Reorienting Gender and Globalization: Introduction to the Special Issue

The scholarship on gender and globalization has contributed a far more complex picture of the impact of global processes as well as added a crucial gendered perspective on such processes. It has shown us how global processes may reinscribe, alter, and challenge sex/gender orders, which are not necessarily coherent or hegemonic. Yet, we think there is more that gender and globalization scholarship can do to enhance understandings of global processes. We argue that to do so, the literature needs to develop further by overcoming several limitations: (1) an understanding of gender that still tends to reflect the binary sex/gender arrangements common to Western societies, while failing to address the influence of colonial histories and postcolonial states (Roberts and Connell, Feminist Theory 17(2): 135–140, 2016; Sinha 2012); (2) a gender asymmetry, i.e., a disproportionate focus on women; (3) a narrow set of issues that come under its analytical lens; (4) a primary focus outside the US; and finally (5) a gender division of intellectual labor in which primarily feminists who identify as women study gender and globalization while those who identify as men, feminist or otherwise, tend to study a gender blind globalization. In this introduction, we examine the development of the gender and globalization literature, discuss how the articles in this special issue expand on it, and conclude with future directions for this burgeoning field.     

Men,masculinities, and the politics of development

Gender identity is clearly as much of an issue for men as it is for women. However, that fact is just beginning to be recognized in development practice and mainstream development still takes men's gender identities for granted. While some women may benefit from their position in a patriarchal society, some men are disadvantaged. Certain men benefit more than others in society since gender identity cuts across other forms of social differentiation, including race, age, and economic class. Each man has varying success in conforming to the norms of masculinity, depending upon experience, upbringing, and external context. Agencies and analysts should seriously consider how men's self-perception in society affects development outcomes and challenges existing approaches to work on gender issues. Including men and masculinities in the gender perspective should broaden and deepen the understanding of power and inequality between both men and women as well as in other social relationships, increasing the effectiveness of development interventions.     

Controlling Anger and Happiness at Work: An Examination of Gender Differences

This article examines gender differences in the emotion management of men and women in the workplace. The belief in American culture that women are more emotional than men has limited women's opportunities in many types of work. Because emotional expression is often tightly controlled in the workplace, examining emotion management performed at work presents an opportunity to evaluate gender differences in response to similar working conditions. Previous research suggests that men and women do not differ in their experiences of emotion and the expression of emotion is linked to status positions. An analysis of survey data collected from workers in a diverse group of occupations illustrates that women express anger less and happiness more than men in the workplace. Job and status characteristics explain the association between gender and anger management at work but were unrelated to the management of happiness expressions in the workplace.     

All kinds of potential: Women and out-migration in an Atlantic Canadian coastal community

Rural researchers have found that women leave rural communities at a higher rate than men. Rural education researchers have also found that young women are significantly more successful in formal education than their male counterparts. Few studies though attempt to explain why this is so. This work presents data and analysis from two studies of education and out-migration from a rural-coastal community in Nova Scotia Canada. The questions I investigate in this session are: (1) why are women more likely to leave rural communities? (2) how have contemporary change forces like globalization and network society influenced the gender balance regarding rural out-migration? and (3) how has young rural women's relative success in formal education related to their higher rates of out-migration? Given the recent concern about boy's education, I raise some critical questions about the parallel notion that girls are doing just fine.     

The postfeminist ideology at work: Endorsing gender essentialism and denying feminine devaluation in the case of design work

Feminist scholars define ‘postfeminism’ as a set of ideas that both endorse and disavow feminism. Recent work documents postfeminism in interviews of women talking about experiences with gender inequality at work. The present study extends existing theorizations by showing how postfeminism obfuscates ongoing inequality at work. To do this I specify postfeminism in the terms of two mechanisms by which work becomes gender typed: gender essentialization and feminine devaluation. By relating the literature on postfeminism to sociological research on the persistence of gender typing of work, I show how ‘postfeminist ideology’ amounts to a double entanglement with gender typed work. In other words, postfeminist ideology drives distinct stances towards gender essentialization and feminine devaluation. I draw on 40 interviews with product designers in the United States to show this presents empirically. Designers essentialize differences between men and women designers, even mobilizing difference to claim greater inclusion of women designers, who are thought to empathize best with women consumers. Yet when essentialization is accompanied by feminine devaluation, designers deny it and it goes unrecognized. Because of this, the postfeminist ideology celebrates essentialized gendered differences, but insists on overlooking devaluation, which is a key element of ongoing gender inequality.     

