The Disconnect Between Observers’ Male and Masculine Judgments from Sparse Gait Cues Conveying Gender: Perceiving Precarious Manhood

Although universal definitions are by no means agreed upon, the terms sex—male and female—and gender—femininity and/or masculinity—are semantically dissociable. The aim with the current study was to explore whether and to what extent they may be dissociable in perceptual terms. A comparison of sex judgments and gender judgments from point light walker (PLW) stimuli offered possibilities for obtaining a finer-grained picture of the basis or bases of these types of social judgments. In this study PLWs were used explicitly to examine the pattern of responses to questions of sex (male/female) and gender (masculine/feminine). Observers perceived targets to be feminine at the same rate as female, but perceived a subset of targets significantly more often to be male than masculine. Thus, a disconnect was demonstrated between male and masculine perceptions with no such uncoupling evident for perceptions of female and feminine. This pattern of responding accords with the idea—often described as Precarious Manhood—that manhood, or masculinity, may be a more difficult mantle to earn than mere ‘maleness’, with femininity considered closer to an essential aspect of being female.     

An Inductive Analysis of Young Adults’ Conceptions of Femininity and Masculinity and Comparison to Established Gender Inventories

This study provides an analysis of the content of feminine and masculine characteristics/behaviors described in writing by 366 young women and 289 young men from the U.S. Emergent characteristics/behaviors were placed into domains. For both femininity and masculinity, the domains of “physical differences related to sex” and “emphasized physical differences” emerged. For masculinity, additional domains were: “activities and interests focused on the body,” “powerful or oriented toward power,” and “emotion-control or emotionally-limited.” For femininity, additional domains were “lacking power,” “orientation to other people,” and “emotional.” We then compared the characteristics/behaviors and domains we discovered to gender inventories that are commonly used in the contemporary period. The masculine domains focused on physical differences, activities, and interests that emerged from the present study are mostly absent from these masculinity inventories. The domains focused on power and restricted emotion are evident in these inventories, but these inventories do not cover all of the characteristics within our domains. The feminine domains that emerged from the present study are more often covered in these inventories, but some of the specific feminine characteristics we found are not evident in these inventories. Results are discussed in terms of gender role theory, gender inequality, and potential application for qualitative and quantitative inquiries into the construction of gender.     

When Beauty Brings Out the Beast: Female Comparisons and the Feminine Rivalry

Research on competition amongst women has largely focused on relational aggression amongst adolescents, but less explored are women’s understandings of the origins of competition as it relates to comparisons amongst women and feminine ideals. Drawing on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 30 collegiate women, we find young women’s stories constructed comparisons and competition amongst women as never-ending and seemingly natural, although they point to restricted societal expectations of femininity as its origin. Women drew from the interrelated topics of perfection-seeking, media portrayals, relationships, and consumerism to explain how they and other women negotiated feminine ideals. Even if participants understood these actions as ultimately undermining their self-image, they still perceived achieving goals of femininity as connected with perfection and happiness. We define such ongoing comparisons and competition as a feminine rivalry, as women perceived other women as direct competitors and thus understanding of the nature of the competition. We conclude by considering how college-aged women’s negotiations of feminine ideals to seemingly bolster or secure their social positioning in a hierarchy of femininity, at times in contradictory ways, offers additional insight into connections between interpersonal dynamics, expectations, and stereotypes of women.     

女性就业边缘化问题的思考

近年来,我国女性在就业竞争中已明显处于劣势,出现了边缘化的趋势。它表现在性别职业及部分女性职业下沉,女性就业和再就业困难,男女两性收入和社会保障差距的扩大。造成此局势的主要原因是就业制度存在缺陷,男女雇佣成本和培训成本的差异,女性主体意识低下和就业动机的不足。在就业竞争日趋激烈的今天,要改变女性在劳动力市场中的劣势,就必须促进劳动力市场性别平等意识社会决策主流化,完善保护妇女劳动权益的法律体系和劳动力市场监督机制,有针对性地发展职业教育和职业技能培训,促进女性自我意识觉醒,不断提高自身素质。     

