tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/gender-stereotypes-1023/articles
Gender stereotypes – The Conversation
2024-03-05T20:57:58Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/224691
2024-03-05T20:57:58Z
2024-03-05T20:57:58Z
Women want to climb the corporate ladder — but not at any price
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578677/original/file-20240115-27-31qawf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women are just as interested in opportunities for advancement as men are. However, they find them less attainable because of their busy schedules.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The consulting firm <a href="https://www.spencerstuart.com/">Spencer Stuart</a> recently published a study <a href="https://www.spencerstuart.com/-/media/2023/december/f500-profiles/fortune-500-csuite-snapshot-profiles-in-functional-leadership.pdf">of top management at Fortune 500 companies</a>, the 500 richest companies in the United States.</p>
<p>The analysis focused specifically on the gender of the people in these positions, their functions and the source of their appointments, whether they came from inside or outside the organization.</p>
<p>Studying the composition of top management, often referred to as the C-Suite, is particularly important since it allows us to see how many women make it to the position of CEO in an organization.</p>
<p>Respectively Dean of the John Molson School of Business, and an expert for several decades on the place of women in the upper echelons of the business world, we will discuss the main findings of the Spencer Stuart study.</p>
<h2>Starting points</h2>
<p>Three conclusions in particular caught our attention:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Men represent 60 per cent of the select group that constitutes top management. Men principally occupy the positions that offer the greatest potential for appointment as CEO, <a href="https://www.spencerstuart.com/-/media/2021/december/lastmile/the-last-mile-to-the-top-future-ceos-who-beat-the-odds.pdf">according to the history of appointments to such positions</a>. These include, for example, Chief Operating Officer, Head of Division and Chief Financial Officer;</p></li>
<li><p>Although women are increasingly present in top management positions (40 per cent), they are still found in the positions of Head of Human Resources, Head of Communications, Head of Diversity and Inclusion and Head of Sustainable Development. In other words, women are in so-called support functions that, while important for organizations, are unfortunately perceived as having little impact on shareholder equity and financial performance;</p></li>
<li><p>Appointments to top management positions that lead to the position of CEO come mainly from within the company. What does this mean? That an intimate knowledge of the organization gained over a long period is valued and that there is generally a promotion process in place to feed the succession pool.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Global overview of the situation</h2>
<p>Our experience over the last few decades allows us to draw similar conclusions about Canada. So we wanted to check whether this situation was similar in other countries.</p>
<p>A report by the International Labour Organization called <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_700953.pdf">“The Business Case for Change”</a> provides an overview of the position of women in the upper echelons of power in 13,000 companies operating on every continent.</p>
<p>As in the United States and Canada, the gender divide between positions that could be called support jobs, and those that contribute directly to an organization’s profitability, appears to be widespread. According to the authors of this study, it is also referred to as a “glass wall,” since it limits the pool of potential female candidates for the position of CEO.</p>
<p>But how can this phenomenon be explained?</p>
<h2>Stereotypes, biases and prejudices</h2>
<p>First of all, gender stereotypes and prejudices come into play from childhood.</p>
<p>They have an impact on the toys children play with, the subjects they study, their lives and their future careers.</p>
<p>Girls — generally speaking — aspire to become doctors, teachers, nurses, psychologists and veterinary surgeons. As for boys, they want to become engineers and <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/smashing-gender-stereotypes-and-bias-and-through-education">work in IT and mechanical fields</a>.</p>
<h2>Organizational culture</h2>
<p>Secondly, organizational culture is a <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_700953.pdf">mirror of our society and its traditions</a>.</p>
<p>It therefore conveys biases regarding the leadership potential of women compared to men.</p>
<p>According to the International Labour Organization survey cited above, 91 per cent of the women questioned agreed or strongly agreed that women lead as effectively as men. However, only 77 per cent of men agreed with this statement.</p>
<p>Arguably, this leadership bias has an impact on the recruitment, appointment, talent development and “stretch assignment” processes that pave the way for career progression.</p>
<p>There is also reason to believe that these biases are equally present on boards of directors, which are responsible for appointing CEOs and which are still predominantly composed of men.</p>
<h2>Different life goals</h2>
<p>Finally, women and men have different preferences and career goals.</p>
<p>According to a study by Harvard Business School professors Francesca Gino and Alison Wood Brooks entitled <a href="https://hbr.org/2015/09/explaining-gender-differences-at-the-top">“Explaining the Gender Differences at the Top,”</a> women are just as interested in opportunities for advancement as men are. However, they find them less attainable because of their busy schedules. As a result, women have to more seriously take into account the compromises and sacrifices they will have to make to occupy positions of high responsibility and power.</p>
<p>The authors are careful to point out that these results do not mean that women are less ambitious, but that career success means different things to different people. For some, it takes the form of power. For others, it can mean making colleagues happy and helping to make the world a better place in a collaborative and supportive environment.</p>
<p>This research is in line with that of Viviane de Beaufort, a professor at the École supérieure des sciences économiques et commerciales (ESSEC). In a survey of the career aspirations of 295 French women managers, she found that women do want to rise to the highest positions. <a href="https://www.academia.edu/80171918/WP_CERESSEC_CEDE_ESSEC_Viviane_de_Beaufort_2022_avec_le_collectif_WOMEN_BOARD_READY_ESSEC">But not at any price</a>.</p>
<h2>What determines career paths?</h2>
<p>This article therefore raises the following question:</p>
<p>Can we, as women, one day hope to be CEOs or fulfill our professional dreams despite the biases, prejudices, stereotypes and barriers we have to overcome?</p>
<p>Simone de Beauvoir wrote in 1949 in her essay “The Second Sex”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Women determine and differentiate themselves in relation to men, not men in relation to women: they are inessential in relation to what is essential. He is the subject, he is the absolute, she is the other.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This excerpt reminds us that the skills and knowledge required to perform strategic functions have always been defined in terms of the male exercise of power in an environment where the organization’s performance is judged almost exclusively by financial success and growth of shareholder value.</p>
<p>It’s time to think about new career paths and skills that are not defined by gender, but rather, by an organization’s mission and objectives. These goals must take into account <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/07/the-c-suite-skills-that-matter-most">how they contribute to creating a better world</a>, as much as ensuring the financial success of organizations.</p>
<p>Functional skills must be valued as much as softer skills such as emotional intelligence, empathy, a sense of community and boldness.</p>
<p>Breaking down glass walls also means that organizations and their boards have a responsibility to identify and encourage women to take up positions where they can gain experience and develop their leadership skills in front line rather than support roles.</p>
<p>In such a context, women, as much as men, will have a better chance of reaching the highest positions in a company while remaining true to themselves — and doing so on equal terms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224691/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
Women are increasingly present in top management positions, but they end up in so-called support functions, which rarely lead to CEO positions.
Louise Champoux-Paillé, Cadre en exercice, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University
Anne-Marie Croteau, Dean, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/224050
2024-02-27T12:32:06Z
2024-02-27T12:32:06Z
Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Alexei Navalny, steps forward to lead the Russian opposition – 3 points to understand
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578049/original/file-20240226-31-5bo8d1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, attends the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 16, 2024, the day it was announced Navalny was dead.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/yulia-navalnaya-wife-of-late-russian-opposition-leader-news-photo/2007795740?adppopup=true">Kai Pfaffenbach/Pool/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Alexei Navalny, one of Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s biggest critics and the country’s de facto opposition leader, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/16/russian-activist-and-putin-critic-alexei-navalny-dies-in-prison">died under suspicious circumstances</a> in an Arctic prison on Feb. 16, 2024. </p>
<p>Hours after his death was announced, Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, appeared in a video on social media and said, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/navalnys-widow-yulia-i-will-continue-my-husbands-fight-free-russia-2024-02-19/">“I want to live in a free Russia, I want to build a free Russia.”</a>. </p>
<p>Navalnaya, who lives outside of Russia, accused Putin of killing her husband and also promised to “continue the work of Alexei Navalny.”</p>
<p>Since her husband’s death, Navalyana, who was generally not prominently involved in politics before, has shown other signs of stepping into politics. She is lobbying the European Union to enact new sanctions against Putin, for example. Navalnaya and her daughter also <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/22/biden-meets-with-navalnys-widow-and-daughter-00142738">met with President Joe Biden</a>, to whom she reiterated her desire to keep up her husband’s fight against Putin. </p>
<p><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/shattered-cracked-or-firmly-intact-9780190602093?cc=us&lang=en&">My research</a> <a href="https://liberalarts.vt.edu/departments-and-schools/department-of-political-science/faculty/farida-jalalzai.html">examining female leaders</a> worldwide recognizes family connections as an important pathway to power. </p>
<p>Navalnaya’s story fits squarely within a larger pattern of other female political leaders and activists who become publicly prominent after their husbands die or are imprisoned for their opposition to an authoritarian regime. </p>
<p>Here are three points to understand about Navalnaya’s sudden rise in politics, and the obstacles she faces in accomplishing her goal of bringing democratic change to Russia. </p>
<h2>1. There’s a long history of women subbing for men</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15544770802212224">Widowhood was</a> the main route American women took to becoming a member of Congress for decades, when they assumed their husbands’ seats, from the 1920s through the 1960s. </p>
<p>While men also often benefit from being born into political families, women disproportionately rely on their marital connections and other family linkages – such as being daughters of powerful men – to gain a foothold in politics. </p>
<p>Women also often ascend in the political arena under tragic circumstances. </p>
<p><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=82428&page=1">Sirimavo Bandaranaike</a>, for example, was the widow of Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike, who was assassinated in 1959. Sirimavo Bandaranaike began to lead her husband’s political party, and following elections in 1960, she became the first female prime minister in the world.</p>
<p>Similarly, in Nicaragua, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-02-26-mn-1241-story.html">Violeta de Chamorro</a>, became the widow of the prominent news editor and publisher Pedro Joaquin Chamorro in 1978. Unknown gunmen killed her husband following years of his reporting work that challenged the country’s repressive government.</p>
<p>Violeta de Chamorro then became involved in Nicaragua’s tumultuous politics and was elected Nicaragua’s president in 1990. She served in that role until 1997.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578051/original/file-20240226-20-d7zvl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in dark sunglasses and a white head cover leans against the top of a car that she rides on as she speaks into a microphone. Several men stand or sit around her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578051/original/file-20240226-20-d7zvl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578051/original/file-20240226-20-d7zvl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578051/original/file-20240226-20-d7zvl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578051/original/file-20240226-20-d7zvl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578051/original/file-20240226-20-d7zvl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578051/original/file-20240226-20-d7zvl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578051/original/file-20240226-20-d7zvl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister of Pakistan, campaigns before the Pakistani election in October 1990.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/former-prime-minister-of-pakistan-benazir-bhutto-news-photo/561490955?adppopup=true">Derek Hudson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then there is the example of <a href="https://documentwomen.com/benazir-bhutto-first-muslim-women-leader">Benazir Bhutto</a>, former prime minister of Pakistan who served in the 1980s and ‘90s. Bhutto was the daughter of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was deposed in a military coup in 1978 and then <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/11/why-is-pakistans-top-court-probing-the-1979-hanging-of-former-pm-bhutto">executed in 1979</a>. </p>
