“Behind Every Great Man…”: The Male Marriage Wage Premium Examined Qualitatively

Studies across diverse national contexts reliably show that married men earn more than unmarried men, but the mechanisms responsible for this are still disputed. This article explores the male marriage wage premium from a new perspective, using longitudinal qualitative data from Russia (N = 94). Qualitative research is particularly suited to identifying underlying processes and, by analyzing men's accounts of the influence of their marital trajectories on their work, the authors were able to reexamine existing hypotheses and develop new ones. They propose 4 mechanisms that they hypothesize can influence men's work motivation and performance: premarital planning, 2 distinct “breadwinner” effects using expectancy and self determination theory, and monitoring by wives. They integrate these mechanisms within gender theory, arguing that the treatment aspect of the male marriage wage premium is an outcome of the “coproduction” of masculinity within marriage. Their recontextualization of existing theory also enables them to reveal weaknesses in the specialization hypothesis.     

性别话语视角与母亲话语霸权下的无权

性别话语视觉下父权社会所赋予母亲的"主内"话语特权,源于维护父系社会秩序的稳定需要,实则是话语霸权下的无权。母亲的女性性别由男性话语模塑规范而成,充当的仅是男权文化的代言人。女性欲回归真正意义上的女性本性,就必须建构自己的话语体系,且离不开男女两性的平等与和谐。     

论大学教学中的文化意识与文化自觉

大学教师从文化视角出发研究和组织教学,形成文化意识和文化自觉,以文化传承的形式进行课堂教学,有助于激发学生学习课程的兴趣,明显提高教学效果。     

文化自觉：照亮中国基础教育理性化阴影之灯

中国传统基础教育以私塾为形式,人文性的四书五经为其内容。清末民初,私塾为理性化的班级授课制所取代,这是理性在教育领域的第一次胜利;近十年来,基础教育集中于乡镇以上学校,村小学被拆并,乡镇初中日渐缩减,农村教育资源被抽空,这是理性在教育领域的进一步扩张。理性化带有形式合理而实质不合理的悖论特质。基础教育之理性化带来高效益的同时,也导致文化意识与价值观念越来越淡漠。目前,较为富强的中国社会也越发意识到,文化归宿之于中国人安身立命以及社会的可持续发展的价值所在。克服教育理性化阴影,在于文化的再植入。故而,面对教育理性化,亟待嵌入文化意识,须将本土文化嵌入基础教育之中以避免教育的无根性。     

Class, gender and time poverty: a time-use analysis of British workers' free time resources

Free time, that is, the time that remains at one's own discretion after conducting daily work and personal care activities, has been previously recognized as a 'primary good' and an important welfare resource that provides opportunities for participation in social life and leisure. However, recent years have witnessed an increasing preoccupation with the phenomenon of time poverty, drawing attention to the distribution of free time and its relationship to structural and family circumstances. In this article we propose a novel approach to the measurement of time poverty and document its occurrence amongst British workers. In line with previous literature, a conceptualization of time poverty as a relative lack of free time resources vis-à-vis other members of the community is adopted. However, unlike previous empirical studies, we investigate the differential configuration of time poverty on weekdays and weekend days, alongside indicators of the quality of free time, taking into account insights from theoretical and empirical work within the field of the sociology of time. Our analysis of the 2000 UK Time Use Survey highlights class and gender inequalities that have been missed by previous measurement approaches and demonstrates that, overall, working women experience multiple and more severe free time constraints, which may constitute an additional barrier for their leisure and social participation.     

All Shook Up: Sexuality of Mid- to Later Life Married Couples

The authors integrate theoretical work on the performance of gender with a life course perspective to frame an analysis of in-depth interviews with 17 long-term married couples. The findings indicated that couples' sexual experiences are characterized by change over time, yet that change is shaped by the intersection of gender and age. Midlife couples (ages 50 - 69) were distressed by changes in their sex lives likely because they impede couples from performing gendered sexuality. The source of this distress stems from age-related physical changes; however, it manifests in different ways for husbands and wives. In contrast, later life couples (ages 70 - 86) were more likely to emphasize the importance of emotional intimacy over sex as they age. Marital sex is a source of conflict for many midlife couples because of husbands' and wives' incongruent experiences, but later life husbands and wives tend to have more congruent experiences of marital sex.     

Jackpot? Gender Differences in the Effects of Lottery Wins on Separation

In this study, information on small to modest lottery wins from the British Household Panel Survey (N = 2,563) was used to investigate the effect of income on separation. The analysis demonstrated that money matters within relationships. Lottery wins temporarily reduced the odds of separation after men won. Men spent more on leisure and became more satisfied with their leisure time and social lives after winning. Nevertheless, most of the effect of lottery wins on union stability was not mediated by changes in satisfaction; instead, a direct effect of wins on the threshold to leave relationships was observed. No effect on union stability was found when women won. Women did not spend their winnings on leisure time but instead saved or spent money on durable items. These types of spending did not increase satisfaction. The findings suggested that, within families, men acted relatively independently, whereas the behavior of women was more family oriented.     

Intersectional Identities and Conceptions of the Self: The Experience of Transgender People

Transgender people in the United States change genders in relation to androcentric, heterocentric, and middle‐class whitenormative cultural narratives. Drawing on ethnographic data primarily with transgender people of color, I analyze the ways in which gender, race, social class, and sexuality all combine to create specific background identities – intersected identity frames – which others attribute in interaction. We can better understand these intersected identity frames through the experiences of transgender people, who actively engage in identity management. The meanings others attach to specific combinations are foregrounded in the context of transitioning; some audiences employ dominant, white cultural narratives, while others draw upon ethnic cultural narratives. In all cases, transitioning throws the multi‐dimensionality of intersected identity frames into sharp relief against the background of intersecting social and cultural structural arrangements.     

Believing Not Seeing: A Blind Phenomenology of Sexed Bodies

Vision plays a privileged role in social interaction and the construction of intersubjective reality. Given that one of sociology's tasks is to problematize the taken for granted, research that examines rarely foregrounded non‐visual modes of sensory perception is a powerful resource. This article draws on twenty‐seven interviews that explore blind people's perceptions of male and female bodies. I highlight several distinctive features of non‐visual sex attribution (salience, speed, and diachronicity), and argue that conceptions of sex as “self‐evident” primarily reflect visual perception. These findings suggest the need to explore the sociology of perception as a new approach to the sociology of the body, and more broadly highlight the role of sensory perception in the social construction of reality.     

‘It's a macho thing,innit?’ Exploring the effects of masculinity on career choice and development

Through the analysis of qualitative data of the life stories of ten male returners to further education this article aims to support and develop some of the ideas presented in Gender, Work & Organization by both Simpson in 2005 and Lupton in 2006 on men in non‐traditional occupations. I employ the notion of multiple masculinities to understand my cohort's careers and demonstrate that over time early socialization can be overcome so that some men can make non‐stereotypical career decisions later in life. In offering an explanation as to why this might be the case, I argue that in late modernity some men can actively choose non‐traditional occupations, albeit within a gendered and classed labour market. I also offer insights into male identity in late modernity.