Work Orientations of Males and Females: Exploring the Gender Socialization Approach*

Earlier surveys show differences in work orientations of males and females, but these were based on mostly sex-segregated workers. Two broad explanations are used to examine differences in work orientations of males and females: namely the socialstructural and the gender-socialization approaches. A secondary analysis of 22 separate sudies of specific occupations are combined and used to determine if the sexes display different patterns on ten work dimensions when occupation is held constant. Patterned differences in work orientations between the sexes persist supporting the gender socialization approach. Implications for workplace discrimination are discussed.     

Perceived Sexual Orientation and Helping Behavior by Males and Females

Recent studies indicate that men are more homophobic than women and that a negative bias among men is particularly evident toward homosexual men (Augero, Bloch, & Byrne, 1984; D'Augelli & Rose, 1990). Self-report measures have frequently been used to indicate homophobia and are susceptible to distortion by respondents. Therefore, the present study used the "wrong number technique" (Gaertner & Bickman, 1971) to obtain a nonreactive measure of homophobia Forty male and forty female subjects received an apparently wrong number telephone call from a male caller who portrayed himself as either a heterosexual or a homosexual. Indicating that his car had broken down and that he was out of change at a pay phone, the caller requested help by asking the subject to call his girlfriendboyfriend for him. It was expected that more help would be given to perceived male heterosexuals than to perceived homosexuals, particular     

Differences in the Donor Behavior Characteristics of Young Affluent Males and Females: Empirical Evidence from Britain

The objectives of this study were to obtain a deeper understanding of the donor behavior characteristics of young affluent individuals; and to ascertain whether young affluent women differed significantly from young affluent males in their approaches to philanthropy. Two hundred and seventeen investment bankers, accountants, and corporate lawyers, aged under 40 years, earning more than £50,000 annually and working in the City of London were questioned about their attitudes and behavior in relation to charitable giving. Significant differences emerged between the donor behavior characteristics of males and females. A conjoint analysis revealed that whereas men were more interested in donating to the arts sector in return for social rewards (invitations to gala events and black-tie dinners, for example), women had strong predilections to give to people charities and sought personal recognition from the charity to which they donated.     

The Gender of Pregnancy: Masculine Lesbians Talk about Reproduction

Heterosexism and patriarchy collude to create an expectation of pregnancy for all women. In addition, the bodily production of pregnancy has been socially gendered as feminine because of its association with female-bodied people. These two ideological codes—that all women should become mothers through pregnancy and that pregnancy is a femininely gendered endeavor—suggest conundrums for masculine lesbians. This study relies on interview data with 14 childfree masculine-identified lesbians about the ways in which they are able (or unable) to imagine themselves as pregnant people in their future lives. Participants’ navigation of the concept of pregnancy reveal the complexity of gendered bodies and gender practice.     

Gender inequities in technology in developing nations: Females and computers in traditional cultures

The acceptance of innovations, including computer technology in traditional non-Western societies, has generally been a difficult struggle, especially with females, when these innovations challenge or imply changes to long-held customary designations of functions along gender lines. The introduction of computers in traditional cultures has customarily met with such apprehension and reservation. When they have been accepted, computers have solely been the domain of males, a mentality rooted in the belief that anything mechanical is male, and also in the myths concerning the technological competence of females. An understanding of computer technology and its socio-cultural, political and economic consequences in developing, traditional user nations may shed some light on impediments for females as they venture into this traditional, cultural, gender-biased world of technology.     

Class and Continuity in Social Reproduction: An Empirical Investigation

The class tradition in the study of social mobility suffers from a number of theoretical and practical weaknesses. In this article we concentrate on the issue of how well the Goldthorpe/CASMIN class schema explains the extent of the social reproduction of advantage when compared with the Cambridge Scale, a continuous measure of occupational and social hierarchy. If classes are to be given any useful meaning, then the groupings involved should be internally relatively homogeneous with respect to a significant criterion of interest to the researcher and there should be relatively clear boundaries between them. In the case of social mobility, the criterion of interest is the ability of the members of one generation to pass on any relative advantage to their successors. Using data from the Nuffield Social Mobility Study, the article examines the relationship between the occupational position of fathers and sons, demonstrating that there is substantial variation within social classes with respect to the reproduction of advantage and that there is no evidence for the existence of boundaries between classes. One consequence is an under-estimation of the extent of reproduction. The findings indicate that the stratification order has to be seen as a continuous hierarchy rather than as a set of distinct classes.     