<p>Today, women still sometimes take this route to power, often in Asia and Latin America. </p>
<p>Far closer to Russia, Belarus offers another recent example of how wives have assumed their husbands’ political posts when they are no longer able to continue their work. When Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko arrested leading critic Sergei Tikhanovsky and barred him from running in the 2020 presidential election, Tikhanovsky’s wife, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, ran in his place. </p>
<p>She lost her bid in 2020, during an election that featured rampant <a href="https://leads.ap.org/best-of-the-week/ap-exposes-election-fraud-in-belarus">voting irregularities</a>. </p>
<p>It is widely known that Tikhanovskaya, who initially said that she was not interested in politics, was allowed to run because Lukashenko thought she posed no real threat <a href="https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6167">since she was a woman</a>. </p>
<h2>2. Women can use feminine stereotypes to their political benefit</h2>
<p>Navalnaya, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/yulia-navalnaya-vladimir-putin-new-enemy-alexei-navalny-russia-opposition/">an economist</a> and a former banker, focused on raising children and supporting her husband as he gained a political following within the last decade. </p>
<p>Navalnaya <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/16/navalny-family-yulia-wife-children/">said in 2013</a>, “I imagine myself as his wife, no matter what he is.” When asked about her own political ambition in another interview in 2021, she <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/yulia-navalnaya-russia-opposition-leader-navalny-widow-putin-rcna139441">stated that</a> it was “much more interesting to be a politician’s wife.” </p>
<p>Being a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-latin-american-studies/article/supermadres-maternal-legacies-and-womens-political-participation-in-contemporary-latin-america/C5E4C8A4448BED97202936E1DBDF4090">wife and mother are identities</a> that can translate well to being considered a mother of a nation or a movement during inflection points.</p>
<p>Navalnaya and other women in a similar position are considered <a href="https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6167">accidental leaders</a>, only called into action under extreme circumstances. Though Navalnaya went with her husband to protests and rallies, her political activity was very limited until recently.</p>
<p>She was a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/yulia-navalnaya-russia-opposition-leader-navalny-widow-putin-rcna139441">key player</a> in getting Putin’s permission to take her husband to Germany to receive treatment when he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in 2020. She increased her political role around that time, but to only highlight her husband’s plight and persecution. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578050/original/file-20240226-30-4a4ioa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white, blonde haired woman wears a face mask and stands in a crowd of people, who all direct cell phone cameras at her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578050/original/file-20240226-30-4a4ioa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578050/original/file-20240226-30-4a4ioa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578050/original/file-20240226-30-4a4ioa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578050/original/file-20240226-30-4a4ioa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578050/original/file-20240226-30-4a4ioa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578050/original/file-20240226-30-4a4ioa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578050/original/file-20240226-30-4a4ioa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yulia Navalnaya, center, is surrounded by people as she leaves Moscow’s airport in January 2021, shortly after her husband Alexei Navalny’s apprehension by the Russian police for alleged fraud.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/former-prime-minister-of-pakistan-benazir-bhutto-news-photo/561490955?adppopup=true">Derek Hudson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Navalnaya will face limits to real power</h2>
<p>While Navalnaya has received <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68336393">much international interest and praise </a> for stepping in to fill her husband’s shoes, she is living in exile. </p>
<p>If she returned to Russia and continued to oppose Putin’s regime, she would likely face <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/16/kremlin-critics-what-happens-to-putins-most-vocal-opponents">imprisonment or even death</a>, the fate of Putin’s other prominent critics. </p>
<p>But Navalnaya might not be able to gain real political headway if she does not return to Russia. Moreover, leading a movement from abroad could be used by her enemies as evidence that she is merely a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-has-yet-establish-official-cause-navalny-death-spokeswoman-says-2024-02-19/">puppet of foreign governments</a>. </p>
<p>A grieving widow is now arguably Putin’s biggest critic, and her foray into the political limelight is not wholly unexpected. What remains unclear is whether Navalnaya can move beyond being a symbol and proxy of her husband and unite Russia’s opposition movement to face Putin.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224050/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Farida Jalalzai does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The quick rise of Yulia Navalnaya in Russian politics closely mirrors the story of other female politicians who gain prominence after their husbands or fathers are no longer able to lead.
Farida Jalalzai, Professor of Political Science; Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, Virginia Tech
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/214032
2023-09-26T13:46:29Z
2023-09-26T13:46:29Z
How rape myths and unconscious biases prejudice the judicial system against women – and rape survivors in particular
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550042/original/file-20230925-15-lly33b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/police-officer-nighttime-scene-blue-emergency-2313089839">Harry Base|Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is well documented that women who are sexually assaulted, or raped, rarely report the crime to the police. The US charity, the <a href="https://www.rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system">Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network</a>, has shown that <a href="https://www.rainn.org/statistics/scope-problem">one in six women</a> in the US has been the victim of rape or attempted rape, yet two in three rapes go unreported. For women under 25, that figure drops to one in five. </p>
<p>In the UK, these figures are similarly bleak. The Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales <a href="https://victimscommissioner.org.uk/document/annual-report-of-the-victims-commissioner-2021-to-2022/">notes</a> that, in the year to December 2021, the police recorded 67,125 rape offences. And yet the charity Rape Crisis says <a href="https://rapecrisis.org.uk/get-informed/statistics-sexual-violence/">five in six women</a> who are raped don’t report it. </p>
<p>Many factors feed into why women do not report such crimes. The primary reason, however, is the lack of trust many express in the policing and legal systems.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/sway-9781472971388/">My research</a> looks at how social inequalities and implicit biases impact legal decisions. Even when jury members and police officers believe they are acting without prejudice, which is more overt and forceful, they cannot avoid their <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/sway-9781472971388/">implicit biases</a>. </p>
<h2>Why victims of sexual assault do not trust the judicial system</h2>
<p>Data from the UK criminal justice system <a href="https://criminal-justice-delivery-data-dashboards.justice.gov.uk/">shows</a> that even when a survivor reports a rape and a person is charged, it is unlikely to see them found guilty. Rape Crisis figures <a href="https://rapecrisis.org.uk/get-informed/statistics-sexual-violence/">show</a> that less than two in 100 rapes recorded by the police in 2022 ended in a charge, or a conviction. </p>
<p>The End Violence Against Women Coalition, a feminist anti-violence charity, has shown that, since the rape and murder of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-police-regain-trust-after-the-murder-of-sarah-everard-172037">Sarah Everard</a> by a serving police officer in 2021, <a href="https://www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/almost-half-of-women-have-less-trust-in-police-following-sarah-everard-murder/">one in ten women</a> across the UK were even less likely to report sexual assault to police than they were before. A poll by Savanta ComRes in February 2023 found that <a href="https://savanta.com/knowledge-centre/view/are-women-justified-in-having-little-faith-in-police-protection-2/">26% of women</a> said that they had “no trust in the police at all”. </p>
<p>In court, sexual assault cases are defined by legal precedents, in which gender stereotypes and <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronation-street-what-amy-barlows-storyline-says-about-rape-and-consent-206012">rape myths</a> have been found <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26826643">to play</a> a significant role. These stereotypes are often rooted in misconceptions and in morality judgements – about what the victim was wearing, whether they had been drinking, whether they knew the rapist or had been flirting with them – affect how a case is prosecuted and how a jury then deliberates it. </p>
<p>My ongoing research shows that there is also a tendency in jury trials, even those with jurors who score low on prejudicial attitudes towards women, that if a woman was intoxicated or did not run away or scream during a rape, then she had <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1365712720923157">“asked for it”</a>. </p>
<p>These biased views are grounded in gender stereotypes and norms. They are also based on a lack of understanding around psychological reactions to assault and rape, where some people freeze due to fear. </p>
<p>Further enduring rape myths concern domestic rape. There is a persistent assumption that rape and assault does not happen within marriage or long-term relationships. This, along with the idea that men have higher sex drive and that women are a “tease”, hinge on mistaken understandings around consent and rooted in masculine/feminine stereotypes. </p>
<h2>How rape myths are used to undermine women’s credibility in court</h2>
<p>A 2018 <a href="https://fullfact.org/crime/allegations-rape/">report</a> from the fact-checking charity Full Facts showed that proven cases of false allegations are very rare. It is difficult to prove conclusively what a false allegation might be. Even though the circumstances and definitions of false allegations vary, the report found that only 3%-4% of all rapes reported could be potential false allegations.</p>
<p>Included in this tally were cases where the victim was misremembering, either because they had been under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or because they had misinterpreted the law. </p>
<p>Rape myths have also arisen due to the inconsistency in survivor accounts. However, it is well documented that <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/trauma/">trauma</a> can result in disorganised and incomplete sequence of events in memory. Research has also <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1748895816668937">shown</a> that specificity and accuracy can be <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/false-rape-accusations-an-unbelievable-story">poor indicators</a> of the reliability of a memory. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/false-rape-accusations-an-unbelievable-story">Marie Adler’s</a> story, which was made into the 2019 Netflix show, <a href="https://time.com/5674986/unbelievable-netflix-true-story/">Unbelievable</a>, showed this unreliability of memory in rape victims and its impact on convictions. Sexual assault survivors have reported experiencing intense cross-examination from the police that are unsympathetic and intense in nature, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/08/22/1028236197/how-rape-affects-memory-and-the-brain-and-why-more-police-need-to-know-about-thi">resulting in secondary trauma</a>. </p>
<p>The fear of this happening and of having to justify – and relive – their testimonies of sexual assault can also put women off from coming forward. </p>
<p>Police officers as well as jurors often presume that women are overreacting or stretching the truth. The assumption is that they are being revengeful, attention-seeking or <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0092656698922383">regretful</a>. <a href="https://canongate.co.uk/books/3665-hysterical-exploding-the-myth-of-gendered-emotions/">Emotions</a> – or the lack of what are perceived to be the appropriate emotions – are used to undermine women’s testimonies. </p>
<p>What’s more, some groups of people are perceived to be less reliable and more likely to falsely accuse others. Mental health, alcohol and drugs <a href="https://www.rapecrisisscotland.org.uk/resources/False-allegations-briefing-2021.pdf">all play a role</a> in assumptions being made about the credibility of any accusations, as do <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ab.20195">race and class</a>. These prejudicial attitudes not only affect trials but can also prevent cases from reaching the court at all. </p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41887-020-00044-1">Proper training</a> in rape myths has been shown to have the power to change attitudes towards rape, and towards women survivors. However, until such training is widely rolled out – and until officers and juries alike are made aware of unconscious biases against sexual assault survivors – women will continue to mistrust the system, and majority of the rapes will go unreported.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214032/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pragya Agarwal has received a Fulbright Fellowship to research judicial bias. </span></em></p>
Rape myths and unconscious biases often see juries and police officers disbelieve women who come forward with accusations of sexual assault.
