Inhalt: Feminist street art aims to transform patriarchal spaces into places of gendered resistance by asserting a feminist presence in the city. Considering this, as well as women’s social life, their struggle against lingering forces of patriarchy, and relating features of inequality (domestic violence), there was a feminist installation artwork by the young Kurdish artist Tara Abdulla that shook the city of Sulaimani in Iraqi Kurdistan on 26 October 2020. She had prepared a 4,800‐meter‐long washing line covered with the clothes of 99,678 Kurdish women who were survivors of sexual and gender‐based violence. They installed it along the busiest street of the city (Salim Street). She used this piece of feminine to express her reaction to the Kurdish society regarding, the abuse that goes on silently, behind closed doors. She also aimed towards normalizing women’s bodies. After the installation, she received many controversial reactions. As her artwork was a pioneering project in line with feminist issues in Kurdistan which preoccupied the city for quite a while, the aim of this article is to investigate the diverse effects of her work on the current dialogue regarding gender inequality in the Kurdish society. To do this, we used the research method of content analysis on big data (Facebook comments) to investigate the public reactions of a larger number of locals. The Feminine effectively exposed some of the deep‐rooted cultural, religious, and social barriers in addressing gender inequalities and silent sexual violence issues in the modern Kurdish patriarchal society.
Schlagwörter:öffentlicher Raum; public space; Kunstwerk; work of art; Feminismus; feminism; soziale Ungleichheit; social inequality; gender-specific factors; woman; Kurdistan; Kurdistan; Facebook reactions; Sulaimani; feminist street art; gender inequalities dialogue
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Kultursoziologie, Kunstsoziologie, Literatursoziologie
Educational attainment and gender differences in work-life balance for couples across Europe: a contextual perspective
Autor/in:
Kromydas, Theocharis
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 4, S 8-22
Inhalt: The current article aims to explain the interrelationships between the educational attainment of individuals living in households with heterosexual partners, their work–life balance (WLB) and the macro-economic climate of the country they live in, using data from the European Social Survey. WLB is a complex concept, as it is not only determined by factors related to someone’s employment or domestic work and childcare responsibilities, but also by decisions informed by personal experiences and circumstances, subjective perceptions and preferences. Moreover, in households with cohabiting partners, this decision-making process involves certain compromises where financial incentives, interests, gender and power dynamics play an important role. Since educational attainment is positively related to labour market outcomes, such as employment and wages, while at the same time more women are participating in education and the labour market, the gender conflict on the division of work and time within households intensifies and traditional gender roles are challenged. WLB is at the heart of this conflict operating as a mechanism through which division of work and time is reconciled on the individual and household level. Results from the current article reveal great heterogeneity between the 17 European countries examined. Perhaps surprisingly, educational attainment can have a detrimental effect on the WLB of spouses and cohabiting partners, especially for women whose level of WLB seems also more sensitive to fluctuations of the macro-economic climate of the country they live in. However, there is an indication that when an economy goes into recession, higher education has a cushioning effect on female’s WLB compared to relatively better economic times.
Transitions and Conflicts: Reexamining Impacts of Migration on Young Women’s Status and Gender Practice in Rural Shanxi
Autor/in:
Yang, Lichao; Ren, Xiaodong
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 2, S 58-67
Inhalt: This article explores impacts of migration on young women’s status and gender practice in rural northern China. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a village in Shanxi Province, it suggests that rural-urban migration has served partially to reconstruct the traditional gender-based roles and norms in migration families. This reconstructive force arises mainly from the changes of the patrilocal residence pattern and rural women’s acquisition of subjectivity during the course of migration. However, after migrant women return to their home villages, they usually reassume their roles as care providers and homemakers, which is vividly expressed by a phrase referring to one’s wife as ‘the person inside my home’ (wo jiali de). Meanwhile, although migrant women’s capacity and confidence have greatly increased consequent upon working out of the countryside, their participation in village governance and in the public sphere has been decreasing. Further examination suggests that the reinforcement of gender inequality and the transformation of gender relations result from the continuous interplay of local power relations, market dominance, and unchallenged patrilocal institutions. Through adopting a life course perspective, it challenges too strict a differentiation between migrant and left behind women in existing literature.
