Exploring gender and elder abuse from the perspective of professionals

We conducted an online survey of professionals working in two Canadian provinces to learn about their knowledge of elder abuse from a gender-based perspective. A total of 169 professionals (90% women) completed a survey in either French or English. Five topic areas emerged from the analysis: the influence of gender on the risk of abuse; types of abuse detected; knowledge gaps; capacity to respond to gender-based abuse; and awareness of resources. To gain further insight into these results, we conducted three focus groups with a total of 24 professionals. Professionals held relatively little recognition of, or knowledge about, gender related to elder abuse. Our results indicate the need to develop educational and awareness raising opportunities for professionals who work with abused older adults in both French and English to identify and respond to the unique needs of older women and men.     

Gender Role Ideology and the Gender Based Differences in Earnings

Much of the research on gender differences in occupational earnings still focuses on human capital and the structure of the labor market. However, these variables rarely explain even half of the gender gap in earnings. Most research has examined the impact of gender role ideology as it impacts occupational choice, which indirectly can impact earnings. Using data from the National Opinion Research Center General Social Surveys, this research focuses on the relationship between attitudes about gender roles and two variables: (a) earnings, and (b) occupational positions held by women and men. Findings show that traditional gender-role ideology contributes to lower observed earnings for both males and females, independent of the influences of human capital characteristics, occupational context, and ascribed characteristics. Results support socialization as a partial explanation for the gender-based earnings differences and suggest that, to the extent that economic rewards are used to assess the value of gender role expectations, traditional gender role attitudes might continue to change and lead to relatively equal earnings among women and men.     

Gender and rural-urban migration in China

Many men and women in China are migrating in search of better economic opportunities. Young women who migrate to urban centers in search of opportunity may stay away from their home villages for several years. At some point, however, they are likely to return home. This article considers the effect which such circular migration is having upon gender relations in China. The author's argument is presented in sections on China's 1990 census, migration and the sexual division of labor, migration and child care, the influence of returning migrants, the influence of young female returnees, and the fertility of returnees. She speculates that the demands and expectations of young women who return to their villages after spending some time earning high wages in urban areas will be affected by urban norms. While their return may lead to initial conflict, it is likely that the women will retain greater personal autonomy from their urban experience. Their return is also likely to lead to a higher degree of material consumption in the rural areas. Present circular migration in China has the potential to return human and financial resources to the villages, thereby helping to prevent the urban-rural gap between economic, social, cultural, and educational factors from growing even wider.     

Female harassment after ending a relationship: A preliminary study

While dramatic instances of male aggression directed toward women, such as rape and wife battering, have been frequently studied, a more subtle form of male aggression—female harassment—has been investigated less often. In the present study, 50 women who had terminated relationships with males and then were harassed were interviewed. In general, the harassment lasted for about a year, and episodes which occurred on a daily basis consisted of calls, letters, visits to home or work, being followed, verbal threats, and physical aggression. For the most part, these aggressive actions were perceived as both threatening and disturbing. Findings indicated that assertive female strategies were not more effective in reducing harassment than more sex-role stereotyped passive and nonassertive responses to male aggression. In the second phase of this study a sample of college undergraduates was interviewed on the topic of harassment. Fifty-six percent of the women indicated that they had been harassed by men.My thanks to Lyn De Amicis and LaVome Robinson for their instructive and helpful comments.     

The backstage work negotiators do when communicating with persons in crisis

When a person in crisis threatens suicide, police negotiators engage them in a conversation to prevent death. Working in small teams, the primary negotiator's role is to talk directly to the person in crisis. A secondary negotiator, working “behind the scenes,” supports the ongoing negotiation. Using 31 hours of audio‐recorded British negotiations, we uncover the backstage work of secondary negotiators. We use conversation analysis to identify the sequential position, linguistic form, and action of the secondary negotiator's interventions on (1) the delivery (e.g. “sound angry”) and (2) next actions (e.g. “say please,” “try asking them to move”) of the primary negotiator, and how the primary incorporates them into the negotiation. Our analysis shows that, while some suggestions were effective, others disrupted the flow of the negotiation as well as the alignment between primary negotiator and person in crisis. The paper augments current sociolinguistic understandings of the high‐stakes language activity of crisis negotiation and highlights the importance of attending to linguistic features of interaction when training negotiators to work better as a team.     