The Reproduction of Gender Inequality in Sweden: A Causal Mechanism Approach

In many respects, Sweden is maybe the country where public policies to increase the equality between men and women have been most prolonged and advanced. In 1996 the UN declared Sweden to be the most gender‐equal country in the world. However, women still take much more responsibility for children and domestic work than men do, leading to the reproduction of gender inequality in the labour market and in society at large. A causal mechanism is used to analyse this phenomenon, starting from the observation that men are on average three years older than women and thus already have a stronger position on the labour market when a heterosexual couple is formed. This increases the risk that the woman will lose the first negotiations on how to divide household and wage labour when they have children. This will in turn lead to increasing returns for the man, increasing the risk that she will lose subsequent negotiations about the division of labour. What seems to be a rational arrangement for both (increasing the total income for the family) results in the reproduction of gender inequality. The analysis shows that gender inequality in a country like Sweden is reproduced behind the backs of the agents.     

Middle-Class Social Reproduction: The Activation and Negotiation of Structural Advantages

Research on social reproduction focuses predominantly on the working class. Middle-class social reproduction is not as widely studied and is often assumed to be a structurally determined process lacking human agency. Using in-depth interviews with 41 college seniors, I demonstrate that middle-class social reproduction arises out of the interplay between agency and structure, specifically, from individuals’ activation and negotiation of structural advantages. My analysis centers around the themes often invoked to illustrate working-class reproduction: resistance and contestation; the importance of the peer group; and familial structural resources—or the lack thereof. I discuss how these themes are reflected in middle-class social reproduction.     

Beauty Work: Individual and Institutional Rewards, the Reproduction of Gender, and Questions of Agency

Physical attractiveness is associated with a number of positive outcomes, including employment benefits such as hiring, wages, and promotion, and is correlated with social and personal rewards such as work satisfaction, positive perceptions of others, and higher self-esteem. As a result, individuals perform various forms of beauty work, thus reproducing and strengthening a social system that privileges youth and attractiveness. In this article, we explore the beauty work practices that people perform. We begin with an examination of the cultural context in which beauty work occurs, including the individual, social, and institutional rewards accompanying physical attractiveness, and then review the practices themselves. Because these rewards and practices contribute in part to the reproduction of social relations and norms, we then turn to the gender dimensions of beauty work, along with its unique racial embodiment. Throughout, we raise the issue of individual agency in beauty work. Finally, we conclude with suggestions for future research.     

Placing Gender in Social Work: The Local and National Dimensions of Gender Relations

This paper argues that as well as being sensitive to wider discourses of gender relations, social workers need to consider the ways in which gender is localised. It is argued that to some extent gender practices vary according to local culture, that gendered identities are often localised and that social workers tend to construct their clients according to images of local men and women. These images tend to be stereotypical but some do also reflect dominant local gendered practices. The paper draws on data from qualitative interviews with social workers and probation officers, as well as the experience of teaching social work students, to illustrate these arguments. Whilst it is argued that the localising of gender is of general relevance, the data come from Wales alone. The author's conclusion is that (amongst other things) anti‐oppressive practice involves recognising the important influence of local stereotypes and challenging them, whilst also acknowledging that gendered practices do vary from place to place.     

Linking Magazine Exposure to Social Appearance Anxiety: The Role of Appearance Norms in Early Adolescence

Early adolescents (N = 1,591; M_age = 11.698; SD = 0.892) participated in a two‐wave panel study (6‐month interval) to examine the longitudinal association between appearance‐focused magazine exposure and social appearance anxiety. We revealed that magazine exposure positively correlated with the internalization of appearance ideals and the attribution of social rewards to attractiveness which, in turn, related to social appearance anxiety. Internalization and attribution of social rewards formed a reinforcing spiral; once internalized, early adolescents associate positive things with appearance ideals (e.g., peer acceptance) and the perception of rewards increases early adolescents' inclination to internalize ideals. Given the adverse consequences of social appearance anxiety, the findings warrant research on the role of media in the occurrence of social appearance anxiety.     