THE FEMINIST CRITIQUE AND A DECADE OF PUBLISHED RESEARCH IN SOCIOLOGY JOURNALS

In the mid to early 1970s feminist writers raised four major criticisms about sociological research on women and expressed concern about the related issue of the discipline's treatment of women sociologists. Critics charged that sociological research underrepresented women as subjects, concentrated on research topics more central to men's than to women's lives, used concepts, paradigms, methods, and theories better portraying men's than women's lives, and used men and male experience as norms against which all social experience was assessed. Examination of published research in ten major sociology journals the 1974–83 period suggests that some concerns articulated in the critiques are reflected in subsequent published work, but others have had little or only limited impact. Findings suggest an association between women's participation as editors, board members, and authors in journals and the quantity and character of published gender articles.     

Men's health studies: origins and trends

This article provides a brief outline of the development of men's health studies in the United States. Research on men's health is discussed within critical feminist theories that highlight the reciprocality of gender relations as well as power differences between men and women and among male subgroups. A relational theory of gender and health is used to identify both positive-gendered and negative-gendered health synergies that influence the health processes and outcomes of men and women. Several examples of gendered health synergies are presented to illustrate key concepts. Finally, some directions for future research and advocacy with reference to men's health are outlined.     

The Abortion Attitudes Paradox: Model Specification and Gender Differences

Rather unexpectedly, prior work has failed to find consistent gender differences in public support for legal abortion. Given that gender differences in public opinion emerge for a wide range of other issue areas, it seems paradoxical that there is no consistent gender difference on the issue of abortion. I propose that this failure to find a consistent gender difference is due to how abortion attitudes are modeled. Controlling for religiosity, which research has shown women to score higher on, results in a small and consistent gender gap in support for legal abortion with women more likely than men to support.     

Men,masculinity and "gender in development"

Articles and training materials on gender issues always talk about women. This focus is logical given the main goal of fostering the involvement of women as equal partners in the development process. The problems faced by men are rarely considered. Moreover, gender training, one of the core strategies of gender and development practice, rarely addresses men's experiences as men. By ignoring the complexities of the male experience, characterizing men as the problem, and continuing to focus upon women as the oppressed, development initiatives attempting to be gender-aware can fail to effectively address the issues of equity and empowerment. The author focuses upon the implications of recent work in feminist theory and questions of masculinity, stressing the need to consider the complex and variable nature of gender identities, and to work with men in exploring the constraints of dominant models of masculinity.     

Men Discussing Women and Women Discussing Men: Reflexivity,Transformation and Gendered Practice in the Context of Nursing Care

This article explores gender reflexivity through the accounts of men discussing women and of women discussing men as professional nurses. Drawing on data from an Australian‐based study, and with an orientation to gender as practice, it investigates the skills and aptitudes that each is seen to bring to the job, how men and women view the other's performance as caregivers and the experiences and challenges of working with the other group. Previous work has suggested there is a link between reflexivity and transformation as individuals self‐consciously shape identities and as they reflect critically on their social conditions. The results from this study question the nature and extent of these transformative powers and suggest different levels of reflexivity based on the extent to which individuals challenge gender norms. These levels are linked to experiences of dissonance as men and women work with each other in a ‘feminized’ context of nursing care.     