Pragya Agarwal, Visiting Professor of Social Inequities and Injustice, Loughborough University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204777
2023-08-31T12:20:15Z
2023-08-31T12:20:15Z
Trans students benefit from gender-inclusive classrooms, research shows – and so do the other students and science itself
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541976/original/file-20230809-15-2j6fem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2121%2C1412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teaching sex and gender more accurately can counter gender stereotypes and encourage all students to study STEM.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/girl-in-denim-t-shirt-with-rainbow-symbol-wear-royalty-free-image/1365444357">Iurii Krasilnikov/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Across the U.S., legislators are debating how and when sex and gender should be discussed in the classroom and beyond. Specifically, <a href="https://www.transformationsproject.org/state-anti-trans-legislation">these bills</a> are considering whether anything beyond male or female can be included in library books and lesson plans. These bills are part of a larger debate on how to define and regulate sex and gender, and there are no immediate answers that satisfy everyone.</p>
<p>Many of the bills draw on science to make claims about sex and gender. For example, <a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/1069">Florida House Bill 1069</a>, which legislates pronoun use in schools, assumes that all of a person’s sex markers – listed as sex chromosomes, “naturally occurring” sex hormones and internal and external genitalia at birth – will align as female or male “based on the organization of the body … for a specific reproductive role.” The bill claims that “a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex.”</p>
<p>Invoking biology is a way to sound objective, but it’s not so simple. Science itself is still grappling with the nature of sex and gender.</p>
<p>My co-author Sam Long and I are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2021.83.7.427">high school</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rZ-cbGUAAAAJ&hl=en">college science educators</a> who research how to <a href="https://www.genderinclusivebiology.com">increase student motivation, interest and retention in biology</a>. Our work and that of our colleagues show that teaching sex and gender more accurately in classrooms benefits not only gender-diverse students but all students and the field of science.</p>
<h2>Science of sex and gender</h2>
<p>Bills like Florida’s define sex as a binary set of biological traits. But scientists know that sex is far more complicated.</p>
<p>In nature, there is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001899">huge diversity</a> in how sexes are arranged within bodies. For example, the sex of some organisms is classified by the size of their gametes, or sperm and eggs. Some species produce both gametes in one body. Some change whether they produce sperm or eggs over their lifetime. Others technically don’t have a sex at all.</p>
<p>Sex in humans is actually an <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203127971">amalgamation of many traits</a>, which include the type of gametes a person produces as well as their reproductive tract anatomy, hormone levels and secondary sex characteristics like hair growth and chest shape. These traits are determined not just by a few genes on the X and Y chromosomes but also by a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-53500-y">myriad of genes</a> on other chromosomes as well as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-53500-y">developmental environment</a>. When <a href="https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-biology1/chapter/reading-polygenic-inheritance-and-environmental-effects/">many genes</a> contribute to a trait, it appears as a continuum.</p>
<p>The continuum of human sex is illustrated by the experiences of intersex individuals. For nearly two out of every 100 people, a binary definition of sex <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/anne-fausto-sterling/sexing-the-body/9781541672895/">would not work</a>. People <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-everyone-is-male-or-female-the-growing-controversy-over-sex-designation-172293">who are intersex</a> don’t have chromosomes, hormones or internal and external genitalia that completely match cultural expectations of what males and females should look like. Under these bills, what pronouns would they be allowed to use? There is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/518288a">no universal scientific rule</a> for pronoun assignment.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kT0HJkr1jj4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Sex is a spectrum.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If sex is not binary, then <a href="https://theconversation.com/sex-and-gender-both-shape-your-health-in-different-ways-98293">gender</a> – or personal perceptions of masculinity, femininity, a mix of both, or neither – cannot be either. A 2022 Pew Research Center survey found that roughly <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/06/07/about-5-of-young-adults-in-the-u-s-say-their-gender-is-different-from-their-sex-assigned-at-birth/">1.6% of U.S. adults</a> describe their gender as not aligned with their sex assigned at birth, which can be captured by the terms transgender or nonbinary.</p>
<p>Overall, science <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/692517">does not have a definitive answer</a> for how to define sex and gender in people that lawmakers can draw upon – science only indicates that these traits are nuanced and complex.</p>
<h2>Limiting teaching on sex and gender affects everyone</h2>
<p>Bills limiting how sex and gender are taught exacerbate the disproportionate obstacles that transgender students already face. The 2019 National School Climate Survey of over 16,700 students in the U.S., conducted by national education nonprofit Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, reported that trans teens in <a href="https://www.glsen.org/research/2019-national-school-climate-survey">schools without gender-inclusive curricula</a> experienced more bullying, a decreased sense of belonging, poor academic performance and low psychological well-being.</p>
<p>Restrictive bills also discourage LGBT students from studying science. The 2013 GLSEN Network National School Climate Survey found that LGBT teens were <a href="https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/2020-03/GLSEN-2013-National-School-Climate-Survey-Full-Report.pdf">less interested in majoring in STEM</a> and the social sciences when the high school classes they took in those fields were not taught with inclusive curricula. </p>
<p>I and my colleagues found similar downstream effects on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.21-12-0343">college students</a>: Trans and nonbinary students reported feeling isolated and uncomfortable in biology courses that teach sex and gender only as a binary. They felt they couldn’t form relationships with their teachers or peers, and this lack of a supportive personal network prevented them from requesting letters of recommendation or getting involved in research. Some dropped out of STEM, and many others contemplated it.</p>
<p>Limiting gender-inclusive curricula in schools can ultimately have negative effects on all students. Children begin <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100511">developing and testing</a> their understanding of sex and gender starting as young as 2 years old. Erasing gender diversity even in elementary schools reinforces <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000307">inaccurate conceptions of sex and gender</a> that can last a lifetime. For example, a 2018 study of 132 college students found that those who read a paper emphasizing binary sex and typical gender roles exhibited <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-017-0786-3">increased prejudice against transgender people</a>. A 2019 study of 460 eighth through 10th grade students found that those taught an oversimplified and inaccurate definition of sex – as defined by sex chromosomes – had increased beliefs about the genetic basis of sex and in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21502">stereotypes about men and women</a>, including unchangeable sex differences in intelligence and scientific ability. These studies suggest that teaching oversimplified narratives about sex and gender influences not only how students conceive sex and gender but also beliefs about their own and others’ abilities.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541788/original/file-20230808-27-jcydy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Protestors holding signs reading 'Protect trans kids' and other slogans" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541788/original/file-20230808-27-jcydy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541788/original/file-20230808-27-jcydy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541788/original/file-20230808-27-jcydy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541788/original/file-20230808-27-jcydy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541788/original/file-20230808-27-jcydy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541788/original/file-20230808-27-jcydy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541788/original/file-20230808-27-jcydy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People rally in front of the Kentucky State Capitol on Mar. 29, 2023, to protest the passing of Senate Bill 150, a ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill that bans gender-affirming care for trans youth, limits discussion of LGBTQ topics in K-12 schools and allows teachers to misgender students.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-many-of-whom-are-adolescents-gather-during-a-rally-news-photo/1249909096">Jon Cherry/Stringer via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The trans and nonbinary college biology students we interviewed suggest there is another long-term harm of oversimplifying sex and gender: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.21-12-0343">lack of preparation</a> for a future career in science or medicine. An oversimplified understanding of sex and gender does not train students to work with the diverse patients and clients they might encounter, and it can <a href="https://mashable.com/article/transgender-healthcare">worsen health disparities</a> for trans people.</p>
<p>Lack of exposure to a broader range of sex and gender roles also limits potential scientific discoveries. Being taught only binary sex and genders biases the research questions scientists consider and the way they interpret their findings.</p>
<p>The study of <a href="https://theconversation.com/women-have-disrupted-research-on-bird-song-and-their-findings-show-how-diversity-can-improve-all-fields-of-science-142874">birdsong</a> offers one example of how this bias can influence research. A common stereotype is that male birds are more competitive than female birds. Because competition occurs partially through song, researchers studied birdsong only in males for a long time. Some scientists recently challenged these beliefs about sex roles by finding that females sing in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0059">about 64% of songbird species</a>, opening doors to greater understanding of the function of birdsong.</p>
<h2>What educators and scientists can do</h2>
<p>When science is being misrepresented to justify oversimplified ideas about sex and gender in schools, scientists and science educators have an important role to play. </p>
<p>Sharing perspectives about gender diversity with school boards and elected officials can make a difference. Bringing conversations about sex and gender into the classroom can help all students feel seen and reduce gender stereotypes. Through his work with educators, my co-author, Sam Long, knows it can be intimidating to get into these conversations, but they do not have to be fights about who is right or wrong. Encouraging curiosity about human variation and questioning the portrayal of any trait as pathological simply because it is different or uncommon can help students think critically about sex and gender in respectful ways. </p>
<p>Disability advocates offer an <a href="https://odpc.ucsf.edu/clinical/patient-centered-care/medical-and-social-models-of-disability">inclusive approach</a> that focuses on changing the environment to fit the person rather than changing the person to fit the environment. Physical and mental variations do not inherently reduce a person’s ability to thrive; instead, it is environmental and culture barriers that are limiting or disabling. Educators can pose questions that encourage students to explore this idea. For example, red hair is as rare as intersex traits. Of the two, why are only intersex traits often framed as a disorder? Likewise, human height varies across people. How are buildings, products and services designed to accommodate a spectrum of heights? Why haven’t other physical variations been accommodated in the same way?</p>
<p>Initiatives like <a href="https://www.genderinclusivebiology.com/">Gender-Inclusive Biology</a>, <a href="https://projectbiodiversify.org/sex/">Project Biodiversity</a>, and <a href="https://welcomingschools.org/resources">Welcoming Schools</a> offer additional resources to help adapt the curriculum to acknowledge and celebrate variation in the living world. My co-author Sam is a founding member of Gender-Inclusive Biology.</p>
<p>Encouraging students to think critically about the complexity of sex and gender will encourage everyone to pursue their passions regardless of gender stereotypes, promote creative thinking in science and medicine and support trans students. In this way, teaching about sex and gender complexity can benefit everyone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204777/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Eddy receives funding from the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p>
‘Don’t Say Gay’ bills claim to use science to justify a binary definition of sex based on certain traits. But the biology of sex and gender is not so simple.
