Mapping the literature on child marriage: A critical engagement

U.S. “child marriage”—marriage including at least one person under the age of 18—is legal and practiced in 44 states. In this article, I map the existing literature on child marriage and offer insights on how child marriage can expand our sociological understandings of marriage, gender inequality, and youth sexualities. Social scientists have almost exclusively focused on child marriage in the Global South at the expense of understanding child marriage in the Global North, which I argue reinforces racist and xenophobic narratives that cast child marriage as a non-Western social problem. The research on U.S. child marriage that does exist focuses on the consequences, rather than the causes, of child marriage, which may shift focus away from a structural understanding of how intersecting inequalities shape girls' likelihood of getting married as minors. I position a sociology of U.S. child marriage at the intersection of sociological understandings of marriage and gender inequality and critical research on youth sexualities. I conclude by calling for intersectional research on U.S. child marriage that builds on these literatures, examining how girls' sexualities are racialized, gendered, and classed within the institution of marriage.     

Exist or exit? Women business‐owners in Bangladesh during COVID‐19

Within the unique context of COVID‐19, this feminist research provides novel insights on how gender‐specific issues are articulated in the experiences of women concerning their small businesses in a patriarchal developing nation. Based on the interviews of women business‐owners in Bangladesh, this research reveals the diversified gendered experiences of women in private and public spheres in continuing their business operations during the pandemic period. It also unveils patriarchal practices regarding women's discontinuing or closing down ventures due to the COVID‐19 crisis. Thus, the research substantially advances the understanding on the influence of gender on women's continuing or discontinuing or even closing down their businesses in a highly patriarchal developing nation during the pandemic period. It further offers important suggestions for policy practitioners in supporting women business‐owners of patriarchal developing nations during the COVID‐19 pandemic.     

Bringing social policy back in: a look at the Middle East and North Africa

This article examines the evolution of social policy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) during three periods: the post-colonial and oil-boom period, the post-oil period of structural adjustment, and the more recent oil-boom period. Drawing attention to key factors that shaped both social policy and the region's lack of competitiveness during the current global era, the authors argue for a new social development strategy that would put the region back on a growth path, while also recognizing citizen participation and rights.     

分配正义概念解析

分析了分配正义是社会正义的重要内容,对其含义的理解多有分歧,但它们的共同点是都强调分配正义是分配中的恰当性、合理性;指出其实现的关键是找到其中借以分配的原则和标准,在不同社会标准和原则是不同的,这种不同是由各种因素决定的。     

The Window of Ritual: Seeing the Intentions and Emotions of ‘Doing’ Gender

My goal in this paper is to revisit interaction ritual theory as a theoretical underpinning of West and Zimmerman’s ‘doing’ gender paradigm in order to develop a more nuanced understanding of what is taking place inside the interactions of men and women as they ‘do’ gender. Recent work in ritual theory, specifically the work of Bell (Ritual theory, ritual practice, 1992) and Collins (Interaction ritual chains, 2004) expands the role of the individual in the ritual process by conceptualizing ritual as a form of ‘practice’ that can be mobilized in the pursuit of emotional energy. Through the narratives of 24 married couples, I explore how domestic labor functions as an interaction ritual that is driven by ‘emotional energy’. This emotional energy shapes the localized intentions of men and women as they ‘do’ gender thus transforming gender into something that we ‘use’ as well as ‘do’. These emotions and intentions can be seen most clearly through a new ‘window’ of ritual.

论中国特色社会主义的效率与公平统一观

科学地认识和正确处理效率与公平的辩证关系,树立中国特色社会主义的效率与公平统一观,是新世纪新阶段建设社会主义和谐社会进程中一个十分重大而迫切的理论和现实问题。中国特色社会主义的效率观与中国特色社会主义的公平观是辩证的有机统一,只有做到“注重效率与维护公平相统一”,才能够在全社会形成团结互助、平等友爱、共同前进的人际关系,才能保证社会主义市场经济的健康发展,才能全面推进中国特色社会主义建设的伟大事业。     

Corporate Strategy and Gendered Professional Identities: Reorganization and the Struggle for Recognition and Positions

Will decentralization of responsibilities in services give women service workers at the lower levels of the organization better and more ‘professional’ jobs and a recognition of their importance in the organization? This article looks at the valuation of so‐called women's skills in services in reorganization processes involving dehierarchization and decentralization of responsibilities. Through four cases of reorganized private and public services in Norway it is shown that more focus on customers and decentralization of responsibilities for the services may lead to recognition of gendered skills and an improved position for women service workers at the lowest levels of the organization. When the tasks of the workers are closely linked to the core function of the organization and not dominated by the organization's ‘dirty work’, the women at the lowest levels may obtain a more ‘professional’ work role and their work be recognized as important for the organization.     

Are there Gender Differences in the Ethics Judgments of Marketing Managers?

This study found that moral reasoning predicts intention to act in an ethical dilemma, but that this behavior is not modified by gender differences. Fishbein and Ajzen’s Reasoned Action model was used to predict intention to act in ethical dilemmas, while the Kohlberg and Gilligan paradigms of moral reasoning were introduced as exogenous variables. The theory of reasoned action model was found to be a good predictor of intention as hypothesized. Suggestions for further research are included. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Changes in Housework After Retirement: A Panel Analysis

Grounded in family systems theory and based on panel data from the National Survey of Families and Households, this study shows that retirees spend more time with housework both in their own and their partner's domain than do continuously employed spouses. Moreover, husbands and wives spend less time with female chores if their partner retires. The data further reveal that the effect of changes in paid labor on housework time is contingent on the other spouse's employment as well as on gender roles and marital dependence. These findings are consistent with assumptions of interdependence among system parts and the hierarchical nature of transformation rules.