Schlagwörter:China; China; Landbevölkerung; rural population; Patriarchat; patriarchy; gender-specific factors; woman; Ethnographie; ethnography; Feldforschung; field research; Stadt-Land-Beziehung; city-country relationship; Geschlechtsrolle; gender role; traditionelle Gesellschaft; traditional society; Geschlechterverhältnis; gender relations; gender relations; migration; patriarchy; rural Chinese women
Left Behind? The Status of Women in Contemporary China
Autor/in:
Walker, Robert; Millar, Jane
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 2, S 1-9
Inhalt: The status of women in China has deteriorated markedly since 2006 relative to other countries, according to the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Index. Taking a longer view, the position of women has greatly improved since the founding of the People’s Republic of China but, after the ‘opening up’ of the economy, the logic of the market and the legacy of patriarchy have worked to the detriment of women. After briefly reviewing trends in China’s economic, demographic and social development, this editorial follows the structure of the thematic issue in focusing on the processes which may have caused women to slip behind. Socio-economic and political factors are considered first before focusing on the impact of unprecedently large scale migration. The circumstances and experiences of women ‘left outside’ mainstream society are explored next before reflecting on the lives of women left behind in poverty.
Schlagwörter:China; China; woman; sozialer Status; social status; sozioökonomische Entwicklung; socioeconomic development; gender-specific factors; soziale Ungleichheit; social inequality; Patriarchat; patriarchy; politische Faktoren; political factors; Migration; migration; Erwerbstätigkeit; gainful employment; China; economic development; employment; family; gender; marketisation; migration; patriarchy; poverty; women
Women in China Moving Forward: Progress, Challenges and Reflections
Autor/in:
Yang, Juhua
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 2, S 23-35
Inhalt: While China's socialist revolution has been credited with improving the status of women, gender inequality remains. Drawing on macro data, this article provides an overview of gender equality in China, focusing on labor force and political participation in the past 70 years, particularly since 1978, the onset of socioeconomic reform. Specifically, the article describes, compares, and examines the progress and challenges that women face in accessing economic opportunities and political resources. We find a more equal relationship between male and female when resources are relatively adequate, but that females are disadvantaged when resources are scarce, for example, including representation in more prestigious occupations, higher income, and political positions. These findings illustrate how inequality is maintained and reproduced, and suggest that despite China’s progressive socialist agenda, its gender revolution remains 'stalled.'
Schlagwörter:China; China; soziale Ungleichheit; social inequality; gender-specific factors; woman; Erwerbsbeteiligung; labor force participation; politische Partizipation; political participation; Gleichstellung; affirmative action; historische Entwicklung; historical development; Geschlechterverhältnis; gender relations; Benachteiligung; deprivation; Ostasien; Far East
Beyond Sex/Work: Understanding Work and Identity of Female Sex Workers in South China
Autor/in:
Ding, Yu
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 2, S 95-103
Inhalt: While scholars and activists often advocate using the term ‘sex worker’ in preference to prostitute, in my research I found that female prostitutes in the Pearl River Delta area, south China, do not like to be addressed as such, and prefer the title xiaojie in Chinese. ‘Sex worker’ generalises the heterogeneity of meanings these women identify and attribute to what they do; it does not capture the complex cultural meanings involved in the term xiaojie. It is stigmatising in that what is exchanged within the transaction is less defined by sexual acts and more by a diversified range of activities. The women employ what is useful to them and infuse new meanings in it to construct gender images and identities to resist the sex worker stigma and to express their desires as rural-to-urban migrants. Using xiaojie becomes a destigmatising and gender tactic. I also found that the women discard the idea of finding alternative jobs partly because of the practical difficulty, and partly because they do not want to work (gongzuo) any more in the future. This study highlights the importance of exploring desire and agency to understand the lived experiences of this particular group of women.
Schlagwörter:China; China; woman; Prostitution; prostitution; Stigmatisierung; stigmatization; Gender; gender; Ostasien; Far East; South China; desire; destigmatisation; sex worker
Falling behind the Rest? China and the Gender Gap Index
Autor/in:
Chen, Binli; He, Hailan
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 2, S 10-22
Inhalt: China’s rank falling in the Global Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum has aroused the domestic scholar’s controversy. Based on the data provided by the Global Gender Gap Report, this article will describe the gender inequality in China by comparing its overall index scores and scores in the fields of economic participation and opportunity, education attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment with other countries, and then examining the reasons for China’s falling in rank through the score changes of sub-dimensions and indicators. Analysis of the data suggests that China has not kept up with the rate of improvement in the overall index, and in the four fields, compared to the original 112 countries, the upper-middle income countries, and the Asian and Pacific countries. Over the 13 years covered by the report, China’s score experienced a rapid improvement from 2006 to 2009 and a decline after 2013. China’s high sex ratio at birth, further expansion of gender inequality in active life expectancy, and an enlarged gender gap in secondary education caused China’s lagging overall score and ranking. In addition, the inclusion of measures such as secondary education enrollment, political empowerment, and other indicators also led to the backward ranking of China to some extent.