Sarah Eddy, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, Florida International University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/208732
2023-07-10T12:28:24Z
2023-07-10T12:28:24Z
Why guys who post a lot on social media are seen as less manly
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535898/original/file-20230705-21-31qp4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C54%2C6028%2C4143&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Do men post less often on social media because they fear being judged as effeminate?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/guycellphonebench-royalty-free-illustration/1384045726?adppopup=true">A-Digit/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For better or worse, much of life is categorized along gendered lines: Clothing stores have sections for men and women, certain foods are considered <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-steak-became-manly-and-salads-became-feminine-124147">more manly or more feminine</a>, and even drinks can take on a gendered sheen (“<a href="https://thesuburbansoapbox.com/the-manmosa-recipe/">manmosa</a>,” anyone?). </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-12-2022-0883">Our newly published research</a> finds that even social media is a canvas for rigid gender stereotyping.</p>
<p>Specifically, we show that men who post often on social media are seen as feminine, a phenomenon we refer to as the “frequent-posting femininity stereotype.” We observed this bias in four experiments featuring over 1,300 respondents from the U.S. and U.K.</p>
<h2>To post is to be seen as unmanly</h2>
<p>As consumer behavior researchers, we have long been interested in the contradictions, peculiarities <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029826">and restrictions</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/upshot/gender-stereotypes-survey-girls-boys.html">associated with masculinity</a>.</p>
<p>These dynamics have far-reaching implications in the world of marketing. It is widely known, for example, that Coke Zero was created as an alternative to Diet Coke, a product that men notoriously shied away from <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2013/11/13/gender-contamination-why-men-prefer-products-untouched-by-women/?sh=4df9d0898f0b">for its perceived ties to women who wanted to lose weight</a>. There’s even a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/711758">tendency for people to think it is unmanly to sleep more</a>, because needing rest is connected to being weak and vulnerable. </p>
<p>We thought about how some of these notions might come into play on social media. Polling data suggests that men and women use social media platforms in very different ways: For example, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/?tabId=tab-45b45364-d5e4-4f53-bf01-b77106560d4c">men tend to be on fewer platforms overall</a> and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/06/why-are-more-women-than-men-on-instagram/485993/">don’t post as often as women on apps like Instagram</a>.</p>
<p>We wondered if gender biases had anything to do with why. Are men judged harshly when they share on social media?</p>
<p>To test this question, we ran a series of experiments in which respondents were asked to evaluate a “normal, average, ordinary” man who either frequently or rarely posts on social media. To provide a more concrete picture, we described the man as someone who posts online for fun and has a moderate number of followers. </p>
<p>Respondents consistently rated the man as more feminine when he was described as a frequent social media poster. This was true regardless of assumptions made about the man’s age, education, wealth and preferred social media platform. We also controlled for the gender, age, political beliefs and social media use of the people who participated in the study.</p>
<p>Notably, we used an identical scenario to describe a woman’s posting behavior – and post frequency had no effect on how feminine people thought she was.</p>
<h2>An aversion to appearing needy</h2>
<p>What, then, explains this somewhat unusual effect? </p>
<p>We discovered that anyone who frequently posts, regardless of their gender, comes across as a person who seeks attention and validation. But this projected sense of neediness only translates to perceived femininity in men. </p>
<p>This makes sense. After all, research has shown that <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0029826">rejecting femininity is crucial to conventional notions of manhood</a>, while avoiding masculinity is not necessarily crucial to conventional womanhood. Indeed, ads, TV shows, movies and music continue to reinforce ideas that men be resolutely <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029826">stoic and self-sufficient</a>. Our results indicate that by posting frequently online, men come across as the opposite.</p>
<p>Not only that, but the “frequent-posting femininity stereotype” effect turned out to be even more stubborn than we expected. </p>
<p>Two of our experiments attempted, but ultimately failed, to curb this bias. </p>
<p>First, we examined whether men were judged differently when sharing content about others as opposed to themselves – the idea being that this form of posting behavior would come across as considerate and not as validation-seeking. Second, we examined whether male influencers – who post largely for professional reasons – faced the same stereotype. </p>
<p>In both cases – and to our surprise – frequent posting caused participants to see these social media users as more feminine.</p>
<h2>Broadening the definition of manhood</h2>
<p>There’s a lot we don’t know about this unique prejudice.</p>
<p>For example, it’s unclear to what degree the frequent-posting femininity stereotype affects how men are judged in different cultures. While men around the world <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/s0277-9536(99)00390-1">are often considered less masculine when they appear needy</a>, our research only included participants from the U.K. and U.S. </p>
<p>Just as critical: How can the connection between frequent posting and femininity be broken altogether? Our research suggests that this link is durable and reflects persistent gender dynamics. </p>
<p>Still, it’s worth exploring how platforms can curb this prejudice through their design. For example, <a href="https://www.insider.com/what-is-bereal-app-how-does-it-work-2022-4">BeReal</a> is an app that prompts users to quickly share an unedited photo snapshot of what they’re doing at a random time throughout the day. Functions like these seem to emphasize authenticity, routine and community. Is this the recipe that’s needed to change the association between posting and validation-seeking?</p>
<p>Notably, men are experiencing <a href="https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/the-state-of-american-friendship-change-challenges-and-loss/">historic rates of social isolation</a> and facing <a href="https://ofboysandmen.substack.com/p/some-news-i-cant-wait-to-share">dire mental health consequences</a>. This health crisis is likely exacerbated by pervasive biases that make men <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-022-01297-y">feel like they can’t talk about their problems or ask for help</a>. The frequent-posting femininity stereotype reveals another instance in which men are judged for attempting to express themselves and build social connections.</p>
<p>As New York Times correspondent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/upshot/gender-stereotypes-survey-girls-boys.html">Claire Cain Miller wrote</a> in 2018, there are “many ways to be a girl but one way to be a boy,” both in Western cultures and around the world. </p>
<p>What will it take for that rigid definition of manhood to be broadened?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208732/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
New research shows that frequent posters appear needy, which pushes up against the expectation that ‘real men’ be stoic and self-sufficient.
Andrew Edelblum, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Dayton
Nathan B. Warren, Assistant Professor of Marketing, BI Norwegian Business School
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204873
2023-05-19T12:40:40Z
2023-05-19T12:40:40Z
Talking puppy or finger puppet? 5 tips for buying baby toys that support healthy development
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525990/original/file-20230512-25-2f6227.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tech toys may claim to be educational – but those claims often aren't backed by science. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/cute-little-boy-playing-with-a-railroad-train-toy-royalty-free-image/1281267794">boonchai wedmakawand/Moment Collection/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Picking out a baby toy – whether it’s for your own child or a friend’s kid or the child of a family member – can be overwhelming. Although Americans spend <a href="https://www.statista.com/outlook/dmo/ecommerce/toys-hobby-diy/toys-baby/united-states">US$20 billion</a> a year on baby toys, it’s difficult to know which toy will be fun, educational and developmentally appropriate. The options seem endless, with search results at common retail sites in the hundreds, if not thousands. Is price a reliable indicator of quality? Are technological enhancements useful? </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.museumofplay.org/app/uploads/2023/04/15-1-Article-2-Transforming-Toybox.pdf">peer-reviewed study</a> – published in the American Journal of Play in April 2023 – surveyed the toy market for babies and toddlers age 0-2 at two major U.S. national retailers, with an eye toward differences between battery-powered toys, like the <a href="https://store.leapfrog.com/en-us/store/p/speak-learn-puppy/_/A-prod80-610100">LeapFrog Speak and Learn Puppy</a>, and traditional toys, such as the <a href="https://www.homefurniturelife.com/shop/magic-years-jungle-animals-finger-puppets-4-pc-set/">Magic Years Jungle Finger Puppet</a>. </p>
<p>We found significant differences between these two toy types in terms of how they’re marketed – with more traditional toys marketed as supporting physical development and more technological toys aimed at cognitive development. However, these companies do not always have researchers investigating whether the toys actually help children learn.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=KhghzJQAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">researchers who study toys</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5KTeq2UAAAAJ&hl=en">how children learn and play</a>, we offer five tips before you buy your next baby toy.</p>
<h2>1. Consider your goal</h2>
<p>When purchasing a toy, consider whether you have any particular developmental goal in mind. For instance, do you want your baby to develop fine motor skills by playing with a <a href="https://reachformontessori.com/busy-boards/">busy board</a>, or to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/mono.12280">practice spatial skills</a> by building a block tower? </p>
<h2>2. Look for open-ended toys</h2>
<p>Many parents and caregivers know that children often <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-kids-like-the-box-more-than-the-toy-the-benefits-of-playing-with-everyday-objects-202301">love playing with the box</a> more than the toy inside it. One reason is that boxes are open-ended toys – they can become anything a young child dreams up. Conversely, a toy cellphone directs the type of play much more rigidly. </p>
<p>A good rule of thumb is to choose toys that require <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2018/12/10/the-science-of-toys-a-guide-for-the-perplexed-shopper/">90% activity from the child and only about 10% input from the toy</a>. For example, infants can explore a set of realistic miniature animals sensorially – usually by putting them in their mouths – and then later use them for pretend play, or even to create animal footprints in play dough. Contrast this experience with a large plastic elephant that needs to sit on the floor and lights up and makes elephant sounds. Here, a child is limited in play, with the goal being to make the object light up or play a sound. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Father and young son play together with toy cars" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526565/original/file-20230516-27-epnrbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526565/original/file-20230516-27-epnrbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526565/original/file-20230516-27-epnrbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526565/original/file-20230516-27-epnrbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526565/original/file-20230516-27-epnrbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526565/original/file-20230516-27-epnrbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526565/original/file-20230516-27-epnrbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Parents tend to talk to kids more when they play together with traditional toys versus tech toys.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/cute-little-african-kid-son-playing-toy-cars-with-royalty-free-image/1158481693">iStock / Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Recognize gender biases</h2>
<p>Several major retailers have <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-target-gender-labeling-20150810-story.html">removed gender-based toy sections</a> over the past decade, opting for “kids” instead of “boys” and “girls.” </p>
<p>However, if you enter the store of one of those major toy retailers today, you will still find some aisles filled with pink toys and dolls, while other aisles feature monster trucks and primary-colored blocks. A toy sword might not be labeled as “for boys,” yet shoppers often perceive it that way based on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-017-0858-4">their own gender socialization and beliefs</a>. If you look only in certain aisles or at stereotypical toys, you might miss out on toys that your child would enjoy regardless of gender. </p>
<h2>4. Be wary of marketing claims</h2>
<p>The makers of tech toys often make claims about their educational potential that are not backed by science. For example, an electronic shape sorter might claim to help children develop emotional skills because the toy says “I love you!” </p>
<p>Be skeptical of such claims, and use your own experience and insights to evaluate the educational potential of a toy. You might read the retailer and manufacturer descriptions, but also see what the toy actually does. If it fosters caregiver-child interactions or helps to develop a specific skill – like how building blocks support spatial skills, and finger puppets build fine motor skills – then it is likely a toy worth considering. </p>
<h2>5. Prioritize human interactions</h2>
<p>Keep in mind that toys are not chiefly designed to create baby geniuses – they are meant to be fun! So think broadly about whether you want a new toy to support physical, social, emotional, cognitive or creative development while keeping it fun. And remember that no toy can replace <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12378">joyful, high-quality interactions</a> between caregivers and children.</p>
<p>Research suggests that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2018-3348">caregivers are less responsive and communicative</a> when playing with tech toys versus traditional toys with their children. So choosing traditional toys, such as nonelectronic shape sorters and building blocks, may be one way to foster the types of interactions that support healthy development.</p>
<p>Overall, research suggests that, in most cases, traditional toys provide <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1542/peds.2018-3348">better interactions and experiences</a> than technological toys. When purchasing a toy, think through the experiences you want the baby in your life to have, think broadly about the goals of a particular toy, try to provide opportunities for <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01124">high-quality interactions</a> and remember to have fun.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204873/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer M. Zosh has consulted for the Lego Group. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brenna Hassinger-Das does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Two experts on children’s play explain why you should be skeptical of toys that are advertised as being educational, and what to look for instead.
