Where are the children in home–school relations? Notes towards a research agenda

In this article we unpack the assumptions behind the dominant British research, policy and practice home-school relations consensus that holds parents' involvement and participation in their children's education to be unquestionably necessary and beneficial. It presupposes a one-way relationship between parents and children in which children are implicitly placed as dependent and inert recipients of the decisions and activities of parents and teachers. It does not take account of the impacts of the gender of children and their parents, ethnicity, age or family form. We draw on evidence from a diverse range of sources to show that children do have individual and collective interests and priorities in the process of home-school relations, and that gender is particularly important in this. We argue for research on home-school relations that takes an essentially child-centred approach, treating children as competent informants on diverse aspects of parental involvement in their education.     

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.     

Reproductive health technologies and gender: Is participation the key?

This article discusses the impact of a community-based contraceptive distribution (CBD) project in Eastern Province, Zambia, on reproductive health and gender relations. Participatory learning action techniques with peer groups analysis were used in the evaluation. Both men and women appreciated the modern contraceptives because they were easy to use, free and reliable. The most frequently cited negative effects of contraceptive technologies were menstrual irregularities, infertility, and side effects associated with pill and injectable hormonal methods. Both sexes cited more harmonious marital relations as the most positive impact of the service-delivery component on sexual and gender relations. The impact of involvement in the CBD project on the CBD agents themselves was also assessed. Many felt that their training helped improve gender relations with their marital partners. Participatory approaches can enable providers of reproductive health services to gain a better understanding of their clients' needs.     

Intra-household arrangements: How important are they in terms of male-female subjective well-being?

This paper aims to analyze the impact of different intra-household arrangements, defined in terms of income pooling and decision-making responsibilities, on individual subjective well-being in a number of European countries. Using the EU-SILC 2010 module on intra-household sharing of resources and self-assessed health, as a dimension of subjective well-being, we find that the relationship between self-reported health and family arrangements differs by gender and area of decision. The results provide interesting insights on the potential determinants of individual self-assessed health that go beyond the standard ones. In particular, we identify higher levels of males’ and females’ self-assessed health connected to them controlling or sharing financial decisions. Moreover, males’ self-assessed health is positively linked to female making domestic decisions, and negatively if decisions are of financial type; whereas females’ self-assessed health is positively associated to them taking domestic decisions only in households where incomes are not fully pooled. Thus, our findings might be of help for politicians to design the most effective policies intended to improve individual standards of living and to reduce social inequalities.     

Global Processes, Local Consequences: Gender Equity and Health Sector Reform in Peru

This article brings into relief the gendered tensions and contradictionsthat have resulted from Peru’s neoliberal health sectorreforms. Previous studies were clear that economic adjustmenthad a negative impact on women and gender relations. I showmore nuanced effects of neoliberal policies when applied tohealth sector reforms. To evaluate these policies, I utilizethe distinction between redistribution and recognition. I departfrom the supposition that policies serve either redistributiveor recognition ends and show that single policies can have bothtypes of effects. I conclude that policies based on neoliberalprinciples in some instances have a negative impact on women,in other instances reify existing unequal gender relations,while in still others open up spaces for positive change. Onthe whole, however, neoliberal health reforms have had a negativeimpact on gender equity.     

Group Couples' Intervention to Improve Sexual Health Among Married Women in a Low‐Income Community in Mumbai,India

This article describes the design and implementation of a group couples' intervention focused on improving women's sexual health as a component of a multilevel community, clinical, and counseling intervention project conducted in association with a gynecological service in a municipal urban health center in a low‐income community in Mumbai, India. The group couples' intervention involved four single‐gender and two mixed‐gender sessions designed to address the dynamics of the marital relationship and establish a more equitable spousal relationship as a means to improve women's sexual and marital health. Involvement of men presented a major challenge to couple's participation. For those couples that did participate, qualitative findings revealed significant changes in couple and family relations, sexual health knowledge, and emotional well‐being.     

Ambivalence in the Relationship of Adult Children to Aging Parents and In‐Laws

The concept of ambivalence emphasizes the complexity of family relations and the potential for individuals to evaluate relationships as both positive and negative. Using multilevel models, we investigate ambivalence in adult children's relationships with their aging parents and in‐laws (N= 1,599). We focus on factors predicting adult children's ambivalence toward parents and in‐laws within a gendered kinship structure that shapes these relations. We conclude that ambivalence is a useful concept for representing the complexity of parent‐child relationships and is produced within the context of social relations structured by gender and kinship. Results show greater ambivalence among dyads of women, toward in‐laws, among those in poor health, for daughters providing assistance, and for adult children with poor parental relations in early life.     

Men's Aging Amidst Intersecting Relations of Inequality

Men age under the pressure of age relations and their intersections with such other inequalities as gender, race, class, nation, and sexuality. We review findings of research on masculinity, inequalities, and social gerontology, and argue that a theoretically informed combination of all three offers the best understanding. We theorize that many men are privileged by their claims on occupational niches and family care and that age relations disrupt those privileges. Age relations exacerbate inequalities among men and reverse many claims to high status. Old men find themselves doing more care work, with less recognition, and suffering effects of the activities that had maintained status in younger years. Economic dependency, loss of status, declining health, isolation, and increasing invisibility shape old manhood even as other relations shield many from the lowest status.     