GENDER, WORK, AND STRESS: The Potential Impact of Role-Identity Salience And Commitment

In a period when most women and men combine work and family roles, the relationship between these roles and stress is of particular importance. Using an identity theory perspective, this study focuses primarily on gender differences in the sources and levels of stress associated with these roles. An identity-based perspective provides a more parsimonious way to address this issue than the frequently employed gender specific models. Based on differences in the meaning and salience of and commitment to work and family role identities, this study predicts gender differences in identity-linked sources of stress, and relates these to the results of prior stress research. Despite reliance on general norms to infer the salience and commitment of men and women to their work and family roles, and identity perspective demonstrates considerable promise.     

Productivity of women scholars and gender researchers: Is funding a factor?

Articles by women scholars and proportions of articles focused on gender have increased steadily in major sociology journals since 1974. Women are more heavily represented as journal authors than as members of graduate-program departments, the institutional bases where most published work originates. We consider whether funding might account for these patterns by examining acknowledgement of support in published articles. We find no significant relationships among author gender, article topic, and notation of internal funding. Male-authored articles focused on nongender topics acknowledge external funding significantly more often than women-authored works and articles focused on gender written by women or men. Funding patterns therefore do not appear to account for increased productivity by women and gender researchers. She is currently studying the educational achievement of immigrant students. Linda Grant is an assistant professor of sociology and faculty associated of the Institute of Behavioral Research at the University of Georgia. Her current research focuses on gender and academic careers and gender relationships in schools. Her current research includes the feminist critique of sociology and publishing, and the U.S. women’s movement.     

‘Live to Work’ or ‘Work to Live’? A Qualitative Study of Gender and Work–life Balance among Men and Women in Mid‐life

Many contemporary studies of ‘work–life balance’ either ignore gender or take it for granted. We conducted semi‐structured interviews with men and women in mid‐life (aged 50 to 52 years) in order to compare their experiences of work–life balance. Our data suggest that gender remains embedded in the ways that respondents negotiate home and work life. The women discussed their current problems juggling a variety of roles (despite having no young children at home), while men confined their discussion of such conflicts to the past, when their children were young. However, diversity among men (some of whom ‘worked to live’ while others ‘lived to work’) and women (some of whom constructed themselves in relation to their families, while others positioned themselves as ‘independent women’) was apparent, as were some commonalities between men and women (both men and women constructed themselves as ‘pragmatic workers’). We suggest ways in which gender‐neutral theories of work–life balance may be extended.     

Sex Composition,Masculinity Stereotype Dissimilarity and the Quality of Men's Workplace Social Relations

Previous research suggests that the quality of men's work group social relations varies depending on the sex composition of the work unit. Previous studies also suggest that men derive different benefits from working with other men than with women and that the higher status associated with men and masculinity advantages men in their relations with women workers. Previous sex composition studies tell us little, however, about the extent to which the quality of men's work group social relations with women and other men depends on how well a man fits dominant masculinity stereotypes. Drawing on sex composition and gender constructionist approaches to gender and work I investigate in this study the effects of men's individual similarity to masculinity stereotypes on the affective quality of their social relations with coworkers, given the sex composition of their work groups. The data for this study consist of male, mostly white, non‐faculty employees of a public university in the northwest United States. I discuss my results in terms of both individual outcomes and implications for understanding sex and gender inequalities in work organizations.     

Reinforcement and erosion of traditional gender roles among young people in a poor metropolitan area of Turkey

This paper aims to contribute to the existing studies on the young women’s transition to adulthood in the case of Turkish women’s exclusion from the labour market. The issue is discussed largely within the boundaries of traditional gender restrictions that keep women out of employment. Herein, we argue that the gender-based control of young women, perceived as the reason for their exclusion from the labour market, may be used by disadvantaged women as a way of avoiding difficult and unfavourable employment situations. Similarly, the gender roles imposed on men could also not be fulfilled due to the same restrictive labour market conditions. Furthermore, we suggest that the poverty simultaneously strengthens and erodes the very base of the traditional gender structure for both young women and young men, while forcing the young women out of employment and the young men to the unstable working conditions. This argument is based on a study conducted in Alt?nda?, Ankara with a sample of 279 females and 340 males aged between 15 and 24. A mixed methodology, comprising a survey questionnaire followed by 60 in-depth interviews and 4 focus group discussions, was employed for this study.     