Brenna Hassinger-Das, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Pace University
Jennifer M. Zosh, Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, Penn State
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/201752
2023-03-27T12:25:04Z
2023-03-27T12:25:04Z
Gender-affirming care has a long history in the US – and not just for transgender people
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516795/original/file-20230321-2376-1glr1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2953%2C1971&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Enforcement of binary gender norms has led to unwanted medical interventions on intersex and cisgender children.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/doctors-carrying-newborn-baby-girl-at-hospital-royalty-free-image/668808357">Javier Valenzuela/EyeEm via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1976, a <a href="http://lgbthistory.pages.roanoke.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2020/02/Long-Road-from-Man-to-Woman.pdf">woman from Roanoke, Virginia, named Rhoda</a> received a prescription for two drugs: estrogen and progestin. Twelve months later, a local reporter noted Rhoda’s surprisingly soft skin and visible breasts. He wrote that the drugs had made her “so completely female.” </p>
<p>Indeed, that was the point. The University of Virginia Medical Center in nearby Charlottesville had a clinic specifically for women like Rhoda. In fact, doctors there had been prescribing hormones and performing surgeries – what today we would call gender-affirming care – for years.</p>
<p>The founder of that clinic, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/milton-edgerton-trailblazing-plastic-surgeon-for-children-and-transgender-patients-dies-at-96/2018/07/16/28bcae0a-8836-11e8-8aea-86e88ae760d8_story.html">Dr. Milton Edgerton</a>, had cut his teeth caring for transgender people at Johns Hopkins University in the 1960s. There, he was part of a team that established the nation’s first university-based Gender Identity Clinic in 1966.</p>
<p>When politicians today refer to gender-affirming care as new, “<a href="https://www.advocate.com/health-care/mississippi-governor-ban-transgender-care">untested</a>” or “<a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2023/03/07/iowa-lawmakers-approve-gender-affirming-care-ban-for-transgender-youth/69980950007/">experimental</a>,” they ignore the long history of transgender medicine in the United States. </p>
<p>It’s been nearly 60 years since the first transgender medical clinic <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-forgotten-history-of-the-worlds-first-trans-clinic/">opened in the U.S.</a>, and 47 years since Rhoda started her hormone therapy. Understanding the history of these treatments in the U.S. can be a helpful guide for citizens and legislators in a year when <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d378d/anti-trans-bills-2023">a record number of bills</a> in statehouses target the rights of transgender people.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516765/original/file-20230321-2462-civ0ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Christine Jorgensen standing before a set of microphones at a press conference" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516765/original/file-20230321-2462-civ0ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516765/original/file-20230321-2462-civ0ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516765/original/file-20230321-2462-civ0ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516765/original/file-20230321-2462-civ0ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516765/original/file-20230321-2462-civ0ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516765/original/file-20230321-2462-civ0ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516765/original/file-20230321-2462-civ0ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Christine Jorgensen, who received gender-affirming treatments in the 1950s, was one of the first trans celebrities in the U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/new-york-new-york-christine-jorgensen-arriving-at-idlewild-news-photo/515992248">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Treating gender in every population</h2>
<p>As a trans woman and a <a href="https://gsrosenthal.com">scholar of transgender history</a>, I have spent much of the past decade <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469665801/living-queer-history/">studying these issues</a>. I also take several pills each morning to maintain the proper hormonal balance in my body: spironolactone to suppress testosterone and estradiol to increase estrogen.</p>
<p>When I began HRT, or hormone replacement therapy, like many Americans I wasn’t aware that this treatment had been around for generations. What I was even more surprised to learn was that HRT is often prescribed to cisgender women – women who were assigned female at birth and raised their whole lives as women. In fact, many providers in my region already had a <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469665801/living-queer-history/">long record of prescribing hormones to cis women</a>, primarily women experiencing menopause.</p>
<p>I also learned that gender-affirming hormone therapies have been prescribed to cisgender youths for generations – despite what contemporary politicians may think. Disability scholar Eli Clare has written of the history and continued practice of <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/brilliant-imperfection">prescribing hormones</a> to boys who are too short and girls who are too tall for what is considered a “normal” range for their gender. Because of binary gender norms that celebrate height in men and smallness in women, doctors, parents and ethicists have approved the use of hormonal therapies to make children conform to these gender stereotypes <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/292342/normal-at-any-cost-by-susan-cohen/">since at least the 1940s</a>.</p>
<p>Clare describes a severely disabled young woman whose parents – with the approval of doctors and ethicists from their local children’s hospital – administered puberty blockers so that she would never grow into an adult. They deemed her mentally incapable of becoming a “real” woman. </p>
<p>The history of these treatments demonstrates that hormone therapies and puberty blockers have been used on cisgender children in this country – for better or for worse – with the goal of regulating the passage from girlhood to womanhood and from boyhood to manhood. Gender stereotypes concerning the presence or absence of secondary sex characteristics – too tall, too short, too much body hair – have all led parents and doctors to perform gender-affirming care on cisgender children.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5dJduGC3HyQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Enforcement of binary gender norms has led to unwanted medical interventions on intersex children.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For over half a century, legal and medical authorities in the U.S. have also approved and administered surgeries and hormone therapies to force the bodies of intersex children to conform to binary gender stereotypes. I myself had genital surgery in infancy to bring my anatomy into alignment with expectations for what a “male” body should look like. In most cases, intersex surgeries are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/amajethics.2021.550">unnecessary for the</a> <a href="https://www.wgbh.org/news/science-and-technology/2019/10/24/medically-necessary-or-cruel-inside-the-battle-over-surgery-on-intersex-babies">health or well-being</a> of a child.</p>
<p>Historians such as Jules Gill-Peterson have shown that <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/histories-of-the-transgender-child">early advances in transgender medicine</a> in this country are deeply interwoven with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/trans-kids-in-the-us-were-seeking-treatment-decades-before-todays-political-battles-over-access-to-health-care-157481">nonconsensual treatment of intersex children</a>. Doctors at Johns Hopkins and the University of Virginia practiced reconstructing the genitalia of intersex people before applying those same treatments on transgender patients.</p>
<p>Given these intertwined histories, I contend that the current political focus on prohibiting gender-affirming care for transgender people is evidence that opposition to these treatments is not about the safety of any specific medications or procedures, but rather their use specifically by transgender people.</p>
<h2>How transgender people access care</h2>
<p>Many transgender people in the U.S. have deeply complicated feelings about gender-affirming care. This complexity is a result of over half a century of transgender medicine and patient experiences in the U.S.</p>
<p>In Rhoda’s time, medical gatekeeping meant that she had to live “full time” as a woman and prove her suitability for gender-affirming care to a team of primarily white, cis male doctors before they would give her treatment. She had to mimic language about being “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460717740258">born in the wrong body</a>” – language invented by cis doctors studying trans people, not by trans people themselves. She <a href="https://ojs.stanford.edu/ojs/index.php/intersect/article/view/2056">had to affirm</a> she would be heterosexual and seek marriage and monogamy with a man. She could not be a lesbian or bisexual or promiscuous. </p>
<p>Many trans people still need to jump through similar hoops today to receive gender-affirming care. For example, a diagnosis of “<a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria/what-is-gender-dysphoria">gender dysphoria</a>,” a designated mental disorder, is sometimes required before treatment. Many trans people argue that these preconditions for access to care should be removed because being trans is an identity and a lived experience, not a disorder.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KomI-XiiJw0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Transgender people undergo more evaluations to obtain gender-affirming care than do cisgender people.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Feminist activists in the 1970s also critiqued the role of medical authority in gender-affirming care. Writer Janice Raymond decried “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/transsexual-empire-the-making-of-the-she-male/oclc/29548586">the transsexual empire</a>,” her term for the physicians, psychologists and other professionals who practice transgender medicine. Raymond argued that cis male doctors were making an army of trans women to satisfy the male gaze: promoting iterations of womanhood that reinforced sexist gender stereotypes, ultimately ushering in the displacement and eradication of the world’s “biological” women. The origins of today’s gender-critical, or <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-words-we-use-matter-when-describing-anti-trans-activists-130990">trans-exclusionary radical feminist</a>, movement are visible in Raymond’s words. But as trans scholar Sandy Stone wrote in her <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-10-2_29-150">famous reply to Raymond</a>, it’s not that trans women are unwilling dupes of cis male medical authority, but rather that we have to strategically perform our womanhood in certain ways to access the care and treatments we need.</p>
<h2>The future of gender-affirming care</h2>
<p>In many states, especially in the South, where I live, governors and legislatures are introducing bills to ban gender-affirming care – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/02/28/anti-trans-bills-gender-affirming-care-adults/">even for adults</a> – in ignorance of history. The consequences of hurried legislation extend beyond trans people, because access to hormones and surgeries is a basic medical service many people may need to feel better in their body.</p>
<p>Prohibitions on hormone therapy and gender-related surgeries for minors could mean ending the same treatment options <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/gender-affirming-care-isnt-just-for-trans-people-rcna54651">for cisgender children</a>. The <a href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/2023/03/06/kentucky-anti-trans-bill-impacts-intersex-kids-forces-gender-choice/69965192007/">legal implications for intersex children</a> may directly clash with <a href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/documents/sb180_00_0000.pdf">proposed legislation</a> in several states that aims to codify “male” and “female” as discrete biological sexes with certain anatomical features. </p>
<p>Prohibitions on hormone replacement therapy for adults could affect access to the same treatments for menopausal women or limit access to hormonal birth control. Prohibitions of gender-affirming surgeries could affect anyone’s ability to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-bill-ban-gender-affirming-care-transgender-adults/">access a hysterectomy or a mastectomy</a>. So-called cosmetic surgeries such as breast implants or reductions, and even facial feminization procedures such as lip fillers or Botox, could also come under question. </p>
<p>These are all different types of gender-affirming procedures. Are most Americans willing to live with this level of government intrusion into their bodily autonomy? </p>
<p>Almost every <a href="https://searchlf.ama-assn.org/letter/documentDownload?uri=%2Funstructured%2Fbinary%2Fletter%2FLETTERS%2F2021-4-26-Bill-McBride-opposing-anti-trans-bills-Final.pdf">major medical organization</a> in the U.S. has come out against new government restrictions on gender-affirming care because, as doctors and professionals, they know that these treatments are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.xcrm.2022.100719">time-tested and safe</a>. These treatments have histories reaching back over 50 years.</p>
<p>Trans and intersex people are important voices in this debate, because our bodies are the ones politicians opposing gender-affirming care most frequently <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/arkansas-lawmaker-hearing-asks-transgender-woman-penis-rcna70787">treat as objects of ridicule and disgust</a>. Legislators are developing policies about us despite the fact that most Americans say they <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/07/27/rising-shares-of-u-s-adults-know-someone-who-is-transgender-or-goes-by-gender-neutral-pronouns/">do not even know a trans person</a>. </p>
<p>But trans and intersex people <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/03/23/transgender-adults-transitioning-poll/">know what it is like</a> to have to fight to access the care and treatment we need. And we know the joy of finally feeling comfortable in our own skin and being able to affirm our gender on our own terms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201752/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>G. Samantha Rosenthal is co-founder of the Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ History Project</span></em></p>
The first transgender medical clinic opened in the US in the 1960s. But cisgender and intersex children began receiving similar treatments even earlier – often without their consent.