Women and the Wild: Gender Socialization in Wilderness Recreation Advertising

Women are underrepresented in wilderness recreation despite the numerous benefits such activities provide to mental, physical, and emotional health. Several theories have been proposed linking women??s beliefs about their competence in outdoor spaces, fears of victimization, and concerns over retaining femininity to their lack of participation. We explore media representations of wilderness recreation as a possible agent in the gender socialization process that dissuades women from participation. Through analyzing advertisements from the 42 issues of Backpacker and Outside magazines published in 2008 and 2009 we find that, when women are shown, they are portrayed as having limited and passive roles in wilderness recreation. These advertisements also use the setting to reinforce traditional gender arrangements and paint women as consumers rather than conquerors of the wild. When women are shown as active participants in wilderness recreation, their physical accomplishments are often either downplayed or depicted as the endeavors of ??unique?? women who require feminization.     

Gender Inequality in the Home: The Role of Relative Income,Support for Traditional Gender Roles,and Perceived Entitlement

Drawing on relative resources and gender construction theories, we examined economic and psychological factors that affect married parents’ domestic labor. Married parents from the United States (N = 801) reported whether they earned less, equal, or more income than their spouses, as well as the proportion of housework and childcare they performed. In line with a relative resources perspective, participants reported doing less domestic labor as their relative income increased. Yet, in line with gender construction theories, women reported doing more domestic labor than their spouses, regardless of their relative income. Moreover, support for traditional gender roles mediated the effect of income on domestic labor for women, but not men. In contrast, perceived domestic entitlement (feeling justified doing less domestic labor than one’s spouse) mediated the effect of income on domestic labor for men, but not women. The implications for the future of gender equality are discussed.     

Pension reforms and gender: The case of Sweden

This article analyzes the effects of pension reform for men and women by comparing the outcomes in the system after reform to the outcomes under the prior system. The authors also study the incentive effects on labor supply. The size of the labor force, however, is also influenced by the rules for retirement, social insurance programs (e.g., sickness insurance and unemployment insurance), collective bargaining agreements, and seniority rules. Using a simulation model, the authors compare women's pension benefits and contributions to those of men in the new Swedish system and in the old. The analysis includes simulating the wage and employment histories of representative men and women and the pension benefits these are likely to generate under the old and new rules. After showing the results of this model, the authors describe and discuss the supplementary pension systems, that is, the negotiated collective agreement schemes and different pathways to retirement. Based on empirical evidence from Swedish and Latin America simulated data, the final section of the article discusses gender impact of pension rules and how to design pension, systems to ensure adequate pension benefits for both women and men.     

Immigration,Gender, and Earnings in Israel

This study describes and accounts for gender differences in earnings among the foreign-born in Israel and how these differences vary by origin countries. It expands on an earlier study that examined the effect of being foreign-born and female on employment status. I address three major questions: Do earnings corroborate the “double disadvantage” of immigrant women relative to both native-born women and native and foreign-born men? How do gender differences in earnings evolve with the prolongation of tenure in the new country? Does the combined effect of nativity status and gender act similarly among all foreign-born groups? Results of OLS regressions from the 1995 population census indicates that, everything else being equal, immigrants, including immigrant women, out-earn native-born men. The effect of tenure, by single year, shows that immigrant men and immigrant women follow very similar trajectories but the latter achieve similarity to native-born men much sooner. A detailed analysis reveals important stratification by country of birth. All the immigrant women who out-earned native men and native women originated in America or Europe. By contrast, all immigrant women who are at a disadvantage relative to native-born men are from Asia or Africa. The most common pattern, in which immigrant women earn as much as native-born men do but out-earn native-born women, characterizes immigrants from both Asia–Africa and Europe–America. The results are discussed in reference to three working hypotheses—“absorption climate,” “immigration motivation,” and “socio-cultural norms”—and in close connection with observations from the investigation on employment status.     

