„Mit Geschlecht hat das aber nichts zu tun“ : Über die Schwierigkeiten von Professorinnen, über Geschlecht (nicht) zu sprechen
Autor/in:
Paulitz, Tanja; Wagner, Leonie
Quelle: GENDER (GENDER – Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft), 15 (2023) 2, S 117–131
Inhalt: Historisch wie aktuell finden sich in Interviews mit Professorinnen Konstruktionen von Geschlechtsneutralität, mit denen sie versuchen, die Widersprüche zu bearbeiten, die sich aus der Meritokratienorm der Wissenschaft und gleichstellungspolitischen Versprechungen einerseits und alltäglichen Erfahrungen in der Hochschule andererseits ergeben. In einer aktuellen qualitativen Untersuchung an Hochschulen (Universitäten, Hochschulen für angewandte Wissenschaften, Kunst- und Musikhochschulen) wurden erstmals seit den 1980er-Jahren Erzählungen von Professor:innen über alltägliche Erfahrungen bzw. deren Einordnung in eine vergeschlechtlichte Organisationskultur analysiert. Zentraler Befund ist die regelmäßige und proaktive Dethematisierung von Geschlecht als relevanter Faktor für erfahrene Marginalisierungen. Diese Aussagen werden im vorliegenden Beitrag nicht als nahtlose Deskription einer heute erreichten Geschlechtsegalität gedeutet, sondern als Praktiken der Bürgschaft für eine vermeintlich erreichte geschlechterneutrale Hochschule sowie als eigene Statussicherung auf der Position als Professorin und meritokratisch anerkannte Leistungsträgerin.
Both historically and currently, interviews with women professors reveal constructions of gender neutrality with which they try to work through the contradictions that arise from the meritocratic norm of science and equality policy promises on the one hand and everyday experiences in higher education on the other. In a recent qualitative study conducted at higher education institutions (universities, universities of applied sciences, art and music academies) professors’ narrations about everyday experiences and their placement within a gendered organizational culture were analysed for the first time since the 1980s. The key finding is the regular and proactive de-thematization of gender as a relevant factor in experienced marginalization. In this article, these statements are not interpreted as a seamless description of that gender equality that has been achieved to date, but as practices that vouch for a supposedly achieved gender-neutral university and that serve to protect one’s status as women professors and meritocratically recognized high achievers.
Intersectional barriers to women’s advancement in higher education institutions rewarded for their gender equity plans
Autor/in:
Crimmins, Gail; Casey, Sarah; Tsouroufli, Maria
Quelle: Gender & Education, (2023) , S 1–18
Inhalt: This paper reports on a research project designed to understand the work experiences and career opportunities of people working in higher education institutions (HEIs) across the UK, which received formal recognition for supporting gender equity between 2015 and 2020. The findings reveal multiple intersecting barriers to women’s full engagement, inclusion, support and career success in higher education, despite the implementation of organization-based gender equity plans, and institutional inter/national recognition for advancing equity. Most axes of de/privilege that are based along lines of gender, race, ethnicity and religion are enacted as everyday sexism that resist gender equality policy. Moreover, our findings suggest that ‘place’ is a constitutive element of intersectional dis/advantage, not merely a context within which compounded barriers to inclusion and advancement may exist. In addition, the findings demonstrate that whilst inter-categorical intersectionality is based on the notion that all social categories (such as age, race and gender) are equally salient, the degree of importance of any category will likely depend on location or context of the phenomena being examined. Our findings therefore invite further, iterative and translocational research into the impacts of the intersections of gender, ethnicity, race and religion in spaces of higher education, particularly those with colonial legacies and presence.
Schlagwörter:Athena SWAN; career development; gender equality plan; gender equality policy; Gleichstellungsplan; Gleichstellungspolitik; Great Britain; higher education; Hochschule; intersectionality; microaggression; Organisation; sexism; spatial analysis; UK
Academic women’s silences in Iran: exploring with positioning theory
Autor/in:
Lotfi Dehkharghani, Leila; Menzies, Jane; Suri, Harsh
Quelle: Gender & Education, (2023) , S 1–18
Inhalt: In this paper, we seek to understand the complexity of women outside ‘the centre’ of scholarship by exploring women’s silences in an Iranian University. Building on a framework of external and internal silencing and positioning theory, we analyse in-depth interviews with 15 women and five men from an Iranian University. Using inductive and deductive approaches to data analysis, we find that women's silences are influenced by their positioning due to constraining forces stemming from the political and societal environment as well as their own perceptions of self. We find prevalent storylines rooted in the broader patriarchal Muslim society, sexist cultural norms and unjust laws in Iran that reify women’s oppressed position, exclusion, and silence within the academic workplace. Manifesting through socialization processes and stereotypical perceptions of gender roles, these prevalent storylines silence academic women and position them to be silent. We identify emerging emancipatory storylines that foster women’s positioning from being silenced to being heard.