Understanding men's health and illness: a gender-relations approach to policy, research, and practice

Men's health has emerged as an important public concern that may require new kinds of healthcare interventions and increased resources. Considerable uncertainty and confusion surround prevailing understandings of men's health, particularly those generated by media debate and public policy, and health research has often operated on oversimplified assumptions about men and masculinity. A more useful way of understanding men's health is to adopt a gender-relations approach. This means examining health concerns in the context of men's and women's interactions with each other, and their positions in the larger, multidimensional structure of gender relations. Such an approach raises the issue of differences among men, which is a key issue in recent research on masculinity and an important health issue. The gender-relations approach offers new ways of addressing practical issues of healthcare for men in college environments.     

Maternal Health Policies in Countries in Transition: Poland and Kyrgyzstan, 1990–2006

ABSTRACT

Starting with the initiation of democratic and market economic transitions, unsupportive policies concerning women's reproductive health were implemented in Kyrgyzstan and Poland in the period 1990–2006. These policies were expressed by (1) political decisions limiting available funding to support medical practices protecting women's reproductive health, (2) diminishing or restricted dissemination of knowledge about family planning, and (3) the implementation of new contraception and abortion policies. Could these changes be perceived as combat between democratic liberalism, cosmopolitanism, and tolerance versus traditionalism, insularism, and fundamentalism? We use analyses of policies concerning women's reproductive and maternal health to manifest rivalry between economic crisis and the push toward modernity and between traditionalism and liberalism. We demonstrate that the return to traditional gender roles and gender policies, and their practical application expressed in maternal health policies, illustrates cultural backlash toward diffusing Western liberalism in countries in political and economic transition.     

Changing Fatherhood: An Exploratory Qualitative Study with African and African Caribbean Men in England

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study undertaken with 46 African and African Caribbean men exploring their experiences of fatherhood. Data analysis was informed by Connell’s theoretical work on changing gender relations. Findings indicate that fathers’ lives were mediated by masculinities, racism, gender, migration and generational changes in parenting. Fathers advocated a style of parenting centred on good communication with children. The implications of findings for theory, future research and health and social care policy regarding both children’s well‐being and the inclusion of fathers by health and social care practitioners are discussed.     

Cultural Bodies in Bolivia's Gendered Environment

This paper approaches the cultural body as a dynamic nexus of interaction between biophysical factors and diverse social environments in Bolivia. The discussion develops insights from four recent studies that explore the beliefs, practices, and relations that give shape and meaning to sexuality and reproductive health in Bolivia. Visions and voices of women and men with varying sexualities and identities shed critical light on a number of common theoretical assumptions about gender.     

The Power of Older Women and Men in Egyptian and Tunisian Families

We adapt resource theory to compare involvement in family decisions by older women and men in the more patriarchal setting of Egypt and the more egalitarian setting of Tunisia. Data from the World Health Organization Collaborative Study on Social and Health Aspects of Aging are analyzed. In Egypt, women participate less often than men in most decisions, whereas participation is more gender equitable in Tunisia. Increasing age and declining health are negatively associated with participation in daily and life course decisions, particularly for Egyptian women. Although women participate less often than men in life course decisions in Egypt, involvement is more frequent among widows and those owning their homes. Future research should examine the relationship of resources, support, and the family power of older adults across normative contexts.     

The circular migration of Puerto Rican women: towards a gendered explanation

"The purpose of this paper has been to outline a theoretical framework for the explanation of the circulation of Puerto Rican women that brings gender relations to the fore, but frames the island-mainland pattern of mobility in the context of core-periphery capitalist relations. We have argued that gender relations in the home and workplace are vitally important for understanding women's moves to the [United States] and return trips to Puerto Rico. Specifically, we posited that most Puerto Rican women move as tied-migrants or because of their obligation or desire to meet gender responsibilities. In addition, we also viewed migration as an action with the potential to modify gender relations and alter future migration decision-making, as women gain experience in the labour market and exposure to new social and cultural environments." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

The emotional toll of postfeminist fatherhood

Postfeminism shapes the political economy of the workforce and household, constituting a re-entrenchment of traditional heterosexual gender regimes and the pressure to transgress them. Focusing on the understudied area of postfeminist masculinity, we analyze the emotional toll some fathers experience as a result of the fraught expectations to be the breadwinner, nurturing parent, and enlightened feminist spouse who completes equal domestic duties. Using empirical data of parents’ participation in a family-based health intervention, we argue that the paradoxical expectation to enact traditional gender relations and to adopt gender egalitarianism is exhausting, upsetting, and confusing for fathers. By focusing on the affective dimensions of postfeminism, we demonstrate how working to achieve the impossible expectation of doing “it all,” a bind that women have been caught in for centuries, takes an emotional toll on fathers and couples, leading to discontent at work and home, and in regard to their self-concept, parental role, and spousal relationship. We close by offering counter examples of fathers and couples who have disengaged from postfeminist parenting relations and have reached a state of contentment. Contrary to the alignment of postfeminism with positive affect, the experience of resisting postfeminist resulted in feelings of joy, pride, and satisfaction.     