Schlagwörter:China; China; Ungleichheit; inequality; gender-specific factors; Geschlechterverhältnis; gender relations; Ostasien; Far East; gender gap
Implications of digital inclusion: digitalization in terms of time Use from a gender perspective
Autor/in:
Arroyo, Lidia
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 2, S 180-189
Inhalt: The implications of digital technologies for the transformation of gender relations and identities have been discussed since the early days of the internet. Although gender studies have identified clear gender gaps in terms of digital inclusion as well as potentialities for the transformation of women’s subjectivity, there is a lack of empirical evidence of the impact of digitalization in terms of time use from a gender perspective. Public policies have begun to address the digital gender gap, but the incorporation of a gender perspective in digital inclusion programmes which promotes women’s emancipation by challenging the gender division of time through use of the internet has been not incorporated in the digital policies agenda. This article aims to provide empirical evidence of the mutual interrelation between the time allocation and digital inclusion from a gender perspective. It considers how gender inequalities in time use shape women’s experience of digital inclusion and, at the same time, how digital inclusion promotes the reconfiguration of time in women’s everyday lives. Qualitative analysis based on episodic interviews explored the representations and practices of internet use by women in their everyday lives. The sample was made up of 32 women who were digitally included through a lifelong learning programme in Spain and had experienced the effects of the Spanish economic crisis. The article argues that digital inclusion does not automatically lead to a more egalitarian allocation of time use for women, but rather places greater value on women’s free time.
Schlagwörter:Digitalisierung; digitalization; Technologie; technology; Geschlechterverhältnis; gender relations; Ungleichheit; inequality; Internet; Internet; Inklusion; inclusion; Arbeitsteilung; division of labor; Zeit; time; Nutzung; utilization; digital gender gap; digital inclusion; gender division of labour; gender inequalities
"Mummy is in a call": digital technology and executive women's work-life balance
Autor/in:
Nagy, Beáta
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 4, S 72-80
Inhalt: Research findings confirm the contradictory impact of mobile technology on work–life balance, as these tools both guarantee greater flexibility and contribute to blurring boundaries between private and working spheres. Several articles have been published on women executives’ work–life balance in Western countries; however, their usage of mobile devices remained almost unexplored in the post-socialist region, where in the wake of the transformation not only the unquestioned neoliberal change of the corporate sector but also refamilisation took place. This article gives an overview on the issue of how women executives make use of mobile technology during their everyday activities in Hungary, where not only are the signs of ‘corporate colonization’ present, but also motherhood plays an important role. Based on twenty semi-structured interviews with Hungarian women in senior management positions carried out in 2014 and 2015, the article discusses the perceptions and narratives explained by these women. Results contribute to the ongoing debate on the paradoxical impacts of modern technology on work–life balance and its specificities in the post-socialist context.
Schlagwörter:woman; gender; Mutterschaft; motherhood; neue Technologie; new technology; Technologie; technology; Arbeit; labor; Führungsposition; executive position; Familie-Beruf; work-family balance; Ungarn; Hungary; Interview; interview; boundary management; executive women; technology use
SSOAR Kategorie:Berufsforschung, Berufssoziologie, Technikfolgenabschätzung, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
Work-Family Arrangement and Conflict: Do Individual Gender Role Attitudes and National Gender Culture Matter?
Autor/in:
Bornatici, Christina; Heers, Marieke
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 4, S 46-60
Inhalt: This article examines the relationship between couples' work-family arrangement and individuals' perceived work–family conflict (WFC), considering individuals’ attitudes towards gender roles and national gender culture in 37 countries (N = 15,114). Previous research has shown that WFC depends on work and family demands and has mostly accounted for absolute time spent in paid and domestic work. We hypothesize that WFC depends on couples' work-family arrangement in terms of time spent in paid, domestic and care work. We further expect that the relationship between couples' work-family arrangement and WFC depends on individuals' gender attitudes and national gender culture. To test these assumptions, we use the ISSP-2012 data and apply multilevel linear regression analyses. The findings indicate that an egalitarian work-family arrangement - that is, sharing paid, domestic and care work equally with one's partner - is associated with lower levels of WFC. Moreover, individuals with egalitarian gender attitudes and an egalitarian work-family arrangement experience less WFC than individuals with inconsistent attitudes and behaviours. Individuals with consistent traditional attitudes and behaviours experience the most conflict. Finally, a more egalitarian gender culture relates to less WFC. Cross-level interactions indicate that the relationship between work-family arrangement and WFC is not mediated by countries' gender culture.
Schlagwörter:Familie-Beruf; work-family balance; Geschlechtsrolle; gender role; gender-specific factors; Arbeitsteilung; division of labor; Hausarbeit; housework; Betreuung; care; allein erziehender Elternteil; single parent; soziale Ungleichheit; social inequality; kulturelle Faktoren; cultural factors; internationaler Vergleich; international comparison; care work; couple dynamics; gender culture; gender role; work–family arrangement; work–family conflict; ISSP 2012
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Familiensoziologie, Sexualsoziologie
