The Variable Nature of the Gender Gap in Political Knowledge

ABSTRACT

Previous research demonstrates that long-standing gender gaps in political knowledge are often a function of measurement artifacts. This article examines two potential measurement issues – question content and format – to determine whether gender differences in knowledge are sensitive to decisions we make when choosing and constructing knowledge measures. Using an original survey from the 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES), we demonstrate that, while expected gender differences exist when we ask traditional knowledge questions, these gender gaps are ameliorated when we employ items that measure knowledge about women in politics. We also examine gendered response patterns regarding “don’t know” responses, which can deflate women’s knowledge levels. Finally, we examine the determinants of political knowledge for women and men, and uncover an important role for political interest in shaping women’s knowledge levels. These results suggest that scholars should take steps to create political knowledge measures that can most accurately gauge the political capacities of women and men.     

Women in power and power of women: the Liberian experience

ABSTRACT

Do women really improve conditions for gender equality after becoming heads of states? This study investigates if having a woman at the helm of country’s decision making processes leads to better indicators on women’s conditions. Using time-series observations for the period 2000–11, we test the hypothesis with the Liberian experience. We analyse six main gender indicators: gender equality, equality of representation in rural areas (basic community), economic rights of women, participation of women in active life, political rights of women and legislations for the protection of women against violence. Our findings do not show substantially significant changes between the first mandate of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the period before. In essence, we only notice positive and statistical ruptures for equality of representation in rural areas and the economic rights of women. Policy implications are discussed.     

Work satisfaction in a rapidly feminized profession: assessing the intersection of gender,parenting and support resources among veterinary doctors

Abstract

Women typically hold jobs in which they experience less pay and less favorable working conditions than men in comparable positions. Despite these differences, women report similar or even higher levels of work satisfaction. Most studies explaining work satisfaction and gender focus on workplace rewards as potential explanatory variables. Little is known about the relevance of support resources from the family domain in relation to women’s and men’s work satisfaction. Finally, the relevance of support resources has not been studied in high-status professions where women have quickly become more highly represented numerically. Using quantitative survey data from a sample of married veterinary doctors (N?=?311), we explore the influence of work and family-based support resources. Specifically, we examine the relationship between work satisfaction and three sources of support: coworkers, family, and spouses. We also explore whether parental status has moderating effects for women and men with these resources in association with work satisfaction. We find that mothers are more satisfied than fathers. Parenthood and supportive family engagement are strong predictors of women’s work satisfaction. Coworker support is a salient predictor of work satisfaction for all, especially for men who are fathers. Implications for men and women working in high-status professions are discussed.     

Time to care: socioeconomic,family, and workplace factors in men and women’s parental leave use

ABSTRACT

Parental leave has important benefits for women, men, and families. This study examines how individual, family, and workplace factors are associated with the length of parental leaves taken by workers in diverse jobs and work contexts, but with the same employer, focusing on gender differences in the factors associated with longer parental leaves. The data are the result of a collaboration between university researchers and a municipal employer. We find that gender was a major driver of the duration of parental leaves for these workers, who must use their accumulated paid time off or take unpaid leave for parental leave; women’s leaves were almost three times longer than men’s. We also find gender differences in the factors associated with leave duration. For women, socioeconomic status seemed to matter most, while for men, family and workplace context influenced leave length. The results indicate the centrality of financial considerations in parents’ leave decisions, reinforcing the importance of having a dedicated paid parental leave policy. We argue that paid parental leaves would help reduce disparities between and within genders at work and in the family.     

Social support networks,instant messaging,and gender equity in refugee education

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the role of instant messaging chat groups to support teacher training and gender equity initiatives in Kenyan refugee camps. Our findings are based on survey data with refugee teachers in Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps (n?=?203), group interviews with refugee teachers in Kakuma (n?=?21), and interviews with international instructors of teacher training programs in Nairobi, Toronto, and Vancouver (n?=?14). In our analysis, we apply amplification theory, feminist science and technology studies paradigms, and considerations of transnational approaches to understand the use of instant messaging among refugee teacher communities. Our framework explores how social and cultural norms are amplified through transnational text and instant messaging related to teacher training and in support of gender equity. Peer-to-peer group chats draw on transnational learning opportunities and expand these engagements through group chats between men and women refugee teachers across camps as well as through community engagement about gender equity initiatives in education. International instructors identify both value and hesitation in navigating the quantity and content of these communications, such as learning more about refugee teachers’ daily lives in the camps and concern about following and managing the amount of communication that can ensue over chat groups. Our work has practical implications for transnational teacher training programs in refugee camps, illuminates how mobile technology and chat groups allow women and men in the community to engage and support girls’ education, and questions how text messaging affects the lived and day-to-day experiences of women refugee teachers.     