色·才·德——刘向《列女传》女性审美内涵解读

色、才、德是古代文学作品对女性审视的三个维度,刘向《列女传》是中国文学史上第一部全面以女性为主角的文艺作品,该作品所表现出的对女性美的认识态度无疑具有强大的审美影响力。在《列女传》女性塑造中,表现出对“色”的理念颠覆与淡化,以及对“才”的关注和全面认识,而对“德”的高度礼赞是《列女传》女性审美的最强音。色、才、德三者的重要性依次逐步增强。《列女传》女性美学呈现出一种游离于现实环境的理想性状态,从而为传统女性审美注入了新的因素。但对“女色”的抵制态度也在一定程度上违背了合理性。     

以《到灯塔去》为例看家庭之于女性

在男权话语的框架内,女性生理上的特点与所谓的女性气质决定了女性在社会中的社会角色,于是家庭成为女性问题中不可回避的一个焦点。女性主义的研究成果表明,所谓的女性气质以及由此决定的女性被限制于家庭中的社会角色,是男权意识形态的具体体现,而伍尔夫在《到灯塔去》一书中通过对家庭生活的描述与分析,试图帮助女性摆脱家庭的束缚,从边缘走向中心,为研究女性与家庭提供了一个良好的文本。     

男性气质和女性气质的社会性别分析

从社会性别视角探讨男性气质与女性气质的本质及其对两性的影响,目的是让我们学会用科学的态度来认识男女之间的性别差异,学会用性别平等视角来审视在社会各个领域中的性别歧视现象,努力消除传统性别观念中陈腐的、反科学的刻板印象,建立理想的性别角色模式,促进男女两性各自潜能的充分发挥和心理的健康发展。     

稳定与变迁：女性媒介中的女性形象——对《中国妇女报》女性人物的分析

通过对《中国妇女报》26年间女性人物报道的内容分析,发现《中国妇女报》所建构和形塑的主流女性形象既保持了一定的稳定性,也发生了若干变迁。就内在形象而言,其稳定性表现在：不同年代的生理形象均以中年女性为代表,成就形象基本上体现为“工作业绩”;其变迁性体现在女性的知识形象在逐步提升,人物的政治色彩处于弱化状态,女性的职业形象随时代变迁发生了较大变迁。就外在形象而言,不同年代的女性人物在地域身份和评价形象上均保持了较大的稳定性。     

不同文化语境下新疆民族女性的独特书写

以中国女性文学的宏观视角对新疆多民族女作家的创作进行观照,可以看出民族女作家带着民族和性别的双重身份,显示出自己独特的书写方式和书写魅力,即女性视角下的文化叙事;民族文化身份、女性身份的双重认同;凸显女性主体意识,建构女性话语空间。她们的书写与中国女性主义文学构成了共鸣、共振、相互丰富的关系,为中国女性文学领域增添了新的分支、新的文本,为学术界从新的角度认识女性文学,提供了一种独特的视角。     

Bem双性化理论模型的重构

传统的男性化—女性化模型认为性别角色类型可分为男性化和女性化两种。随着双性化概念的提出,Bem提出了双性化理论模型,把性别角色类型分为男性化、女性化、双性化和未分化等四种,这种新理论改变了人们以两分法看待性别对人心理和行为影响的方式。然而,Bem并没有澄清＂双性化＂和＂中性化＂两个概念之间的区别,也没有注意到性别角色特质中既适合男性又适合女性的特征——中性特质的存在。因为中性特质的存在,性别角色特质就包含了男性特质、女性特质和中性特质。根据不同性别特质所占地位和作用,性别角色类型可以分为男性化、女性化、双性化、中性化和未分化等五种。     

湖南省性别工资差异及其影响因素研究——基于家务劳动时间的视角

通过建立理论模型,并用2014年湖南省5县区20个城乡社区的调查数据,从家务劳动时间的视角分析湖南劳动力市场的性别工资差异及其影响因素。结果发现,家务劳动时间是影响湖南劳动力市场性别工资差异的重要因素,同时其他影响因素还有月工资收入、受教育程度、行业等,但职务职称对性别工资差异的影响存在不确定性。因此,政府应大力发展家庭服务业,建立健全覆盖城乡的家庭服务体系,基本满足家庭的服务需求,使女性从家务劳动中解脱出来,同时应通过政策倾斜确保女性培训比例,增强就业竞争实力;规范劳动合同,维护私有及民营企业女性从业者在劳动就业、社会保障等方面的合法权益。     