Schlagwörter:academic work; exclusion; Interview; Iran; muslim woman; Norm; positionality; qualitative method; silencing; women
CEWS Kategorie:Europa und Internationales, Hochschulen, Geschlechterverhältnis
Making choices but few changes: the discourse of choice and mothers working in research and innovation
Autor/in:
Ikonen, Hanna-Mari; Korvajärvi, Päivi
Quelle: Gender & Education, (2023) , S 1–16
Inhalt: Based on the identification of the discourse of choice in debates on neoliberalism, meritocracy and post-feminism, this article analyses how highly educated mothers position themselves within the discourse of choice and use choice as their discursive resource when reflecting on how their demanding careers combine with motherhood. The data come from 26 interviews with mothers employed in research and innovation in Finland. The analysis reveals five ways in which the mothers positioned themselves within the discourse of choice. It appears these ways are all based on, and produce, the moral primacy of individual self-governance. We treat this as a demonstration of how neoliberalism is internalized and lived. Furthermore, the results show that an egalitarian welfare society whose policies support work–childcare reconciliation does not remove the need to use the individualistic discourse of choice. We suggest that this could be changed by voicing the challenges it poses to many women.
Shaped by resistance: Discursive politics in gender equality work
Autor/in:
Stierncreutz, Micaela; Tienari, Janne
Quelle: Gend Work Organ (Gender, Work and Organization), (2023) 30, S 1178–1198
Inhalt: While existing research offers an understanding of the antecedents, forms, and consequences of resistance to gender equality work in organizations, studies primarily regard resistance as a challenge to be overcome or as something that can at times be beneficial for change. In this paper, we argue that resistance shapes gender equality work. We focus on covert forms of resistance and give voice to experts in Finland and Sweden who work for gender equality in organizations. Analyzing the discursive politics involved in (de)legitimizing and (de)politicizing equality work, we elucidate how experts deal with resistance by shaping the meaning of equality and working for it. Our findings suggest that covert resistance undermines the quest for gender equality by molding the conditions for how equality work can be done, thus influencing what it can achieve in organizations and in society.
The German transgender self-determination law: explanatory factors for support within the population
Autor/in:
Wurthmann, L. Constantin
Quelle: European Journal of Politics and Gender, 1 (2023) aop, S 1–5
Inhalt: Transgender people in Germany have been discriminated against for decades. The introduction of the so-called ‘Transsexuellen-Gesetz’ (Transsexuals Act) in 1980 allowed transgender individuals to align their first names with their gender identity. However, lengthy expert hearings were necessary for this and transgender individuals were not allowed to marry or, in case they were already married, had to file for divorce; they also had to be incapable of procreation or had to be sterilised, and had to undergo operations to adjust their body image. Some of these conditions for the official change of gender entry have since been overturned by judicial rulings, though there has been no amendment to date. The current federal government made up of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Alliance 90/The Greens (Greens) and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) has sought to change this through a new self-determination law that will enable transgender individuals to change their gender record by way of self-disclosure at registry offices (Bundesministeriums für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (BMFSFJ), 2022; Lesben- und Schwulenverband, 2022).
This contribution aims to explain how this law is perceived by the population and which factors have an influence on its perception. The explanatory factors are based on the existing literature, according to which conservatively oriented or politically right-wing individuals take a negative stance towards trans* individuals (Prusaczyk and Hodson, 2020). Moreover, findings suggest that conventional gender-conforming attitudes lead to the rejection of trans* candidates for public office (Haider-Markel et al, 2017). One might similarly expect opposition towards a liberalisation of transgender laws. Therefore, attitudes in favour of either a modern or a traditional family image are included in the analysis. Furthermore, homophobic and transphobic attitudes are closely related (Nagoshi et al, 2008), which is why support for marriage reserved to heterosexual couples only is also used as an explanatory variable.
Schlagwörter:attitude; Deutsch; Einstellung; Germany; legislation; policy making; trans rights
Precarity of post doctorate career breaks: does gender matter?