G. Samantha Rosenthal, Associate Professor of History, Roanoke College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/200307
2023-03-23T13:34:58Z
2023-03-23T13:34:58Z
Women occupy very few academic jobs in Ghana. Culture and society’s expectations are to blame
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516646/original/file-20230321-1480-be3c0y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There is a dearth of women teaching at institutions of higher education in Ghana</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In many parts of the world, men dominate the higher education sector. A 2022 UNESCO <a href="https://www.iesalc.unesco.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/SDG5_Gender_Report-2.pdf">report</a> found that, globally, fewer than two out of five senior academics are women. In an earlier report it showed that <a href="http://uis.unesco.org/en/topic/women-science">less than 30%</a> of the world’s researchers are women.</p>
<p>Ghana is no exception. The country has made some progress in improving gender parity and inclusion through various <a href="https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-gender-gap-report-2017">national policies</a>. But this progress has not extended to jobs in the higher education sector. In 2009, drawing on data from six of the country’s public universities, the regulator for tertiary institutions, National Council for Tertiary Education <a href="https://gtec.edu.gh/download/file/FINAL-STATISTICAL-REPORT-ON-TERTIARY-EDUCATION16.pdf">reported</a> that just 19.5% of academic staff were women. </p>
<p>Our recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2022.2048636">research</a> suggests these figures have not improved in the past few years. We set out to understand why so few women occupy academic positions in Ghanaian universities. We did this because understanding the reasons will help efforts at developing appropriate policy responses. </p>
<p>Our findings showed that traditional gender norms were the main barrier to Ghanaian women pursuing academic careers. There are set ideas in Ghanaian society about what women can and should do. Examples include the fact that women are seen primarily as caregivers and mothers rather than as professionals seeking careers. Entrenched ideas about what women can or should do is a major issue because it evokes negative gender stereotypes. Many women have in many circumstances internalised these stereotypes and shared them. In turn, this has contributed to the low numbers of women academics in Ghanaian universities. </p>
<h2>Low representation</h2>
<p>The gender composition from nine Ghanaian universities based on <a href="https://gtec.edu.gh/download/file/Tertiary%20Education%20Statistics%20Report%202018.pdf">data</a> from the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission showed that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Only 10.2% of all full professors – the most senior academic level – were women</p></li>
<li><p>Women accounted for just 14.2% of those ranked as Associate Professors</p></li>
<li><p>Only 13.4% of senior lecturers were women; the figure was 22.8% for lecturers and 26.4% for assistant lecturers.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These numbers reflect similar numerical trends elsewhere in the world. <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/higher-education-statistics/staff-data">For example</a>, in Australia, women held 54.7% of lecturer ranks, 46.8% of senior lecturer ranks, and only 33.9% of women held ranks above senior lecturer. In Nigeria, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1261106/female-staff-in-nigerian-universities/">women represented </a> only 23.7% of academic staff in universities in the 2018/2019 academic year. In Sierra Leone, out of the 1779 full time academic staff only 267 were women <a href="https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/857591468302730070/pdf/ACS43930PNT0P10x0379833B00PUBLIC00.pdf#page=23">representing only 18%</a> of the total academic staff . </p>
<h2>What women told us</h2>
<p>We interviewed 43 female academics who represented a variety of academic disciplines categorised into three academic domains. These were biological/agriculture sciences, humanities and social sciences, and engineering/Information Technology. </p>
<p>Respondents included 3 professors/associate professors, 4 senior lecturers, 29 lecturers and 7 assistant lecturers. The interview questions were centred on participants’ own experiences and events within their work environment and the wider society. We also asked about female employment participation in higher education.</p>
<p>A number of respondents said that society expected them to have children while they were still young and that there was a perceived age limit for getting married. Education was only valued up to a point, as one respondent explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Everybody would want to see their child complete (a) first degree and once you are done with that you are virtually on your own. A lot of us would want to get married right after and that’s when you are lucky to have been grabbed whilst you were in school. And the next thing you have in society is that you get married and settle. And once you get married, in the first year everybody is expecting you to have a child. If you are deferring your childbearing to pursue education, society will raise a lot of concerns.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Others said that being highly educated limited their prospects of marriage. Ghanaian society felt men should care for women rather than women having a career of their own or being more successful than their husbands.</p>
<p>An interviewee told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… usually (in families) the man is known as the bread winner, so it is just normal that they will sacrifice the woman’s education for the man to improve and to be more economically secure to be able to take care of the family.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Cultural and societal norms meant that men were viewed as being better suited to teaching at a university level and forging careers in academia. Women, on the other hand were considered to be better teachers at the basic education level. </p>
<p>The interviewees also told us that, in their experience, academic institutions were unaware of the bias against them. </p>
<p>An interviewee told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… Many of our institutions are gender-blind in the distribution of PhD scholarships and other career development opportunities. They do not even know that the small number of women lecturers in the departments and faculties is a problem and that they need to do something urgently to address it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is known as <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-gender-blindness-5204197">gender blindness</a>. It shows that, even with the rise and widespread dissemination of national policy actions on gender equality, inclusion and grassroots activism, changes in behaviour and attitudes have not reached all institutions.</p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>There is a great opportunity to alter social structures to improve employment outcomes of women in the higher education sector – starting from societal norms, where attitudes and behaviour need to change. </p>
<p>This requires a multidimensional approach including social reconstruction through advocacy, social change activism and legislation. While the state should be driving legislation and social change advocacy, gender-based civil society organisations, universities, families and individuals also have a role to play. </p>
<p>The limited number of women occupying academic positions in Ghanaian universities undermines government efforts and national policy actions designed to improve gender equality in the workforce across the different sectors of the economy. <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/delivering-through-diversity">Research</a> has shown that there is significant value in a diverse gender mix in employment. It can help to achieve social justice and social inclusion with major economic benefits to the economy.</p>
<p>Changing society’s expectations is crucial. But Ghanaian universities should establish transparent gender-neutral policies towards recruitment and promotion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200307/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Desmond Tutu Ayentimi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Ghanaian traditional gender norms are the main barrier to Ghanaian women pursuing academic careers.
Desmond Tutu Ayentimi, Senior Lecturer in Management, University of Tasmania
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/196832
2022-12-22T06:56:02Z
2022-12-22T06:56:02Z
Nurses: attracting more men to the profession could help with talent shortage
<p>Seldom has the state of the NHS workforce been more in the public consciousness. A global survey of nurses undertaken by the consultancy firm <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/around-the-world-nurses-say-meaningful-work-keeps-them-going">McKinsey</a> in the summer of 2022 highlighted the perilous state of the sector. The survey, which was conducted in France, Singapore, Japan, the US, Australia, Brazil and the UK, found that around one in four nurses was considering leaving the profession. Central to this desire was the burnout that was caused by being overworked and understaffed.</p>
<p>It’s a situation that has been widely discussed in the UK as a result of the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64029578">first-ever strike</a> by members of the Royal College of Nursing in England. Data from <a href="https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-vacancies-survey/april-2015---september-2022-experimental-statistics">NHS Digital</a> reveals that there are over 133,000 unfilled vacancies across NHS England, with about one in three of these vacancies for registered nurses. The extent of the crisis is underlined by the fact that this figure has grown by 19% on the same period last year.</p>
<p>The huge number of unfilled vacancies has led to an understandable call for a renewed focus on recruiting new nurses into the NHS. It’s an effort that would be greatly helped if the sector was as attractive to men as it is to women. Indeed, official <a href="https://www.rcn.org.uk/congress/congress-events/male-nurses#:%7E:text=There%20are%20currently%20over%20690%2C000,jobs%20in%20the%20United%20Kingdom.">data</a> from the Nursing and Midwifery Council shows that just 11% of registered nurses in the UK today identify as men. </p>
<h2>Gender stereotypes</h2>
<p>This matters in a number of ways. First, men can often suffer from discrimination when applying to or working in stereotypically female roles. Indeed, <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/irel.12318">research</a> has shown that men receive about 40% fewer requests for interviews when applying for jobs in female-dominated sectors. </p>
<p>These gender-based stereotypes <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797620929297">emerge</a> as early as five years of age, with children associating certain professions with men and others with women – and they are incredibly hard to shift. To do so will require a rethink about how nurses are portrayed both in the media and in communication between the industry and the wider public.</p>
<p>We have seen in <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.19-12-0266">attempts</a> to increase the number of women studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) subjects, and participating in those industries, that having a strong supply of role models significantly increases participation by women. Just as those efforts have had to confound the stereotype that science and engineering were male disciplines, so too do we need a concerted effort to show that men can thrive as nurses as well.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Economics/Faculty/Glenn_Loury/louryhomepage/teaching/Ec%20237/Akerlof%20and%20Kranton%20(QJE)%202000.pdf">Research</a> shows that going against gender norms carries a social and emotional cost, but whereas there has grown to be less stigma associated with women when they perform “men’s” jobs, the same is not the case when men perform “women’s” jobs. This is confounded by the <a href="https://nursinglicensemap.com/blog/male-nurses/">stereotyping</a> often associated with male nurses as either effeminate or homosexual (or failed doctors). </p>
<p>Not only is the healthcare sector facing a chronic skills shortage today, but it is also <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/home.htm">estimated</a> that the number of jobs in the sector will grow by 13% by 2031. While there has been a justifiable focus on Stem subjects as underpinning the jobs of tomorrow, jobs in healthcare promise to be more important than ever due to the ageing society and general trend towards greater spending on healthcare. If the industry is to meet those needs, it cannot afford to overlook half of the population.</p>
<p>The successful efforts to increase female participation in Stem point to several approaches that could be adopted to do likewise for male participation in health-related roles. </p>
<p>For instance, healthcare organisations and universities should actively target men for vacancies and training opportunities. This should be done in conjunction with providing more positive male role models. The potential of this was highlighted by a recent NHS campaign, called <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/2019/02/young-male-nursing-applicants-surge-after-we-are-the-nhs-recruitment-campaign/">We are the NHS</a>, which resulted in a record number of male school leavers applying to be nurses. The campaign was backed by actor Charles Venn, who plays a nurse in the BBC series Casualty.</p>
<p>It’s an outcome that needs to be built upon, with investment to back up such campaigns. For instance, in the US, <a href="https://www.aamn.org/scholarships">The American Association for Men in Nursing</a> offers scholarships for men who have embarked on a career in nursing, but while this is encouraging, it is not at the same level as the financial support offered to Stem-related projects.</p>
<p>Getting more men into nursing has clear benefits for both the NHS and for society as a whole, but achieving it will require a truly national effort. We’ve shown what’s possible with the drive to get more women into Stem. Now we need to replicate that to ensure men feel that nursing is a career for them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196832/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zografia Bika currently receives EU funding from the Interreg France (Channel) England Programme (2018-2023) called 'Increase Valorisation Sociale' ('social value' in French) that offers micro-enterprise and employment-support services to those furthest from the labour market, who are often 'invisible' and face various complex barriers to work.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adi Gaskell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
There is a huge and growing number of unfilled nurse vacancies in the NHS. But there is a solution.