“I Never Wanted to Be an Ashley!” Androcentrism and Gender Entitlement in Disney’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Recess</Emphasis>

The commercially successful Disney animated television series Recess featured a bold and physically active tomboy character in a leading role. Ashley Spinelli (referred to only by her surname) vocally disdained all things feminine. Spinelli’s nemeses were a clique of snobbish, scheming girly-girls, all of whom were also named Ashley. This dynamic is significant when read against the Walt Disney Company’s overall investment in discourses of normative femininity. It is also historically contingent with the ways in which North American popular culture has used the tomboy to address various perceived societal needs, including healthy lifestyles, masculine dominance and childhood innocence. The Recess episode “First Name Ashley” displays an androcentric and gender-entitled representation of girlhood, predicated upon the understanding that normative femininity is synonymous with cruelty. The liberatory possibilities in this representation are thereby compromised by the representation of female agency as dependent upon maintaining distance from femininity.     

汉语言文字及文学中妇女沉沦与闺阁命运之考察

本文从汉字中与妇女性别相关的＂后＂、＂好＂、＂男＂、＂女＂、＂夫＂、＂妇＂等文字入手,论证了中文汉字在造字和训释过程中,男尊女卑观念所造成的对女性的歧视和贬抑;论证了在长达数千年的岁月里,妇女在汉语言文字中被咀嚼成＂贱＂和＂内＂的身份和角色;论证了中国封建文学史书写对古代闺阁文学的歧视和排斥;论证了晚清末年秋瑾的出现,以其历代才女所罕见的豪放雄健的诗词,宣告了一部中国传统女子文学史的终结。     

Gendering Abbottabad: Agency and Hegemonic Masculinity in an Age of Global Terrorism

During the week after the United States’ raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011, the media discussed women associated with the raid. Media reported that bin Laden hid “behind a woman” during the raid, describing bin Laden’s wife as a human shield. The press also discussed a photo of the Situation Room during the raid, calling attention to Hillary Clinton, who was thought to be gasping out of emotion in the photo. The narratives surrounding Amal Ahmed al-Sadah (married to bin Laden) and Secretary Clinton elicit insights into the place of gender vis-à-vis terrorism. In this paper, we content analyze non-op-ed newswires, debating how/whether the media framed al-Sadah and Clinton as political agents, feminine representations, and/or as superfluous to terrorism. We find that the press described Clinton as emotional and largely saw al-Sadah as passive and generically as a wife. Women were portrayed differently than men, who are considered active, but unemotional. Additionally, articles critiqued President Obama’s posture and clothing in the Situation Room and disparaged Osama bin Laden for unmanliness. We therefore conclude that the mainstream, print media press prioritizes hegemonic masculinity when discussing terrorism, overlooking women’s agency and ascribing feminine identities to women and marginalized masculinities to certain men.     

被压抑的母性——论现代女作家对生育的认识和表现

生育是女性生活中的重要内容,现代女性作家从这一被人忽略的领域思考女性自我发展所面临的挑战,她们或表现女性对婚姻的逃避,或写生育行为对个人自我完善的束缚,或表现生育的痛苦和无意义,或表现扭曲的母亲形象,通过文学创作勾勒出一个暗淡的生育前景,从多方面传达了对生育的审慎和畏惧,表现了母性被压抑的现实。     

Active aging and pension reform: The gender implications in France

In the first section of this article, the authors Christel Gilles and Antoine Parent, argue that in France, public policy and the pension system provide financial incentives favoring early retirement. The implementation of “bridge jobs” to facilitate the transition from full employment to full retirement, could, in theory, lessen the long-term decline in employment rates of men and women. Gilles and Parent, in the second section, question the idea that rising labor force participation rates among women are adequate to narrow pension inequalities between men and women. Regarding this point, we also note that since women's careers are generally shorter than men's and their labor income remains, on average, lower, an increase, in female labor force participation would lead, in an occupational-based system, to a substitution effect between direct and indirect entitlements. The impact of this effect on pension gender inequalities remains uncertain. In the third section, the authors examine, from a gender perspective, other pension reform options that may, in theory, provide greater gender equality, but that are, in practice, far from the implementation phase.