“If You Talk Badly about Drilling,You're a Pariah”: Challenging a Capitalist Patriarchy in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale Region

Research on energy development is largely gender neutral, creating a need to illuminate how gender structures life in contemporary energy boomtowns. This study demonstrates how gender and the local economy are intertwined to perpetuate a capitalist patriarchy, which structures life for residents in these communities. The purpose of this article is to show that this economic‐gender structure creates tensions between those men and women whose gender performances reinforce hegemony and those who perform gender in direct opposition to resource extraction. I argue that men and women unconstrained by the capitalist patriarchy are better able to challenge its dominance than residents employed in the local economy. I use qualitative interviews (N = 39) with community residents and observations of community events in northeastern Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale region as the primary methods of data collection. This study complements previous research by demonstrating the relationship between masculinity and femininity, showing the variability of gender in natural‐resource‐based settings and defining the hierarchal relationship among masculinities and femininities during periods of rapid energy development.     

Reflecting on gender equality in Muslim contexts in Oxfam GB

Gender inequality, faith and development are intrinsically linked, and the impact of religious beliefs and practices on gender inequality is an issue that cannot be ignored in development work. This article summarises the key discussions and findings of two workshops, held by Oxfam GB, on the challenges of working on gender equality issues in Muslim contexts. It explores some of the strategies Oxfam staff have used in their programmes, and highlights the challenges Oxfam will need to address as it develops this area of work further.     

Editorial

The urbanization of populations worldwide continues. Concurrently, poverty is increasingly being urbanized. In 1950, there were only 10 cities with populations of 5 million or more; in 1993, there were 33, six of which had 15 million or more inhabitants. This editorial introduces a group of articles which examine gender issues and human settlement, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all aspects of men's and women's lives, and the links between people's physical surroundings and what they do to survive. For the majority of men and women living in cities in the developing world, the reality of urban life is survival through informal work and a shelter in an unplanned area, which is likely to have few essential services such as health centers and schools, and may have no clean water supply, sanitation, trash collection, or power. There is increasingly inadequate public provision of housing and basic services, and a growing number of de facto female-headed households, especially in the poorest social sectors. In some Northern cities in recent years, growing numbers of homeless people live on the streets or in substandard accommodation in conditions of extreme deprivation. Diversification as a coping strategy; the reality of women's work; planning; making rural/urban links; understanding migration; land and shelter; cities, freedom, and fear; environmental concerns; and finding solutions are discussed.     

Organizational processes and gender integration in operational military units: An Israel Defense Forces case study

This study examines collective action by men and women in operational military units deployed on Israel's borders. Gender integration is generally perceived by soldiers and commanders in these units as a trivial matter rather than an issue for discussion or a disadvantage. The integration results from organizational qualities, which include military leadership with accumulated experience in gender integration; division of labour between men and women that gradually develops during protracted training; screening processes within the units; and professional development of commanders. Our findings negate a large corpus of sociological literature on gender integration in military organizations. We discuss the micro‐social processes that enable or deter mixed‐gender integration in operational units. Our findings are presented as an alternative to arguments on the inevitable marginality of women in the military and that equality is neither a prerequisite of a cohesive mixed‐gender unit nor a barrier for the inclusion of women into combat units.     

South Asian transnational marriages in comparative perspective

Abstract This issue on South Asian transnational marriages brings diverse practices and networks into detailed ethnographic focus. Gender and agency are key themes explored in the collection, as well as the potential and actual transformation of gendered status resulting from marrying a migrant or joining a spouse overseas. The introduction identifies some common threads. Several articles challenge the assumption of wives' passivity in arranged marriages or in their joining husbands overseas, while one highlights the less‐documented experiences of men who migrate to join wives working abroad. The collection also offers insights into the cultural and emotional reasons for such marriages, complementing analyses that stress strategic motivations, and noting the emotional consequences of separation and new household formations for the experiences of marriage and parenthood. Marriage emerges as an important means of producing and transforming transnational networks, while marriage practices and dynamics are themselves transformed in the process.