Adi Gaskell, Senior Research Associate, University of East Anglia
Zografia Bika, Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of East Anglia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/195965
2022-12-09T13:07:30Z
2022-12-09T13:07:30Z
Emotional labour: what it is – and why it falls to women in the workplace and at home
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499771/original/file-20221208-18-lesgl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=88%2C18%2C4105%2C2772&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-asian-trainee-intern-carrying-tray-1761274520">imtmphoto/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you ever been asked to make a cup of tea for your colleagues in the workplace? A recent <a href="https://news.samsung.com/uk/gender-bias-in-the-workplace-women-more-than-twice-as-likely-to-be-asked-to-make-tea-or-about-their-kids-than-men">survey commissioned by Samsung</a> of around <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/sexism-work-uk-survey-b2191367.html">2,000 employees</a> in the UK showed that this is about three times more likely to happen to you if you are a woman. </p>
<p>Women are expected to do more non-work office tasks, such as organising staff away days and cards and gifts for colleagues, than men. Even if a woman says no to a task like this, it’s likely that another women will be <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03677-6">asked in her place</a>. </p>
<p>Women are fearful of being seen as difficult and more likely to agree to take on the invisible and unpaid labour that detracts from their other responsibilities. They may think, “If I don’t do it, another woman will.” And women have to hide their displeasure or discomfort and pretend to be accommodating even at the cost of their own mental health. This process of managing, modulating and suppressing one’s emotions to fulfil expectations from others or to achieve professional goals is called “emotional labour”. </p>
<p>American sociologist Arlie Hochschild first introduced the <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520272941/the-managed-heart">concept of emotional labour</a> in 1983 to mean that emotions have a market and exchange value in our capitalist society. People are required to regulate their emotions to fit in with the emotional norm, and manage their emotions to ensure the smooth flow of business necessary to get a wage. </p>
<p>Emotional labour was never intended to be a gendered term. But invisible unpaid labour, like doing the office tea round, falls disproportionately on women – who then have to manage their emotional response to carrying out unwanted tasks.</p>
<p>As I discuss in my book <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/hysterical/pragya-agarwal/9781838853228">Hysterical</a>, this is is due to gendered stereotypes that women are more empathetic or nurturing. They lack the “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781405165518.wbeoss329.pub2">status shield</a>” – the social protection – that men have to act outside what is expected of their role. So women make the tea or organise the office Secret Santa, and pretend that they are happy to do so. </p>
<h2>Acting out empathy</h2>
<p>There actually seems to be little difference between men and women when it comes to the ability to empathise. However, there is a more significant difference between men’s and women’s <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-020-01260-8">motivation to show empathy</a>. Women are more conscious of their social gender roles and the need to conform to them – perhaps in order to advance their careers. </p>
<p>What’s more, while there is pressure on everyone to maintain pleasantness and conform to emotional rules, people of colour feel this pressure much more than others and have to modulate their emotions much more in the workplace. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black woman talking in work meeting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499772/original/file-20221208-21-5oyjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499772/original/file-20221208-21-5oyjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499772/original/file-20221208-21-5oyjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499772/original/file-20221208-21-5oyjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499772/original/file-20221208-21-5oyjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499772/original/file-20221208-21-5oyjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499772/original/file-20221208-21-5oyjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Women of colour have to manage their emotional response to discrimination as well as the expectations placed on their gender.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/unposed-group-creative-business-people-open-389252365">ESB Basic/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is because their regulation of emotions in the workplace is also likely to include having to deal with racially motivated hostility and micro-aggressions – small, subtle instances of discrimination that the perpetrator may not even realise they are doing. The intersection of the pressure placed on them by both their gender and their race means that this emotional labour is magnified for women of colour. </p>
<p>In academia, Black and brown women may have to perform <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/feb/05/talented-women-of-colour-are-blocked-why-are-there-so-few-black-female-professors">more emotional labour</a> than men and white women. Research has found that Black women scholars are <a href="https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3227&context=art_sci_etds">challenged by non-Black students</a> who perceive them as less capable and competent and confer lower status on them. </p>
<p>Despite microaggressions like these, Black and brown women academics have to manage their anger and frustration to appear professional because any anger outburst will only reinforce the stereotype that they are not, in fact, capable and professional.</p>
<p>This work – constantly being on high alert to figure out the emotional norms in the workplace, making an effort to appear to be warm and likeable, and suppressing emotions in order to create comfort for others – all have a impact on the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311698846_A_Qualitative_Study_of_the_Impact_of_Emotional_Labour_on_Health_Managers">health and wellbeing</a> of women and <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/09/the-psychological-toll-of-being-the-only-woman-of-color-at-work">women of colour</a> in particular. </p>
<h2>In the home</h2>
<p>While Hochschild does not extend the definition of emotional labour to the domestic domain, I do not agree. In the home, women often bear the responsibility for the everyday running of the house, childcare and all the niggly organisational tasks. </p>
<p>While taking on these roles, women also often internalise the message that they are expected to be nurturing, that this work of caring is their responsibility and shouldn’t seem so onerous – and that they should never complain, or get angry, tired and frustrated. And so they suppress any discontentment. </p>
<p>This emotional load is never higher than around the festive season. In heterosexual relationships, much of the burden of creating magic for everyone, especially the children, and making everyone feel comfortable and joyous seems to <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2013/12/22/women-do-all-work-christmas">fall to women</a> – even in the most <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/emotional-load-christmas_uk_5df7a9fde4b03aed50f22bb1">gender-equitable households</a>. </p>
<h2>What can we do?</h2>
<p>A significant part of the responsibility for changing this lies with men. They should reflect on their expectations of women around them in the workplace – and in the home. Men reading this should reflect: do you treat women differently to your male colleagues? Do you expect them to carry the burden of tasks that are often invisible and unpaid? If so, step up, address your internal biases and become an ally. </p>
<p>For women, it is important to learn to say no. It is true that taking a stand like this is another emotional burden for women to bear. But change has to start somewhere. </p>
<p>Or, another solution might be to <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/caitlin-moran-my-secret-tips-for-happiness-make-bad-tea-and-be-vanilla-in-bed-lngdvrtcc">just make a really bad cup of tea</a> and not be asked ever again. But that is unlikely to change the systemic problems for everyone. More importantly, women of colour do not have the luxury – or the status shield – to fail.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195965/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pragya Agarwal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Women have to take on more unpaid labour – and manage their emotional response to this extra work.
Pragya Agarwal, Visiting Professor of Social Inequities and Injustice, Loughborough University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/190620
2022-10-05T12:19:29Z
2022-10-05T12:19:29Z
Women in Antarctica face assault and harassment – and a legacy of exclusion and mistreatment
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486604/original/file-20220926-14-mtxbhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C40%2C5439%2C3596&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women in Antarctica experience significant barriers of sexism, prejudice and abuse.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-hikes-antarctic-peninsula-mountain-orne-royalty-free-image/1127819207">milehightraveler/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A federal report that, in the words of its key finding, “<a href="https://www.nsf.gov/geo/opp/documents/USAP%20SAHPR%20Report.pdf#page=7">sexual assault, sexual harassment, and stalking are problems</a> in the U.S. Antarctic Program community” – and that efforts “dedicated to prevention [are] nearly absent” – drew attention around the world. But as <a href="https://www.depts.ttu.edu/history/faculty/profiles/McCahey_Daniella.php">a historian of Antarctic science</a>, I did not find it surprising at all.</p>
<p>The report, released in August 2022 by the <a href="https://nsf.gov/">National Science Foundation</a>, which runs the <a href="https://www.usap.gov/">United States Antarctic Program</a>, found that many scientists and workers believe human resources staff “are dismissing, minimizing, shaming, and blaming victims who report sexual harassment and sexual assault.” A report with <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-63085209">similar findings about its national program</a> was released by the Australian Antarctic Division in late September 2022.</p>
<p>The fields of Antarctic science and exploration have long excluded women from the region altogether and <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/geo/opp/documents/USAP%20SAHPR%20Report.pdf#page=7">still have a strong culture focused on masculinity and chauvinism</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486598/original/file-20220926-4407-yqggt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two women and a dog" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486598/original/file-20220926-4407-yqggt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486598/original/file-20220926-4407-yqggt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486598/original/file-20220926-4407-yqggt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486598/original/file-20220926-4407-yqggt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486598/original/file-20220926-4407-yqggt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486598/original/file-20220926-4407-yqggt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486598/original/file-20220926-4407-yqggt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jennie Darlington, left, with Edith ‘Jackie’ Ronne, the first two women to be part of an Antarctic expedition, in 1947.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://polarjournal.ch/en/2020/07/21/edith-jackie-ronne-a-woman-first-in-antarctica/">Polar Journal</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An early opportunity</h2>
<p>The first Antarctic expedition to include women was the <a href="http://www.ronneantarcticexplorers.com/ronne_antarctic_research_expedition.htm">Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition</a>, in 1947-1948, a U.S.-based expedition with funding from the government and private sources, led by U.S. Navy Capt. Finn Ronne. His wife Edith “Jackie” Ronne accompanied her husband, as did Jennie Darlington, the wife of one of the pilots, Harry Darlington.</p>
<p>Their inclusion was groundbreaking. But their presence also <a href="https://upcolorado.com/university-press-of-colorado/item/1916-deep-freeze">was perceived by many in the polar community</a> to contribute to tensions between the young and inexperienced men, “hardening into a mold of accusation, innuendo, and dissension. … <a href="https://worldcat.org/title/17009323">Tension and turmoil were to take precedent over pioneering</a>,” as one historian wrote.</p>
<p>Jackie Ronne would return to Antarctica several times. But at that first expedition’s conclusion, Jennie Darlington asserted that “<a href="https://worldcat.org/title/1336731?hl=en">women do not belong in the Antarctic</a>” because of the harsh conditions, which might cause a person to require assistance or even rescue. She wrote, “Men should not be put in the position of endangering his own safety for another, lesser physical human.”</p>
<p>Darlington also reflected on the emotional burden she undertook. Many men, including her husband, believed that “Antarctica symbolized a haven, a place of high ideals and that <a href="https://worldcat.org/title/1336731?hl=en">inner peace men find only in an all-male atmosphere</a> in primitive surroundings.” She wrote, “My job was to be as inconspicuous within the group as possible. I felt that all feminine instincts should be sublimated. … I was determined not to act like a woman in a man’s world.” </p>
<p>She also commented on the psychological difficulty for both the women: “It was a tenuous balance, in which as women, <a href="https://worldcat.org/title/1336731?hl=en">we bore the major responsibility for the men’s conduct toward us</a>. … Any drawing of attention to myself, any gesture or indication that I expected certain courtesies, any show of bossiness or pretense would have been resented.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486596/original/file-20220926-12637-86yky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four women in parkas" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486596/original/file-20220926-12637-86yky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486596/original/file-20220926-12637-86yky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486596/original/file-20220926-12637-86yky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486596/original/file-20220926-12637-86yky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486596/original/file-20220926-12637-86yky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486596/original/file-20220926-12637-86yky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486596/original/file-20220926-12637-86yky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first four women to do research through the U.S. Antarctic Program in 1969 were, from left, Kay Lindsay, Terry Tickhill, Lois Jones and Eileen McSaveney.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/4406/">Eileen McSaveney via Antarctic Sun</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Excluding women</h2>
<p>The global scientific effort called the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/65-years-ago-the-international-geophysical-year-begins/">International Geophysical Year</a> in 1957-1958 changed the nature of Antarctic research from relatively small, short-term expeditions to the establishment of permanent bases on the continent. But as various countries shaped their respective Antarctic programs, many were adamant that women would not be included.</p>
<p>U.S. Navy Adm. George Dufek, the supervisor of U.S. programs in Antarctica, declared in 1957 that “<a href="https://upcolorado.com/university-press-of-colorado/item/1916-deep-freeze">women will not be allowed in the Antarctic until we can provide one woman for every man</a>,” implying that there would be no need for women in Antarctica except as sexual partners for the men.</p>