Condom Negotiation Strategies as a Mediator of the Relationship between Self-Efficacy and Condom Use

College students are a group at high risk of sexually transmitted infections due to inconsistent condom use and engaging in other risky sexual behaviors. This study examined whether condom use self-efficacy predicted the use of condom negotiation strategies (i.e., condom influence strategies) and whether condom influence strategies mediated the relationship between condom use self-efficacy and condom use within this population, as well as whether gender moderated the mediation model. Results showed a strong relationship between condom use self-efficacy and condom influence strategies. Additionally, condom influence strategies completely mediated the relationship between condom use self-efficacy and condom use. Although condom use self-efficacy was related to condom use, the ability to use condom negotiation strategies was the most important factor predicting condom use. The mediation model held across genders, except for the condom influence strategy withholding sex, where it was not significant for men. For women, condom use self-efficacy promoted the use of a very assertive negotiation strategy, withholding sex, and was consequently related to increased condom use. Overall, using assertive condom negotiation strategies (e.g., withholding sex and direct request) were found to be the most important aspects of increasing condom use for both women and men. Implications and suggestions for prevention programming are discussed.     

Bitch,slut, skank,cunt: patterned resistance to women’s visibility in digital publics

Resistance to women’s public voice and visibility via street harassment and workplace sexual harassment have long constrained women’s use of and comfort in physical public spaces; this gender-based resistance now extends into digital arenas. Women face extreme hostility in the form of digital sexism in discussion rooms, comment sections, gaming communities, and on social media platforms. Reflecting on two years of in-depth interviews with women who have been on the receiving end of gender-based digital abuse (n?=?38), conversations with industry professionals working in content moderation and digital safety, the extant literature, and news stories about digital attacks against women, I offer a lens to think through the prominent patterns in digital sexism, showing (1) that aggressors draw upon three overlapping strategies – intimidating, shaming, and discrediting – to limit women’s impact in digital publics, (2) the way femininity and femaleness are used to undermine women’s contributions, and (3) men call attention to women’s physicality as a way to pull gender – and the male advantage that comes with it – to the fore in digital exchanges. Finally, I argue that when digital sexism succeeds in pressing women out of digital spaces, constrains the topics they address publicly, or limits the ways they address them, we must consider the democratic costs of gender-based harassment, in addition to the personal ones.     

Zambian Women in South Africa: Insights Into Health Experiences of Labia Elongation

Labia minora elongation consists in the manual stretching of the inner lips of the external genitalia. This practice is documented in east and southern Africa. The experiences of African women in the diaspora practicing elongation are not thoroughly understood. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the health harms and benefits associated with this practice of Zambian women who have migrated to Cape Town, South Africa. Twenty women and seventeen men participated in this study. Between December 2013 and May 2014, in-depth interviews and natural group discussions were conducted with the participants. The focus of this article is to report on the emic of the women related to notions of health, hygiene, and well-being. Labial elongation is perceived as a practice involving minor, short-term adverse effects that can be prevented by following some basic hygiene. Overall, personal and social value is placed on this practice because of its reported benefits for the sexual health of men and women, and for women's femininity and self-image. Further research is necessary on how female genital modifications influence Zambians’ sexual preferences to inform the development of culturally appropriate health promotion interventions.     

Der Einfluss der Gesundheit und des Gesundheitsverhaltens auf die Entstehung von Partnerschaften

This paper examines the influence of physical and mental health and health behavior on the formation of intimate relationships. Data were obtained from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) for the years 2002–2014 and contain information about 6071 individuals and 4194 newly formed partnerships. For men, better mental health increasingly accelerates partnership formation in middle and later adulthood. For women, better physical and mental health reduce the transition rate into partnership at a young age and increase the transition rate into partnership at an older age. Physical inactivity and overweight reduce the likelihood of partnership formation for both women and men, whereas smoking is positively associated with partnership formation for women. The findings help to better understand how health and health behavior affect the formation of intimate relationships. Moreover, the results contribute to explaining health disparities between individuals with or without a partner.     

The Influence of Facial Emotion Displays, Gender, and Ethnicity on Judgments of Dominance and Affiliation

Facial expressions of emotions convey not only information about emotional states but also about interpersonal intentions. The present study investigated whether factors known to influence the decoding of emotional expressions—the gender and ethnicity of the stimulus person as well as the intensity of the expression—would also influence attributions of interpersonal intentions. For this, 145 men and women rated emotional facial expressions posed by both Caucasian and Japanese male and female stimulus persons on perceived dominance and affiliation. The results showed that the sex and the ethnicity of the encoder influenced observers' ratings of dominance and affiliation. For anger displays only, this influence was mediated by expectations regarding how likely it is that a particular encoder group would display anger. Further, affiliation ratings were equally influenced by low intensity and by high intensity expressions, whereas only fairly intense emotional expressions affected attributions of dominance.     