Women’s Political Firsts and Symbolic Representation

ABSTRACT

The extent to which politics is still a “man’s game” is made evident every time a top political office has a female holder for the first time. These incredibly revealing moments may give a new social meaning to women in politics—women’s political presence—and women and politics—gendered social constructions about women’s capacity to rule. This article explores the types of gendered mediation underpinning the representation of first-ever women serving in historically male-dominated political offices in Spain. It shows that gender media frames are pervasive, which may lead to an effective annihilation of women’s symbolic representation.     

Gender equality regimes and evaluation regimes in Europe and their implications for policy design and evaluation

PurposeThis article starts from the assumption that it is important for the evaluation of gender equality interventions in RTDI (Research, Technology Development and Innovation) to consider its context regarding gender equality regime and evaluation culture because this context does influence effects and long term impacts of such activities. It aims to provide key characteristics for the differentiation of gender equality regimes and evaluation regimes to be considered when designing policy interventions or evaluating specific gender equality interventions in RTDI.Design/methodology/approachAfter a literature review of relevant typologies for welfare state and gender equality regimes, it was analysed to which extent the seven EFFORTI countries correspond to certain typologies based on the data basis of the context research performed in the EFFORTI project. For this context research, international/national and qualitative/quantitative data regarding the relevant framework conditions were firstly collected for each of the EFFORTI countries and secondly compared in a cross-country analysis.FindingsThe research showed that when it comes to gender equality policies, most EFFORTI countries can either be assigned to the Social-Democratic category or Conservative Equal Employment Regime category in the typology of von Wahl (2005), with the latter type tending to provide less favourable conditions for women in the general labour market as well as women in RTDI (e.g. overtime culture). In how far these different types of context can have an impact on the evaluation of interventions can be exemplarily illustrated using case studies carried out as part of EFFORTI.Connecting the typologies for gender equality policy with evaluation regimes has not proved fruitful, as the two discourses have only begun to converge in recent years. The evaluation regimes and cultures of the respective countries have therefore been described independently. However, it was shown that countries with more expertise in certain areas (e.g. gender, evaluations) developed more routinized and institutionalised procedures in the respective field.Originality/valueConsidering the different framework conditions is relevant when it comes to evaluation as different national contexts might require different policy and designs of activities, but might also shape the interventions’ effects. This article therefore aims to provide support in this regard for future evaluations of gender policies.     

Gender Preference toward Providers of Genital Examinations and Frequency of Genital Self-Examination among College Students

Abstract

Both male and female students who utilize Brandeis University Health Services for primary care were assessed regarding their preference as to the gender of providers of genital examinations, together with the frequency with which each sex and academic class performs genital self-examinations, during a two-month period of the 1981 Spring Semester, using a brief self-administered questionnaire.

Among 234 undergraduate and graduate student men and women who returned questionnaires, women and men preferred to be examinated by same-sex examiners; less than half of the women and nearly none of the men would want a chaperone present during the examination, even when the examiner is not the same gender. An increasing percentage of these young women perform breast examinations as they get older, but there is no comparable rise in testicular self-examinations with increasing age among the men. It is important for physicians who care for adolescents and young adults in university health services to provide access to same-gender health care providers when genital exams are done. It is also important to educate men about testicular examinations, just as women are educated about breast examinations.     

No city for migrant women: construction workers’ experiences of exclusion from urban governance and discrimination in labour markets in Ahmedabad

ABSTRACT

Ahmedabad, Gujarat, is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, and a reflection of India’s story of exclusionary economic growth. This article focuses on research carried out with women construction workers with the help of a migrant construction workers’ union in Ahmedabad. It describes the method used by women members of the union to make visible their experiences as migrants in the city – with men, local authorities, and employers – to highlight the additional burdens that they bear due to a negligent state and industry, advocate for better working and living conditions, and raise consciousness of gender inequalities that need to be integrated into the demands of the workers’ union.     