Autor/in:
Jones, Karen
Quelle: Studies in Higher Education, 48 (2023) 10, S 1576–1594
Inhalt: Against a background of Bologna process goals to improve employment prospects for PhD graduates, and the crisis of precarious employment conditions and prospects afflicting postdoctoral researchers – hitherto postdocs, the OECD ([2021], “Reducing the Precarity of Academic Research Careers.” In OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers. Paris: OECD Publishing,) called for research into postdoctoral careers and the precarity phenomenon. This paper responds by giving attention to career breaks as these represent a prevalent but under researched aspect of postdoc precarity in the contemporary academic labor market. Utilizing a substantial international mixed-method dataset with a sample of 950 postdocs, the study examined experiences and perceptions of the professional and personal implications of academic career breaks. Results reveal significant differences between males and females in key areas: maternity was the main reason for females’ career breaks, and redundancy/end of contract for males. Females resumed employment more with the same employer and males with a different employer. Support surrounding career breaks was mixed, largely inadequate, but not associated with gender. Perceptions of career breaks differed significantly across groups of postdocs that previously experienced a career break, those on a career break, and postdocs that had never had a career break. The latter two groups perceived negative career outcomes and positive personal outcomes more than postdocs who had previously had a career break, however, significant gender differences indicate females were more negative about the personal implications of career breaks. Discussion of the findings concludes that under neoliberalism postdocs represent a growing lumpen proletariat, leading to recommendations for policy, practice and further research into gender, precarity and postdoctoral careers.
“Reinventing the wheel, over and over again” : Organizational learning, memory and forgetting in doing diversity work
Autor/in:
van den Brink, Marieke
Quelle: DLO (Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal), 37 (2023) 1, S 23–25
Inhalt: Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance knowledge of organizational change towards diversity by bringing together concepts from organizational learning and diversity studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This longitudinal study was conducted over two years. It involved interviews, observation of meetings and consultation of documentation and the analysis focused on organizational learning. The key research question was how do organizational members institutionalize their individual learning process to change in organizational cultures, routines and structures in a sustainable way?
Findings
The results showed that there had been learning at the individual level but this did not necessarily mean that participants had been able to transfer their learning into behaviour change.
Research limitations/implications
The research suggested that training alone may not be sufficient to promote effective organizational change regarding diversity. Additional measures are likely to be required, for example, including diversity targets in performance management plans and reviews.
Practical implications
In order to achieve greater diversity, organizations are likely to need to use a number of methods to supplement initial training.
Social implications
This research gives insight into how greater diversity may be achieved in organizations.
Originality/value
Previous literature understates the complexity of the change processes for enhanced diversity to be sustained in organizations. This study has originality in its focus on organizational learning.
Perceived social norms and acceptance of transgender students in gendered restrooms
Autor/in:
Monheim, Chelsea L.; Ratcliff, Jennifer J.
Quelle: Journal of LGBT Youth, 20 (2023) 2, S 353–369
Inhalt: Transgender college students report higher rates of discrimination in gendered restrooms than do their cisgender peers. It is critical to understand factors that promote greater acceptance of transgender students using restrooms that align with their gender identity. The current experiment examined the impact of perceived social norms on both acceptance of transgender individuals using various locations and transphobia. Participants were 133 cisgender college students recruited on a college campus that had recently added all-gender restrooms to all campus buildings. Participants completed a prescreening measure of transphobia. During the experimental session, participants read results from a fictional study in which the social norm of their college campus was described as either in favor of (supportive norm) or against (unsupportive norm) the installation of all-gender restrooms on campus. Then participants completed measures of acceptance of transgender individuals in various spaces and transphobia. Supporting the primary hypothesis, relative to those in the unsupportive norm condition, participants in the supportive social norm condition were more accepting of transgender individuals using restrooms that aligned with their gender identity. However, the norm manipulation did not impact personal levels of transphobia between prescreen and post experimental manipulation. Implications and future directions will be discussed.
Inhalt: In this introduction to the Special Issue on Gender, Race and Violence, we go back to the roots of intersectionality and foreground an intersectional lens in our examination of violence against women and non-binary people of color. We argue that it is important to address the persistent “epistemic violence” resultant from silencing the most marginal, by featuring works that call attention to and examine violence against groups subjected to the “interlocking oppressions” of race, class, gender, and sexuality. The articles in the Special Issue re-directs the sociological analysis of violence to foreground scholarship that engages in the gendered and racial appraisal of violence. Studies included in the issue also foreground sexuality, which has largely been neglected in the intersectional analysis of violence. In so doing, we nod to both the past and the future of intersectionality in studies of violence.