‘Are we to become a gender university?’ Facets of resistance to a gender equality project

Gender equality (GE) is something ‘we cannot not want’. Indeed, the pursuit of equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities for all women and men throughout a society freed from gendered oppression is widely visible in recent organizational GE initiatives. In practice, however, GE initiatives often fail in challenging gendered norms and at effecting deep‐seated change. In fact, GE measures tend to encounter resistance, with a gap between saying and doing. Using a GE project at a Swedish university, we examined the changing nature of reactions to GE objectives seeking to understand why gender inequality persists in academia. We used ‘resistance’ to identify multiple, complex reactions to the project, focusing on the discursive practices of GE. Focusing our contextual analysis on change and changes in reactions enabled a process‐oriented analysis that revealed gaps where change is possible. Thus, we argue that studying change makes it possible to identify points in time where gendered discriminatory norms are more likely to occur. However, analysing discursive practices does not itself lead to change nor to action. Rather, demands for change must start with answering, in a collaborative way, what problem we are trying to solve when we start a new GE project, in order to be relevant to the specific context. Otherwise, GE risks being the captive of consensus politics and gender inequality will persist.     

Unreasonable adjustments: the additional unpaid labour of academics with disabilities

Abstract

Two recent contributions to this section have drawn attention to the barriers which academics with disabilities have to navigate in academia where ableism “is endemic” (Brown and Leigh, 2018 Brown, N & Leigh, J (2018) Abelism in academia? Where are the disabled and ill academics. Disability & Society, 33 (6): 985–989.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]: 4). Hannam-Swain (2018 Hannam-Swain, S (2018) The additional labour of a disabled PhD student. Disability & Society, 33 (1): 138–142.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) highlighted the additional intellectual, emotional and physical labour required of her as a disabled PhD student, and Brown and Leigh (2018 Brown, N & Leigh, J (2018) Abelism in academia? Where are the disabled and ill academics. Disability & Society, 33 (6): 985–989.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) queried “where are all the disabled and ill academics?” However, Brown and Leigh primarily focus on those with invisible “conditions” and the dilemmas raised by disclosure in a context where such conditions negate academic status and credibility. In contrast, since my “disability” is visible, I do not share the dilemma/“luxury” of secrecy. My presence announces my status before me, and this negates my personhood altogether in academic settings. It also places a burden of additional unpaid labour upon me which has significant mental health and career impacts as well as violating principles of equality.     

少数民族高考加分政策的公正性探究

少数民族高考加分政策实施多年,其公正性屡遭质疑,根本原因在于对该政策的根据缺乏深入而系统的认识。事实上,理性约定和平等原则构成其法律基础,循环累积因果论和帕累托最优为其提供经济学上的理论依据,唯有从这两方面厘清该政策的正当性根据,方可消除种种分歧以及在执行和实施过程中的异化和不合理现象。     

International Transfer of Policies and Practices of Gender Equality in Employment to and among Muslim Majority Countries

This article investigates the premise that it is possible to transpose organizational approaches to equal employment opportunity (EEO) from western countries to Muslim majority countries (MMCs). Drawing on policy interviews and documentary evidence from public sector organizations and international development agencies engaged in the promotion of gender equality in Turkey and Pakistan, we question the effectiveness of diffusion of gender equality policies and practices to and among these two MMCs. Our investigation reveals the primacy of context over essence in developing effective ways to construct EEO policies and practices which can be adopted in MMCs.     

Western Liberal Democracy: The Struggle of Muslims for Freedom,Equality and Dignity

The increasingly multicultural fabric of Western liberal democracies has given rise to the issue of the presence of Muslim minorities in the West, as rising hatred and hostility toward Islam and Muslims in the West undermine the three guiding principles of freedom, equality and dignity that underpin the foundation of liberal democracy, human rights and multiculturalism. Today, Muslims in the West struggle for freedom, equality and dignity to ensure their ethnocultural survival and full and equal participation within the mainstream society. Therefore, it would be quite correct to say that the endurance of liberal democracy, human rights and multiculturalism built on the Western civilization depends on the eradication of Western Islamophobia.     

我国农村女性地位的嬗变及其社会心理——性别平等视野下的分析

正是由于人类社会男人与女人两大主体的相辅而行,才有了人类社会的文明进步,但女性在参与社会多种活动中遇到的阻力远远超过男性。影响农村女性地位提高的不仅是经济因素,还有社会心理因素,即文化素质偏低、心理素质较差、政治素质偏低、身体素质欠佳及各种偏见和阻力的存在。国家应从实行倾斜性保护政策、为农村女性创造参与社会的条件和机会、提高农村女性的心理素质等方面,积极营造良好的社会心理氛围,以提高我国农村女性的地位。     

论公平、公正、正义与平等的相互关系

公平、公正、正义和平等的意义相近,它们有着一定的内在联系和相通性,在特定的境况下,甚至可以互换或者交替使用。但从学术研究的角度来看,它们之间在不同的语境、不同的领域中,其适用对象和含义又是有区别的,或者说是各有所侧重。在很多情况下,它们之间更是一个相互缠绕的关系。     

实行民族平等政策的国家行动——20世纪中后期广西的民族识别研究之一

20世纪中后期,在国家的统一部署下,广西开展了民族识别工作,这是贯彻民族平等政策的一次国家行动,它对实施民族区域自治制度,保障各少数民族的平等权利,贯彻落实国家对少数民族的各项优惠政策,增强民族团结,都具有重要意义.     

‘The house belongs to both’: undoing the gendered division of housework

This article studies 28 dual-income Spanish childless couples who were undoing gender in routine domestic work. We understand ‘undoing gender’ as defined by Deutsch [(2007). Undoing gender. Gender & Society, 21, 106–127, p. 122]: ‘social interactions that reduce gender difference’. The dual-earner couples came from different socio-economic backgrounds and were interviewed in four different Spanish towns in 2011. The analysis shows that resources in a wide sense, time availability, external help, ideas about fairness, and complex gender attitudes are key interdependent factors that can weave together to form different configurations leading to a non-mainstream division of housework. All configurations were based on principles of gender equality: some couples found it fair to have a 50/50 division of domestic work, others a 50/50 division of all work (paid and unpaid); and a third group showed conflicts in practice. These couples’ ways of undoing gender illustrate the external, individual, and couple circumstances under which spouses are able to achieve a non-traditional construction of unpaid work.     

The “what” and “who” of co-optation: gendered racialized migrations,settler nation-states and postcolonial difference

In this article, I focus on the management of postcolonial difference and the production of belonging in a white settler nation-state in order to rethink the notion of co-optation. I first develop a theoretical framework for understanding co-optation by separating the “who” and the “what” of co-optation: actors who embody diversity in public, political debate become the “who” of co-optation, as their agency is shaped by gendered and racialized processes of subject making. The “what” of co-optation revolves around particular conceptualizations of practices, rights and freedoms, associated in this case with “gender equality,” which is rendered an empty signifier in the process. I then illustrate this framework by drawing from research on the Sharia-based arbitration debate that took place in Ontario, Canada, between late 2003 and early 2006. I focus on the claims of two Canadian Muslim women activists to show that co-optation occurs as attempts to further liberation instead advance illiberal practices.