Gender inequality in mobile technology access: the role of economic and social development*

ABSTRACT

Digital inequality is a burgeoning field of study across disciplines, yet few papers address categorical digital inequality in cross-national samples. Using the only available cross-national data on access to Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) disaggregated by gender from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), I add to existing literature by examining factors associated with women’s unequal access to mobile phones across 51 countries. The largest of such samples, the ITU data demonstrates that the type and levels of gender inequality in mobile phone use are not consistent throughout countries. In fact, the distribution is quite variable, from incorporating a small-sample of nations where women have marginally higher access, to sub-samples close to parity, to a larger sub-sample where women are at a substantial disadvantage. Using Quantile Regression Methods to assess these variations, I test how major gender and international development theories inform inequality patterns. My findings suggest that women’s wellbeing, as measured by their access to modern contraception (i.e., reproductive autonomy), overwhelmingly promotes women’s relative access to mobile phones, regardless of preexisting levels of access. Other perspectives like the growth imperative and world polity theory show some staggered associations along the distribution that remain substantively inconclusive.     

Rapid Gender Analysis and its use in crises: from zero to fifty in five years

ABSTRACT

This article explores how and why the international non-government organisation, CARE, developed its own system of gender analysis, Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA), during the humanitarian response in Syria. The article tracks and reviews a sample of the first 50 CARE RGA reports to share recurrent gender themes that emerge across them, including the lack of women’s meaningful participation in decision-making, limitations on women and girls’ mobility, increased risks of gender-based violence, and recurring issues facing humanitarian organisations in providing a gender-sensitive response. RGA has now been used in more than 50 crises around the world and is featured as a good practice in the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Gender Handbook. It is giving humanitarians faster and more complete access to information about gender norms than ever before. But, this article asks, has the RGA made a difference and, if so, to whom?     

Breaking Down or Breaking Through

Abstract

Case studies of ten Hong Kong women diagnosed with depression demonstrate that depression is not necessarily, but can be, one strategy for dealing with the problems of everyday life. Neither is it always an outspoken critique of the family as an institution and the gender inequality in the Hong Kong society. However, depression should never be understood simply as personal or social pathology, but as an attempt to negotiate with social reality. These women used their bodies for experiencing, interpreting, and communicating about emotions and social issues. Depression is one of the strategies these women used to resist social forces and transform them into conditions that made possible the creation of space for personal changes.     

In pursuit of autonomous womanhood: nineteenth-century black motherhood in the U.S. North

ABSTRACT

African Americans who resided in the antebellum North were subjected to forms of disenfranchisement that informed their political activism. These experiences were especially pronounced for black women whose identities existed at the intersections of race and gender, and black children who in some cases remained enslaved and indentured beyond their parents. The development of discourse on Northern black motherhood, produced in nineteenth-century black print culture and black women’s activism, countered indeterminate conditions of Northern freedom by promoting the empowering potential of black maternal authority.     

The Gender Gap in Attitudes About Childlessness in the United States

Acceptance of childlessness has increased since the 1970s, with women reporting greater acceptance than men. Using the National Survey of Families and Households (1987 – 1988; N = 10,648) and the General Social Survey (1994; N =1,395), we examined this gender gap as it relates to both structural and sociocultural factors, including religion, gender attitudes, and other attitudes about gender and family. Women were more likely than men to hold positive attitudes about childlessness, and women’s less traditional attitudes about marriage, gender equality, and women’s employment only partially explained this difference. In the childbearing ages, positive attitudes were strongly related to intentions to remain childless and showed a greater gender gap at higher education levels. The findings highlight important differences in men’s and women’s experiences of family, work, and gender issues.     

