Promoting resilience and emotional well-being of transgender young people: research at the intersections of gender and sexuality

Within lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) research there is increasing health-related scholarship on trans lives, with a growing awareness of the impact of health inequalities on trans well-being. The aim of the paper is to provide greater understanding of transgender young people’s views of what is needed to promote their emotional well-being and resilience by undertaking specific analysis of data collected as part of wider research with young people (n?=?97). The study utilised participatory qualitative methods with a cross sectional design generating data via a focus group with trans youth (n?=?5), followed by thematic analysis. Findings suggest that both individual and collective capacities or resources enable and sustain resilience and well-being for trans young people. The adversity trans youth face is present in school, the community and in healthcare, but they are able to find places where they feel safe and connected to others. Practitioners, teachers and school nurses are well positioned to facilitate structural change in alliance with trans youth to promote resilience. Research results were utilised to inform health improvement, commissioning and service delivery.     

Policing “conjugal order”: gender,hybridity and vernacular security in Fiji

ABSTRACT

This article develops a feminist critique of debate on hybrid forms of governance in global politics by demonstrating the gendered implications (and limitations) of hybridized approaches to security provision. The conceptual approach that frames my enquiry puts arguments advancing the benefits of multilayered and hybridized security into dialogue with ethnographic enquiry on “vernacular” security and feminist study of “conjugal order.” I contend that this conceptual approach is particularly productive for examining the gendered policing outcomes that can be produced in environments where vernacular influences – customary and religious – inflect prevailing idioms of security and order. To further defend this claim, I apply this conceptual approach to a case study of gender and policing in Fiji. Although there has been a strong state rhetoric of progressive reform on gender policy in this context, efforts to reform policing have been hamstrung by longstanding customary and religious discourses that emphasize the defense of conjugal norms as foundational to the achievement of order and safety. I show how this scenario has encouraged a practical policing of gender and sexuality that is restrictive for women generally and may expose particular groups of women to direct forms of insecurity and violence.     

Becoming Missionaries: Gender,Space and Subjectivities in Chinese Christian Communities in the UK

In recent years, single young women and married couples migrating from mainland China have constituted a prominent group engaging in ministry careers among Chinese Christian communities in the UK. By investigating how they construct meaning out of their career choices that were entangled in the binaries and contradictions of the past/present, home/diaspora, public/private, men/women and family/self, this study explores the complexity of gender, Christianity and space in a (late) socialist Chinese case, thereby revealing the paradoxical subjectivities of these Chinese ministers. The idea is advanced that apart from a structural demand for clergies from mainland China, the complex interaction between traditional, (late) socialist and Christian gender ideologies has also affected their choices. The interaction works as a ‘transformative mechanism’ which creates a new moral order in terms of gender relations, family relations and work ethics. The new order incurs a patriarchal backlash against women in this group as well as empowering them. This research explores an interesting relationship between feminism, socialism and Christianity.     

Being Brave: Negotiating the Path of Social Transition With a Transgender Child in Foster Care

ABSTRACT

A literature review of treatment guidelines regarding children and adolescents with gender dysphoria culminates in consideration of two models: the gender affirmative model and the multidimensional family model. A single case study of a child in foster care in the United Kingdom, from the age of seven to eleven, illustrates the process of social transitioning from the assigned gender to the true gender self. The role of the context of the child in facilitating the process of social transition in the form of school, family, local authority, and the National Health Service is highlighted. Professionals working with gender nonconforming and gender-dysphoric children are encouraged to consider social transitioning as a viable option.     

从男性中心到男女两性中心——对“社会性别意识纳入决策主流”的批判性分析

随着女性解放运动的深入全面推进,"社会性别"这个概念已经深深地嵌入了主流理论之中,与此同时,作为一种实践上的有益探索,"社会性别意识纳入决策主流"逐渐成为世界性的共识.本文深入探讨了社会性别主流化的基本理念,同时,分别从目标、策略、路径、社会支持网络等多方面进行了具体探索,最终将目标指向超越狭隘的女性主义范畴,从而重构新型的性别关系.     

"雄化女性"、文化身份及其他——兼谈木兰故事的东西方演绎

"替父从军"的木兰题材,是跟"女性自强"、"男女平等"之类话题相联系的,将木兰塑造成"充满阳刚之气"的巾帼英雄形象,原本就是古代东方木兰故事的题中固有之义,在中国女性文化史上无疑具有正面价值和积极意义。同时,借"女扮男装"表达女性理想的木兰文本,它终归不过是一种攀借男权话语(扮男)以谋求女性权利的错位话语形式,也有其命定的局限性。木兰故事这一东方题材经过西方文化的娱乐化包装,将木兰处理成了个既食人间烟火又顽皮可爱的女孩,以种种世俗气息浓厚的搞笑情节取乐大众。并获得了巨大成功,这的确是跨文化传播中饶有意味并值得我们深思的现象。但对于西方人将中国人的文化身份"解读为女性的"的观点,大可不必感到敏感,甚至一味拒绝。     

农村丧偶老年女性贫困原因的社会学分析

随着我国老龄化程度的加深、城乡人口的流动以及传统养老观念的变迁,中国农村老年人贫困问题凸显。而由于贫困女性化的存在,农村老年人的贫困,又主要体现在农村老年女性特别是丧偶老年女性身上。为了探究农村丧偶老年女性贫困的原因,笔者申请了中央高校专项资金资助项目,深入实地进行调查访谈,从宏观、中观和微观三个层面揭示了她们的致贫原因并提出相应对策建议。     

性别和谐的历史发展与时代追寻

性别和谐是社会发展的永恒追求,随着社会发展性别和谐呈现动态的发展过程。人类社会的性别和谐经历了人的依赖性时代群体本位的＂依赖的和谐＂、人的独立性时代个人本位的＂独立的和谐＂和人的自由个性时代类本位的＂自由的和谐＂三个阶段。现代社会,性别和谐的意涵是在超越男女平等的基础上所体现的性别公正,在尊重性别差异前提下所呈现的性别和谐,追求丰富人性过程中所表达的性别个性。     

Do ‘soft law’ board gender quotas work? Evidence from a natural experiment

In a new era of “open governance”, in which societal and corporate change is taking place, 15 predominantly European countries, including Spain, enacted board gender quotas to increase the share of women on boards. In this paper, we explore the effectiveness of the European Union’s first “soft” quota – the 2007 Spanish Gender Equality Act recommending all large public and private Spanish firms to appoint a target of 40 percent of each gender to serve as board directors by 2015. The Act provides an incentive in that quota compliant firms may receive a preference for the tendering of public contracts. We draw on institutional and resource dependency theories to motivate the first empirical test of a “soft” quota which is distinct from Norway’s “hard law” board gender quota, and more similar to the proposed EU-wide quota. Using a large novel panel of 767 Spanish firms and 2786 firm-year observations from 2005 to 2014, we exploit the Spanish Act as a natural experiment and employ a difference-in-differences model. We find that less than nine percent of targeted firms fully comply with the quota. Firms that depend on public contracts are significantly more likely to increase female representation, although quota compliant firms do not actually benefit from the Act’s potential incentive. The results highlight the Spanish government’s lack of commitment to the quota, and that the quota’s normative obligations did not trigger the adoption of gender-balanced boards.