The Emerging Global Gender Equality Regime from Neoliberal and Constructivist Perspectives in International Relations

A global gender equality regime has emerged, identifiable by its norms, principles, legal instruments and compliance mechanisms. I suggest that neoliberal theories of international regimes provide insights into the identification of this regime and the conditions for its emergence. They acknowledge the role of transnational networks, international institutions and epistemic communities of experts in shaping state choices. Global women's networks, together with multilateral and bilateral development organizations, have been instrumental in shaping these global norms on gender equality by engaging in a learning process – framing issues, influencing negotiations by the information they provide and monitoring progress. But the neoliberal theories tell us nothing about the norms themselves, their contestation in different contexts and the structures that support them and give them meaning. A second theoretical framework in international relations, constructivism, opens the way to a crucial appreciation of gender as an analytical category, demonstrating how gender norms and identities are constructed, contested and reconstructed in historical, and socio-political contexts. It thus potentially allows us to examine how a "gender equality regime', as defined by its principles, norms and decision-making mechanisms, needs to be further deconstructed and analyzed to reveal how global norms get interpreted, reinterpreted, filled in and contested on a continuing basis within different and sometimes competing institutions. Otherwise, such norms are bound to remain superficial and may obfuscate rather than clarify.     

The Influence of Gender Equality on Volunteering Among European Senior Citizens

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This research analyzes how gender equality influences the participation of European senior citizens in a range of...     

The Influence of Gender Composition in Powerful Positions on Public Relations Practitioners' Gender-Related Perceptions

Against the background of the high feminization of the German agency sector, this article investigates 2 specific factors that help explain women's careers in public relations agencies: gender stereotypes and the organizational context. We present parts of a recent German explorative study: Long interviews were conducted with 13 female public relations experts to explain their view on women's situation in public relations in general and to describe their own careers. Findings reveal the evolution of a “PR bunny” stereotype that adds a negative touch to the female image as “natural born communicators.” Furthermore, our results support the argument that women seem to prefer (a) the organizational culture of public relations agencies, (b) agency-specific job tasks, and (c) agency-specific work processes. Possible consequences for practitioners and the profession are discussed.     

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.     

The Influence of Gender Roles on Political Socialization:

This paper reports on an experimental study investigating the relationship between gender role stereotyping and political learning among Mexican-American children. In addition to the pre-test and post-test administered to the entire sample, 15 of the children were exposed to a treatment emphasizing a flexible definition of the female role. The children did stereotype behavior assigning some activities to men and others to women. Further, this stereotyping affected their attitudes toward female political participation. Comparison of pre-test and post-test suggests that the treatment had some effect on gender role attitudes, particularly concerning the female role. In addition, on several questions there appeared to be an interaction between gender and the experimental treatment, sugguesting possible differences between the political socialization of boys and girls.     

Hakim Revisited: Preference,Choice and the Postfeminist Gender Regime

We revisit Hakim's influential preference theory to demonstrate how it is both reflective of postfeminism and generative of its values and practices. We differentiate between two interpretations of postfeminism — first a surface‐level ‘successful but obsolete’ version articulated by Hakim and second a multilayered account of postfeminism as a discursive formation connected to a set of discourses around gender, feminism and femininity. Drawing on this latter version we make visible the embeddedness of postfeminism in preference theory, highlighting its connection to the creation of a new postfeminist subjectivity based on an agentic and ‘choosing’ femininity. We show how a consideration of preference theory in terms of the emergence and constitution of ‘the female chooser’ opens up aspects of Hakim's thesis that to date have been overlooked. In addition, our postfeminist reading of preference theory draws out aspects of Hakim's account that she herself understated. Specifically, within a contemporary context where equivalent priority is afforded to wage work and care work, it is Hakim's ‘adaptive’ woman who exemplifies the new postfeminist subject required to perform well simultaneously in both the work and domestic domains.     

Exploring the Influence of Gender on Managerial Work in a Transitional, Eastern European Nation

Prior studies of women in management have beenconducted primarily from a Western, industrialized, andAnglo-American perspective. Therefore, their findingsmay not apply to other sociopolitical domains, such as those in transition to market-basedeconomies. This study surveyed Hungarian managers at twodifferent organizational ranks and employed in threedifferent sectors of the economy. Contrary to the gender-centered hypothesis,managers' gender did not influence their work-relatedbeliefs, values, or attitudes. However, as suggested bythe situational hypothesis, the variables of rank and sector had a strong effect onoutcomes.     

The Impact of Superior-Subordinate Gender on the Career Advancement of Public Relations Practitioners

Mentoring relationships may affect career advancement opportunities for public relations practitioners, which in turn may impact role enactment and professional growth of practitioners. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to measure differential treatment of men and women in public relations with regard to mentoring and to assess the impact of mentoring on the career advancement of both groups. Findings indicate that subordinates and superiors of the same sex tend to have a more active and intense mentoring relationship than mixed-sex pairings. Female supervisors in public relations offer more active and intense mentoring to their subordinates than do male supervisors. Paradoxically, superior mentoring by female superiors yields fewer career advancement opportunities for their subordinates. Male supervisors seem more effective than female supervisors in providing subordinates career advancement. Practitioners with male mentors, regardless of gender, tend to have greater access to management advancement and have more opportunities to enact the manager role.     