“It’s More Appropriate for Men”: Management and Worker Perceptions of the Gendered Ideal Worker

Abstract

Drawing on qualitative interviews at a Mexican-owned multinational manufacturing corporation, this article analyzes how perceptions of the ideal worker shift during workplace transformation to impact women and men differently. Prior to transformation, women and men perform distinct forms of labor on the shop floor. When the company moves from labor-intensive to technology-driven production, the ideal factory worker changes. Management (re)assesses and (re)values skills, responsibility, and commitment. These seemingly gender-neutral attributes create different outcomes. Automation and teamwork are recast as men’s work; women are sent home. I argue that women’s exit is not about the nature of the work. Rather, gendered stereotypes embodied in perceptions of the ideal worker justify and normalize women’s elimination from the factory. These findings reveal how presumed gender traits play a pivotal role in the company’s adjustment to global economic processes, privileging masculinity and devaluing femininity.     

Leveraging blockchain technology in humanitarian settings – opportunities and risks for women and girls

ABSTRACT

There is an increasing acknowledgement among policymakers and private-sector partners that we cannot overcome the challenges of our time without harnessing the potential of emerging technologies. As blockchain technology is rapidly being introduced to support work across a wide number of areas of humanitarian action, this article considers its potential impact on women and girls. The article draws on experiences emerging from UN Women’s explorations of blockchain technology and the first gender-responsive pilot targeting Syrian refugee women in UN Women’s cash-for-work programme in Jordan. The article reminds us how important it is to introduce technologies in ways that maximise their potential to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in humanitarian settings, and minimise the risk of doing harm. Without conscious commitment to these aims, blockchain technology may exacerbate the marginalisation of women and girls.     

Counting the cost of difference: a reply to Sullivan

ABSTRACT

Counting the Cost of Difference’ replies to Alice Sullivan’s piece on gender auditing in the UK Census. While Sullivan argues that the proposed changes to audit gender identity will dilute the meaning of ‘sex’ and thus the needs of women, I suggest that auditing on self-declared gender in Census 2021 signals a move towards the further recognition that gender is fluidly and diversely experienced and practiced in contemporary society. This should, I suggest, be welcomed rather than feared by feminist thinkers.     

Do gender regimes matter? Gender differences in involvement in anti-austerity protests - a comparison of Spain,Sweden and the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

Responses to the Great Recession are varied across welfare states and gendered in their consequences. Combining gender, social policy and social movement scholarship, this paper investigates how the differential policy responses to the Financial Crisis in three European countries shaped gender-differences in anti-austerity demonstrations. We compare the involvement and characteristics of women and men in anti-austerity protests using data collected at street demonstrations (2010–2012). We conduct cross-national multi-level analysis of demonstrators from countries representing different gender regimes (Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom). Our results show that gender regimes have a significant impact on women’s and men’s involvement in anti-austerity protests. We thus make an important contribution to research on gender differences in participation in anti-austerity demonstrations post-Great Recession. Our comparison of women’s and men’s participation in anti-austerity street demonstrations suggests that at the country or regime level resources matter more than grievances, but that grievances matter at the individual level. This innovative paper links scholarship on gender regimes with research on protest participation. Resources and experiences of grievances are shaped by gender regimes which provide access to decision-making and social support. We reveal novel insights into the connection between gender regimes and demonstration participation.     

A Little Encouragement Goes a (not so) Long Way: An Experiment to Increase Political Ambition

ABSTRACT

Although there is a significant gender gap in political ambition, the literature has shown that women are responsive to encouragement to run for office. As a result, both political parties and other organizations have adopted online campaigns to encourage women to seek political candidacy. The purpose of this study is to explore whether forms of online and impersonal encouragement can result in higher levels of political ambition among recipients. To test this possibility, we randomly assigned 341 participants into two conditions: control and encouragement. Despite receiving positive encouragement about their own political abilities, there were no significant differences between the two conditions.     

Poverty,gender and literary criticism Reassessing Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth

Abstract

Attention to the neglected theme of poverty in The House of Mirth offers a perspective on Edith Wharton that contravenes the leisure-class ethos in which critics tend to place her. Wharton's novel refigures a turn-of-the-century sociological discourse of poverty and dependence to undermine the absolute class ideologies pervading contemporary philanthropic writing about poor and working women. By defining poverty as a psychological condition that can operate across traditional class boundaries, Wharton develops a dynamic sense of gender consciousness founded not in cultural abstractions but in socioeconomic conditions that trap women between financial dependence on men and the impoverished alternative of the world of work.