WOMEN'S ACCESS TO PENSIONS AND THE STRUCTURE OF ELIGIBILITY RULES:

Because many older women lack access to private pensions and rely solely on social security income, they are significantly more likely than men to have incomes below or near poverty level. Liberal feminists attribute women's failure to attain pensions to their discontinuous work histories, which preclude them from meeting requirements for length and continuity of service. Such a conclusion ignores the invisible gender-based distinctions arising from the organizational logic of the workplace. The key issue is not why women fail to satisfy pension rules but rather why the rules are structured to penalize women for their reproductive labor. This historical case study of the pension negotiation process in two unions, the United Auto Workers and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, indicates that the price women pay in the market for their domestic labor is a social construction that arises from specific decisions in the workplace. The analysis suggests that women can improve their status relative to men if they are able to reveal the hidden dimensions of gender in societal institutions but that they cannot attain full equality until the distinction between social production and reproduction is eliminated.     

Recruitment Strategies of Indian Men Who Have Sex with Men in the State of Maharashtra Into an Online Survey

ABSTRACT

The authors reported lessons learned from their efforts to recruit Indian men and transgender women/hijras who have sex with men into an online cross sectional study. Between September 2013 and May 2014, we implemented a 7-phased recruitment strategy that included the use of online and offline strategies to enroll a total of 449 participants into an online survey about recent sexual behavior and various psychosocial measures. The phases were implemented sequentially and cost-per-eligible participant was calculated. Using social media and collaborating with organizers of community events proved the most effective strategies for recruiting Indian men who have sex with men into online research.     

The Grand Challenge of Reducing Gender and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Service Access and Needs Among Adults with Alcohol Misuse

This study examined the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on gender and racial and ethnic disparities in accessing and using behavioral health services among a national sample of adults who reported heavy or binge alcohol use (n = 52,496) and those with alcohol use disorder (AUD; n = 22,966). Difference-in-differences models estimated service-related disparities before (2008–2009) and after (2011–2014) health care reform. A subanalysis was conducted before (2011–2013) and after (2014) full implementation of the ACA. Asian subgroups among respondents with heavy or binge drinking were excluded from substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and unmet need outcome models due to insufficient cell size. Among heavy or binge drinkers, unmet SUD treatment need decreased among Black women and increased among Black men. Mental health (MH) treatment decreased among Asian men, whereas unmet MH treatment need decreased among Hispanic men. MH treatment increased among Hispanic women with AUD. Although there were improvements in service use and access among Black and Hispanic women and Hispanic men, there were setbacks among Black and Asian men. Implications for social workers are discussed.     

Mobilizing Gender to Promote Peace: The Case of Machsom Watch

The binary model that presents women as peaceful and men as warfaring is a common conception of war and peace. Despite increasing levels of gender equality in most spheres of public life and decreasing gender segregation in institutions in many parts of the world, the associational link of men to war and women to peace remains widespread. Focusing on the Israeli women??s peace organization, Machsom Watch, this article uses a content analysis of interactions between Machsom Watch activists, soldiers and Palestinians to examine how gendered political opportunity structures affect and are affected by interactions between individuals, organizations and institutions. The paper highlights the contradiction between Machsom Watch??s form as a women-only organization and their framing and report language, which is non-gender specific. I argue that this contradiction emerges from their strategic negotiation of the gendered political opportunity structure as well as their culturally bounded experiences of gendered interactions and embodied gender norms. More generally, I argue that by understanding political opportunity structures as being bound by cultural norms that create distinct sets of opportunities and constraints for different groups of people, scholars can better understand the particular manifestation of social movement action and thereby more fully account for human agency in social and political structures. Additionally, this paper encourages social movement scholars to understand social movement framing as both a product of political opportunities and constraints as well as an influence in the formation of the political opportunity structure.     