Employee Work Attitudes: The Subtle Influence of Gender

Using the construct of job satisfaction, this study examined work attitudes of 286 females and 416 males employed in 27 female-owned and 29 male-owned small businesses in three industries: construction, manufacturing, and distribution. Job satisfaction scores (dependent variables) were analyzed with regard to the interaction of owner employee gender. Demographic and job-related variables were also considered. The gender-moderated results are discussed in terms of methodological implications for conducting research regarding work attitudes.     

Title IX: Consequences for Gender Relations in Sport

Legal interventions have succeeded in creating new opportunities for female athletes, but some argue that this is at the expense of opportunities for male athletes. In this review, we examine the consequences of a particular legal intervention in sport, the US education law Title IX, for female athletes, male athletes, and the construction of gender. Research indicates that sport participation is linked to important attainment outcomes, such as completing education and receiving higher salaries, for both male and female athletes. In addition, playing sports has several protective effects for women’s and girls’ mental and physical health. While positive effects for male athletes are important, courts’ interpretations of Title IX do not require the elimination of men’s opportunities but also do not protect those opportunities in current enforcement. Legal interventions that assure female sports participation also challenge the ways sport is used to create and reproduce definitions of masculinity, exposing dangerous emphases on toughness, aggressiveness, and heterosexual conquest that are damaging to both female and male athletes.     

Paternal Involvement with Children: The Influence of Gender Ideologies

Although prior social science research has established the ability of gender ideologies to influence the domestic division of labor, it has neglected to disentangle their potentially unique influence on paternal involvement with children. Past research examining the influence of gender ideology on parenting behaviors does not acknowledge potential differences that may result from accounting for each parent's gender ideology. Using both waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 1,088), I assess the effect of both mother's and father's gender ideology on two measures of paternal involvement. Whereas egalitarian fathers demonstrate greater involvement than traditional fathers, mother's gender ideology failed to predict paternal involvement. Egalitarian mothers do not appear to negotiate greater father involvement successfully.     

The Crafting of Care: Rationality,Gender and Social Relations in Educational Decision-Making

This article examines discourses on care and the way they operate within four education case conferences. It examines the multiple subject positions afforded to participants in the meetings, and the constitutive aspects of language associated with discourses on care. The paper covers the following domains. Firstly, caring is explored as a specific form of gendered activity within dominant constructions of the family and organizations in contemporary Western (white, heterosexual) society. Secondly, caring is examined as a relationship and a discursive category rather than as an individual attribute. The implications this has for the participants’ identities and roles in the context of the education case conferences are explored. Thirdly, some examples of the way caring operates in specific case conferences are discussed. I conclude by suggesting that caring is employed by women professionals in the meetings discussed, as a way of mystifying differences. In some instances, it seems to function as a coping rhetorical strategy (see Davis 1994), which places a burden of responsibility onto women professionals and may project failure onto mothers and pupils within the meetings.     

Public Relations Roles in Brazil: Hierarchy Eclipses Gender Differences

This study adds to the theoretical base of knowledge about global public relations by describing the prevalence of the different social roles of Brazilian public relations professionals. Four social role constructs were validated: (1) Ethics and Social Responsibility, (2) Employee Well-Being, (3) Community Well-Being, and (4) Government Harmony. Gender and hierarchy differences were observed. Women were more likely than men to perform the Employee Well-Being role and less likely to perform the other 3 roles. In addition, being in the highest position in the hierarchy is associated with performing the Ethics and Social Responsibility role and the Community Well-Being role. However, differences between male and female role performance disappear when women occupy the higher positions in the organization; women at the top of the organization perform these roles with the same regularity as men.     

试析伊斯兰对国家政权与国际政治的影响

众所周知,自7世纪穆罕默德先知传教以来,伊斯兰教就有着不同于一般宗教的特殊影响.历史上,伊斯兰教在宗教和政治上的界限很难确定,"它不仅是一种宗教信仰,还是一套完整的政治、社会和法律制度,一种价值观念,一种文化体系和生活方式."千百年来,伊斯兰教对政治的影响尤其广泛、深刻,和社会的发展关系密切.恩格斯指出:"重大的历史转折点有宗教变迁相伴随,只有迄今存在的三种世界宗教--佛教、基督教和伊斯兰教."     

Social environments with competitive pressure: Gender effects in the decisions of German schoolchildren

Systematic differences in decision making between genders have been discovered in both competitive and pro-social environments. These contexts, however, have been previously studied in isolation while in naturally occurring settings pro-social and competitive pressures often overlap in economically meaningful ways. Here we report data from an experiment involving German schoolchildren where dictators are in one town and receivers in another. Our experiment informs decision making in social environments that include differing levels of competitive pressure. We find that competitive pressure significantly mitigates pro-sociality in boys, while it does not affect girls’ propensities to make fair decisions. This finding is robust to controlling for social and cognitive factors, and it may shed additional light on the evolutionary roots of human social preferences.