility treatment have suffered physically and psychologically, it is a little known fact that there is a limit to the “cures” that can be achieved even with assisted reproductive technologies. Here, I describe how the existence of ART affects women’s decision making about their lives. Through life histories of women who underwent infertility treatment, I explore the factors which cause their suffering and conflict—that they cannot give up on having children even though they want to give up—as follows: (1) The models of their ideal family which have been formed throughout their lives is ‘ordinary’ family; (2) they experienced the alienation from their own bodies in infertility treatment; (3) they are afraid that they deviate from the community norm because of infertility; (4) their narrative shows their suffering from infertility is caused by tense relationship in family and community. These factors make women in infertility belittle themselves. Through their life histories, I conclude that they need to be empowered if they want to akirameru (give up) having children after prolonged infertility treatment. To paraphrase, a woman who suffers from infertility and infertility treatment is empowered when she becomes unafraid to deviated from cultural norms.

The Window of Ritual: Seeing the Intentions and Emotions of ‘Doing’ Gender

My goal in this paper is to revisit interaction ritual theory as a theoretical underpinning of West and Zimmerman’s ‘doing’ gender paradigm in order to develop a more nuanced understanding of what is taking place inside the interactions of men and women as they ‘do’ gender. Recent work in ritual theory, specifically the work of Bell (Ritual theory, ritual practice, 1992) and Collins (Interaction ritual chains, 2004) expands the role of the individual in the ritual process by conceptualizing ritual as a form of ‘practice’ that can be mobilized in the pursuit of emotional energy. Through the narratives of 24 married couples, I explore how domestic labor functions as an interaction ritual that is driven by ‘emotional energy’. This emotional energy shapes the localized intentions of men and women as they ‘do’ gender thus transforming gender into something that we ‘use’ as well as ‘do’. These emotions and intentions can be seen most clearly through a new ‘window’ of ritual.

Experimental Labour—Offshoring Clinical Trials to China

The State Food and Drug Administration of China has reported a dramatic increase in multicentre, multinational clinical trials over the past several years. This is in keeping with a growing trend towards the off-shore outsourcing of clinical trials from North America and Western Europe to ‘nontraditional locations’ such as Eastern Europe, China, and India. Within China, the post-socialist reform of health care, internal divisions of labour and the politicization of the healthcare system have all created the conditions under which contract clinical trial work is becoming an imperative both for hospitals and the growing number of working uninsured. The paper brings together a critical insight into current theories of bioeconomic innovation with new political economies of informal labour and offshoring. It argues that the clinical trial phase in the production of bioeconomic value is routinely overlooked in scholarly accounts but is key to understanding the speculative overinvestment and translational difficulties of the pharmaceutical industries today. As a way of reformulating the problem, the paper suggests that human subject experimentation would be more fruitfully reconfigured as a form of labour—experimental or clinical labour. The research hospital clinic therefore emerges as an export labour zone in ‘experimental body work.’

Invisible Mothers: Parenting by Homeless Women Separated from Their Children

Though surveys repeatedly demonstrate that most women who are homeless alone have minor children living apart from them, there is little information on the circumstances of their separations or whether and how they remain involved with their children. Analysis of data from in-depth interviews with mothers, relatives caring for their children, and shelter and child welfare staff highlights a tension between perspectives and aspirations of mothers and the agendas and social processes through which institutional systems manage the family life of women marginalized by homelessness and disability. Though women’s agency is evident in their efforts to maintain parenting roles, without facilitating resources and supportive structures, agency is often reduced to unpalatable choices among constraining alternatives. We consider how service systems might mitigate barriers to mothering as well as broader changes needed to genuinely support women’s aspirations for themselves and their families.

Causes and Consequences of the Divergent Working-Time Patterns of Employed Mothers in the UK and the US: Developing a Comparative Analysis

The paper aims to develop a framework to understand the variant use of part-time work by employed mothers in the UK and US. In particular, this paper seeks to explore how diversity in the use of part-time work can be explained when both countries are associated with a neo-liberal form of capitalism (Hall and Soskice, Varieties of Capitalism: the institutional foundations of comparative advantage, 2001) and welfare regime (Esping-Andersen, The three worlds of welfare capitalism, 1990). It is argued here that by combining aspects of the Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) and welfare regimes literatures with Gender Regime theory (Walby, Social Politics, 11(1):4–29, 2004), a gender centred analysis of both the causes and consequences of divergent working-time patterns can be more adequately achieved.

Gendered Careers in Post-Soviet Society: Views on Professional Qualifications in Surgery and Pediatrics

This study examines the medical profession in post-Soviet society, where women have been in the majority of the physicians for almost seven decades. It examines pediatricians’ and surgeons’ definitions of the professional skills and qualities needed for “good” work. Lithuania is used as a case study. Thirty-six semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2005 with male and female surgeons and pediatricians in Lithuania. The results show that the gender composition of the specialty—surgery being a male-dominated and pediatrics a female-dominated specialty—tended to influence the way that physicians perceived the qualities needed for good work. For surgeons, male-gendered qualities were prerequisites for being a good surgeon: physical strength and being in control. Female surgeons added a female-gendered quality—empathy and compassion—that made them good surgeons. A good pediatrician had a holistic and empathic approach and an ability to communicate, which were seen as female-gendered skills. Male pediatricians experienced otherness in this specialty but did not, as women surgeons did, offer a counter discourse in order to legitimate themselves as being as skilled as women.