Examining Mental Health Court Completion: A Focal Concerns Perspective

Sociologists have long‐raised concern about disparate treatment in the justice system. Focal concerns have become the dominant perspective in explaining these disparities in legal processing decisions. Despite the growth of problem‐solving courts, little research has examined how this perspective operates in nontraditional court settings. This article used a mixed‐method approach to examine focal concerns in a mental health court (MHC). Observational findings indicate that gender and length of time in court influence the court's contextualization of noncompliance. While discussions of race were absent in observational data, competing‐risk survival analysis finds that gender and race interact to predict MHC termination.     

Violence,rape, and sexual coercion: everyday love in a South African township

This paper presents findings of an anthropological study among pregnant adolescents in Cape Town, South Africa. The inquiry focuses on the sexual dynamics within adolescent relationships. The study reveals widespread male coercion and violence within sexual relationships. Informants describe assault as a regular feature of their relationships. In South Africa, power relations between men and women are commonly manifested as and imposed through sexual violence and assault. Men use physical assault to force sexual contact, beating their female partners if they refuse to have sex, are suspected of sexual infidelity, or are found to be using contraceptives. Moreover, women experience abuse such as gang rape. Yet, health promotion interventions fail to acknowledge sexual encounters as instances in which unequal power relations between men and women are expressed. It is these power relations which determine women's ability or inability to protect themselves against sexually transmitted disease, pregnancy, and unwelcome sexual acts. This study underlines the need to consider gender power issues in the design and impact assessment of HIV/AIDS and reproductive health interventions and in challenging male violence.     

Understanding Men's Health and Illness: A Gender-relations Approach to Policy,Research, and Practice

Abstract

Men's health has emerged as an important public concern that may require new kinds of healthcare interventions and increased resources. Considerable uncertainty and confusion surround prevailing understandings of men's health, particularly those generated by media debate and public policy, and health research has often operated on oversimplified assumptions about men and masculinity. A more useful way of understanding men's health is to adopt a gender-relations approach. This means examining health concerns in the context of men's and women's interactions with each other, and their positions in the larger, multidimensional structure of gender relations. Such an approach raises the issue of differences among men, which is a key issue in recent research on masculinity and an important health issue. The gender-relations approach offers new ways of addressing practical issues of healthcare for men in college environments.     

Managing Migration,Managing Motherhood: The Moral Economy of Gendered Migration

For the past two decades, women have been migrating from Mexico to the United States on temporary work visas to pick meat from blue crabs in small coastal factories. Within a theoretical framework that argues for the relevance of a moral economic perspective to gendered migration, we examine the how participating in this migration influences migrants' families, including their abilities to produce higher‐quality lives. Specifically, we focus on the various factors that feed into the decision to migrate, the immediate consequences of those decisions for the relations among migrants, children, spouses and other family and community members, and the longer‐term consequences in terms of gender relations, the restructuring of parent–child relationships and the material benefits of work abroad. We find that women negotiate a variety of contradictions and paradoxes to participate in the programme, many of which directly influence their quest to reaffirm their abilities, as mothers, to produce quality human beings. These findings reflect more general global appeals for valuing human life by measures other than those of conventional political economy.     

A relational approach to social impact: Moving beyond instrumental and consumer approaches

Social impact can be understood as the real or perceived, intended or unintended, relational and agentic consequences that emerge from organizational decisions or actions for individuals, communities, and societies. Inherent here is the recognition that social impact aligns with consequences, whether it be on individuals, communities, and societies, and that these consequences stem from organizational decisions and behaviors. Drawing on wider social impact scholarship, this paper identifies two approaches—instrumental and consumer—that have provided lenses on how organizations make decisions about social impact and related consequences, and the level of involvement stakeholders have in these decisions. This paper proposes that the understanding of social impact should evolve to reflect the relational worldview advocated in the public relations discipline, which is one that emphasizes the importance of organizations, individuals, and communities contributing to a fully functioning society. A relational lens shows that social impact can be understood as changes—whether they be intended or unintended, anticipated or unanticipated, positive or negative—in the way people live, experience, sustain, and function within their society, resulting from organizational decisions and consequent behaviors as co-determined by organizations and their stakeholders. The relational approach requires the adoption of a relational perspective on identifying, predicting, evaluating, managing, and reporting on social impact, operationalized via the seven-step Relational Framework of Social Impact conceptualized in this paper. While social impact is a relatively new term in the public relations literature, this paper highlights how public relations scholarship is well placed to enrich the social impact discipline due its emphasis on fostering a fully functioning society.