Negotiating Interorganizational Orders*

Strauss' (1978) negotiation paradigm is used to analyze interorganizational relations leading to development of a complex of eleven rehabilitation agencies. Analysis is based on records over a twenty-five year period and four years of participant observation and interviewing. The structural context for the negotiations is described in terms of over-lapping societal, communal, interorganizational, organizational, and interpersonal levels. The analysis points out the importance of covert, informal negotiations to interorganizational relations. The negotiators who initiated the process employed a strategy of multiple-linked negotiations in which they attempted to select negotiators from the other organizations and the issues to be negotiated. Stakes were manipulated according to a cost-reward-involvement formula. Problematic issues were dealt with in informal covert negotiations which preceded overt negotiations in a peer type council. Consideration of the negotiation process aids in understanding several problems in interorganizational relations: power and autonomy and the consequences of interlocking directorates. The negotiated order approach suggests several lines of additional research.     

The gender citation gap: Why and how it matters

The weight of evidence suggests that articles written by men and women receive citations at comparable rates. This suggests that research quality or gender-based bias in research evaluation and citing behaviors may not be the reason why academic women accumulate fewer citations than men at the career level. In this article, I outline a career perspective that highlights women's disadvantages in career progression as the root causes for the gender citation gap. I also consider how the gender citation gap may perpetuate the unequal pay between genders in science. My analysis of two different datasets, one including paper and citation information for over 130,000 highly cited scholars during the 1996–2020 period and another including citation and salary information for nearly 2,000 Canadian scholars over the 2014–2019 period, shows several important findings. First, papers written by women on average receive more citations than those written by men. Second, the gender citation gap grows larger with time as men and women progress in their careers, but the opposite pattern holds when research productivity and collaborative networks are considered. Third, higher citations lead to higher pay, and gender differences in citations explain a significant share of the gender wage gap. Findings demonstrate the critical need for more attention toward gender differences in career progression when investigating the causes and solutions for gender disparities in science.     

Sex Differences in Initiation of and Adjustment to Divorce

Men and women for this study were randomly chosen from courthouse divorce files. After initial contact by mail and by phone, those who agreed to participate were mailed questionnaires developed to assess adjustment to divorce and to obtain information about the nature of the divorce. Forty-four percent of those who received questionnaires completed and returned the assessment; the total sample consisted of 133 subjects. A sex difference in decision to separate was found, with both men and women reporting that the decision had been the woman's. Women showed better adjustment than men on a divorce adjustment scale. In addition, women reported significantly fewer suicidal feelings than males. However, males had significantly lower factor scores on the Profile of Mood States for tension and on the Semantic Differential for stability. Other Profile of Mood States and Semantic Differential measures did not reveal significant sex differences.     

Conceptualizing Household Distribution of Labor from Feminist Theory: Why Power Matters in Psychotherapy

ABSTRACT

This article reviews existing literature on unequal distributions of household labor among heterosexual dual-earner marriages in the United States. Specifically, this article summarizes the literature linking women’s continued performance of the majority of household labor to decreased well-being and overall functioning and situates this problem in the context of psychotherapy. Feminist theory is used to conceptualize this topic by exploring the role of equality in women’s relationships with their spouses. This article suggests that although women and men are likely to agree with the basic tenets of equality, few individuals attain this ideal in psychotherapy due to gender-based assumptions that continue to influence the perceptions and behaviors of all people (e.g., clients and psychotherapists alike). Implications for clinical practice and research are discussed.     

Gender,marital status,and mental well‐being: A retest of Bernard's his and her marriages

In The Future of Marriage, Bernard (1972) states that marriage is good for men but not for women: she reports married males to be happier than unmarried males or married women, who in turn are worse off emotionally than single women. The present study tests Bernard's thesis with a multi‐item index of mental well‐being and does not substantiate the relationships stated above. However, marriage is more beneficial for men than for women in that there is a greater difference in mental well‐being between married and unmarried men than women.     

Occupational Stress,Burnout and Job Status in Female Academics

The study investigated perceived occupational stress in a sample of 582 academic staff members working in institutions of higher education in the UK. Data was collected using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach and Jackson 1986), The Job Diagnostic Survey (Hackman and Oldham 1974) and the Faculty Stress Index (Gmelch et al. 1986). The results indicate that women academics perceive the structure and content of their jobs similarly to men. However, women generally experience higher overall levels of stress in their jobs and results indicate that they may cope better with the demands placed upon them than their male counterparts. There is some evidence of the presence of a ‘glass ceiling’ in the institutions studied, with women holding more junior positions, and remaining in them longer, than men. A difference in effect size was found between those women who do achieve senior positions and men in similar posts. Higher grades predict greater job strain for women but not for men. The results from this study suggest fruitful avenues for future research.