Gender and the Limits of Social Capital*

Dans cet article, l'auteure examine l'intensification de l'intérêt envers le concept de capital social dans la politique publique au Canada et considère que ce concept est assez prometteur, en même temps qu'il entraînera des problèmes considérables, pour les femmes. Elle explique les paramètres du concept de capital social et tente de l'approfondir à l'aide de questions féministes essentielles sur l'économie politique. Cette approche jette les bases de la tâche primordiale d'associer un sexe au capital social, de telle sorte que les résultats des politiques dans le contexte canadien n'augmentent pas le fardeau du travail social et de prestation de soins de groupes déjà surcharges. This paper considers the rise in Canadian public policy interest in the concept of social capital, and suggests that the concept holds some promise, along with considerable problems, for women. It elucidates the parameters of the concept of social capital and attempts to deepen it with critical feminist political economy questions. It begins the crucial task of gendering social capital so that policy outcomes in the Canadian context do not increase the burden of social and caring work onto already overburdened groups.     

Social Protection,Gender, and Poverty: Application of Social Protection Index

Literature on social protection, inequality, and poverty suggest that social protection programs are the policy tool for the eradication of poverty and inequality. The exact targeting of beneficiaries is the most important pillar behind the success of every social protection schemes. Asian Development Bank introduced Revised Social Protection Index in 2010, which is used by several studies for the evaluation of social protection schemes. The current study estimates the revised social protection index of Pakistan for the years 2011 and 2013. During 2011, the average per capita expenditure on social protection was 5.1% of the poverty line expenditure, whereas during 2013, average per capita expenditure on social protection was 5.3% of the poverty line expenditure. The disaggregated form of social protection index indicates that the coverage of social protection programs are low in Pakistan. The expenditures on social protection programs are high for the non-poor and very low for poor. The gender-based disaggregated form of social protection index shows that women have a lower value of social protection index than do males.     

Social Movements Through the Gender Lens

Although it is widely acknowledged that many aspects of social life are gendered, only relatively recently have feminist researchers begun to address the ‘gender blindness’ of the social movement theory. Integrating findings from multiple studies, the article considers how gender affects social movement dynamics. It is argued that gender exerts pervasive influence on every aspect of social movement activities. The patterns of mobilisation, political and cultural opportunities, framing process and intra-movement dynamics are all gendered. It is argued that although ample evidence demonstrates that protest is gendered, we do not yet know whether there is any general pattern of influence of gender on social movements, a pattern that enables a systematic explanation of the effects of gender on social movement dynamics. In conclusion, I will examine the reasons for this and suggest avenues for research.     

The Trouble with Modernity: Gender and the Remaking of Social Theory

There is continued frustration over the failure of established social theory to be altered despite dramatic developments in women's lives and feminist theory. I argue that this process has been blocked by an overly static conception of society and gender itself. Close examination of the actual circumstances of African American and white women in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century United States reveals the relationship between gender and economic and political development has been a dynamic historical one, culminating recently in a radical transformation of women's lives and work. I develop the implications of this argument for older analytic divisions between work and home, or productive and reproductive labor, and for recent shifts in theory. Coherent grasp of the events currently altering women's lives provides a clear way to join gender with earlier theoretical concerns, as another moment of social transformation brought about by a still-unfolding process of economic and political development.     

Uneven Divestment of the State: Social Reproduction and Sex Work in Neo-developmentalist Argentina

Abstract

Sex work has been identified as an important dimension of the ‘survival circuits’ which have developed in the majority world in the context of neo-liberalisation, as a response to the deepening misery of the Global South. Yet while much research has explored the role of sex work in contexts of ‘neo-liberal’ regimes of capital accumulation, few have paid sustained attention to sex work in regimes which are not purely ‘neo-liberal’. Drawing on data with sex workers across 10 cities in Argentina gathered between 2007 and 2014, this article examines multiple spaces of sex workers' lives, including the workplace, the home, and the state in a context of what has been dubbed ‘neo-developmentalism’. It argues that sex work contributes multiple forms of value and subsidies for the state and capital. First, sex work provides a subsidy in the form of the provision of ‘employment’; second, female sex workers provide unwaged reproductive labour in the family; and third, in the labour movement. Yet despite these three contributions to the reproduction of the working class and therefore of capital, the state undermines sex workers' capacities through violence and sustained repression. The article concludes that the neo-developmentalism has led to ‘uneven divestment of the state’ in the reproduction of particular sections of the working class, namely those outside the formal and ‘productive’ sectors.