<p>Vivian Fuchs, the director of the British Antarctic Survey from 1958 to 1973, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2021.1873746">took a similar position</a> in the 1950s and declared as late as 1982: “Should it happen one day that women are included as part of the base complement, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/12665891">problems will certainly arise</a> [and] lead to the breakdown of that sense of unity which is so important to the group.”</p>
<p>The first women to formally participate in United States fieldwork were those in the <a href="https://artsandsciences.osu.edu/news/celebrating-lois-jones-50-year-legacy-polar-research">expedition led by geochemist Lois Jones</a> in 1969. Jones was permitted by the National Science Foundation to visit Antarctica only if she could form an <a href="https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/4406/">all-women’s expedition</a>. </p>
<p>Her <a href="https://byrd.osu.edu/symposia/celebrate-women/overview">team of four</a> was among the first six women to visit the South Pole, in a publicity stunt orchestrated by the U.S. Navy in which the women were labeled “<a href="https://worldcat.org/title/40602685">powder puff explorers</a>” by the media. </p>
<p>A senior New Zealand geologist, whom Jones had lobbied for assistance with her initial application, later appeared to regret it. He wrote a sexist screed declaring, “The flood gates opened and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2021.1873746">every feminist world-wide screamed sexism, racism etc.</a> if they were refused an expensive three month Antarctic trip. It is an age-old desire of unmarried females to be where the boys are and in many I have met, there is no question this was the dominant urge.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486589/original/file-20220926-13-mx03zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C1%2C538%2C432&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Six women wearing heavy parkas stand in front of a large striped pole with a mirrored ball on top." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486589/original/file-20220926-13-mx03zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C1%2C538%2C432&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486589/original/file-20220926-13-mx03zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486589/original/file-20220926-13-mx03zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486589/original/file-20220926-13-mx03zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486589/original/file-20220926-13-mx03zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486589/original/file-20220926-13-mx03zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486589/original/file-20220926-13-mx03zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From left, the first six women ever to visit the South Pole, in 1969: Pam Young, Jean Pearson, Terry Tickhill, Lois Jones, Eileen McSaveney and Kay Lindsay.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_images.jsp?cntn_id=115957&org=OPP">U.S. Navy via National Science Foundation</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Obstacles abound</h2>
<p>Irene Penden, the first woman to work in the Antarctic interior, went in 1970 to study the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/trailblazing-engineer-irene-peden-broke-antarctic-barriers-women-180972330/">movement of very low radio frequency waves</a>. But it wasn’t easy. She later wrote, “For whatever reason, probably because there had been so much foot-dragging about and resentment of the first women going there, a mythology had been created about the women who’d gone to the coast – that they had been a problem. <a href="https://worldcat.org/title/37903491">I heard that their presence had been a problem</a> and they had not been productive because they had not published anything yet.” Yet it had only been a few months since that first group of women had finished their research season, and generally it takes more than a year for field data to be converted into scientific articles.</p>
<p>Further, the U.S. Navy, which controlled the transportation to, from and within Antarctica, also argued that Penden should be forbidden because of the lack of women’s bathrooms on board ships and in the Antarctic generally. It is a complaint that was echoed throughout the period of women’s integration into Antarctic national programs through the 1990s, as well as in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/2154896X.2017.1373915">other settings such as the military and outer space</a>.</p>
<p>While most principal investigators did not need to write a proposal to get a trip to Antarctica, to put pressure on the Navy, the National Science Foundation required that she write a specific proposal for a short-term trip, have it peer-reviewed, and get it approved internally. After “I went through that whole rigamarole … they kept dragging their feet,” she wrote. So Penden arranged to give a briefing on her work to relevant people from the National Science Foundation and the Navy so that Navy leadership “<a href="https://worldcat.org/title/37903491">could see how totally scientific and professional I was</a> [and] would realize that I was not some adventuress just trying to get down there where all the men were, which was the kind of thing they were saying.” </p>
<p>The admiral in question did not come to the meeting. However, he later gave permission for her travel if she could find a woman to accompany her. Rather than find another scientist, Penden was accompanied by a New Zealand mountaineer, Julia Vickers. While on the ice, Penden was warned by the station chief, “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/women-in-the-antarctic/oclc/37903491">If you fail</a>, there won’t be another woman on the Antarctic continent for a generation.”</p>
<h2>Hostility builds</h2>
<p>One major result of the practice of excluding women and singling them out as outsiders was that behavior explicitly hostile to women became commonplace in Antarctica.</p>
<p>While women started being part of the United States research program in 1969, the British Antarctic Survey did not fully integrate until 1996, finally allowing women to spend the winter at their remote Halley Station. In the bases and expeditions mounted by both nations, and other countries too, Antarctica remained constructed as a place that was decidedly male. </p>
<p>Pornographic material was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2021.1873746">publicly consumed and even created</a>. Walls were often decorated with images of nude or scantily clad women. The carpenter’s hut at Australia’s Mawson Station famously included the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/593379">Sistine Ceiling</a>,” with clippings of over 90 Playboy models plastered over the ceiling and walls. </p>
<p>This remained at Mawson until 2005, 20 years after women were allowed to work at the station. That year it was destroyed by an unknown person to the disappointment of some, who felt the destroyer had “<a href="https://worldcat.org/title/711720087">assumed the right to play heritage vandal or moral police for everyone</a>.”</p>
<p>Today, the idea that Antarctica is a region <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247418000207">dominated by adventurous hero-scientists</a> persists. The stereotypical image of a man sporting <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/antarctica-9781844866236/">an ice-encrusted beard</a> remains the most emblematic visage of an Antarctic explorer. And this view of Antarctica <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132515623368">as a place for men</a> continues to create barriers to women’s participation both on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209983">stations and in remote fieldwork</a>.</p>
<p>Indeed, Antarctic science remains <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/593340">highly male-dominated</a>, which, during the early days of the #MeToo movement in 2017, revealed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2020.1774864">many troubling allegations about the dangers that women continued to face</a>, including sexual harassment and even sexual assault. So while this recent National Science Foundation report may have many shocking and revealing elements, <a href="https://theconversation.com/antarctic-stations-are-plagued-by-sexual-harassment-its-time-for-things-to-change-189984">none of it is a surprise to any woman</a> who has either worked or attempted to work in Antarctica.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190620/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniella McCahey has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the Royal Society of New Zealand. </span></em></p>
The U.S. Antarctic Program struggles to keep women safe – and through the continent’s history, discrimination and prejudice are rampant.
Daniella McCahey, Assistant Professor of History, Texas Tech University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/188532
2022-08-24T22:45:49Z
2022-08-24T22:45:49Z
Does a sibling’s gender influence our own personality? A major new study answers an age-old question
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480678/original/file-20220823-632-lq8kfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C8%2C5590%2C3715&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Our siblings play a central role in our childhoods, so it stands to reason they influence our personality in the long term. In particular, researchers have long been interested in how growing up with a sister compared to a brother might influence who we become as adults. </p>
<p>How do children interact with their sister or brother? How do parents behave differently towards their children of different genders, and how does that interaction influence the children? </p>
<p>Past theories have made quite different predictions: siblings of the opposite gender may plausibly result in either <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2786054">gender-stereotypical personalities</a> (a girl may take on a more feminine role to differentiate herself from her brother) or <a href="https://doi.org/10.9783/9781512800807">less gender stereotypical personalities</a> (a girl may take on more masculine traits because she imitates her brother).</p>
<p>In fact, psychological research has been exploring these differences for over half a century. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.02.037">In some studies</a>, siblings of the opposite sex seemed to be more gender-conforming. Girls with brothers later become more “typically female” and boys with sisters more “typically male”.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/h0030055">Other studies find the exact opposite</a>, however. Opposite gender siblings developed in typically gender-conforming ways. To resolve these contradictions, we wanted to test the effect of sibling gender on personality in a rigorous and comprehensive way.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480681/original/file-20220823-16-4ll79p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480681/original/file-20220823-16-4ll79p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480681/original/file-20220823-16-4ll79p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480681/original/file-20220823-16-4ll79p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480681/original/file-20220823-16-4ll79p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480681/original/file-20220823-16-4ll79p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480681/original/file-20220823-16-4ll79p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Like brother, like sister? Researchers have differed on the likely influence of an opposite gender sibling on personality.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Using big data</h2>
<p>In our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221094630">new study</a> we focused on the relationships between children and their next older or younger sibling. We compiled a unique data set by combining 12 large representative surveys covering nine countries across four continents (US, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Mexico, China and Indonesia).</p>
<p>This resulted in a data set of more than 85,000 people – many times the sample sizes used in previous studies.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-do-children-develop-their-gender-identity-56480">When do children develop their gender identity?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We also investigated many more personality traits than previous studies have. This included the traits that have been most widely studied in other research, and which have been shown to be important predictors of people’s decisions and choices.</p>
<p>The “big five” of these traits are: openness to experiences, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. The other traits examined were: risk tolerance, trust, patience and “locus of control” (the degree to which people believe they have control over their lives).</p>
<p>We also created an index describing to what extent people have a typically female personality. This allowed us to test comprehensively whether growing up with an opposite gender sibling leads to a more or less gender-stereotypical personality.</p>
<h2>Sibling gender and life experience</h2>
<p>This study is not only innovative in its use of a large data set, but it also applies a consistent method to identify any causal effects of a sibling’s gender on personality traits. </p>
<p>To estimate credible causal effects, we make use of an interesting fact of nature: once parents decide to have another child it is essentially random whether they have a girl or boy. In this “natural experiment” some people are therefore “randomly assigned” a younger sister or brother. </p>
<p>This allows us to estimate the causal effect of sibling gender on personality by comparing the average personality of people who grew up with a sister as their next youngest sibling with those who grew up with a next younger brother. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-your-squabbling-kids-driving-you-mad-the-good-bad-news-is-sibling-rivalry-is-developmentally-normal-186300">Are your squabbling kids driving you mad? The good/bad news is, sibling rivalry is 'developmentally normal'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Brothers and sisters</h2>
<p>Our results suggest sibling gender has no effect on personality. For all nine personality traits and the summary index, we find people who have a next younger sister display, on average, the same personality traits as people who have a next younger brother. </p>
<p>We also see no difference in personality between people who have a next older sister and people who have a next older brother. Because we have data on more than 85,000 people, these results are estimated with great precision.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-parents-play-favourites-what-happens-to-the-kids-110019">When parents play favourites, what happens to the kids?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The results help refute the idea that brothers or sisters cause each other to develop “feminine” or “masculine” personality traits over the long term.</p>
<p>However, the results don’t mean sibling gender has no long-term effect at all. Other studies that applied a similar methodological approach have shown that women with brothers in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2019.02.009">US</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-021-00830-9">Denmark</a> earn less. And a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjt011">study of Asian populations</a> has found women with younger sisters marry earlier and women with older sisters marry later. </p>
<p>So, there seem to be interesting sibling dynamics related to gender – but personality is probably not part of the explanation for those effects.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188532/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>During this research project, Thomas Dudek received funding from QuakeCoRE, a New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission-funded Centre. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Ardila Brenøe and Jan Feld do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Researchers have long differed on whether growing up with a sister or brother influences who we become as adults. New research using big data aims to finally settle the argument.
Jan Feld, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Anne Ardila Brenøe, Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Zurich
Thomas Dudek, Postdoctoral Researcher, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/186639
2022-07-12T01:44:16Z
2022-07-12T01:44:16Z
For the love of Thor! Why it’s so hard for Marvel to get its female superheroes right
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473300/original/file-20220711-26-sq97xn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C9%2C6029%2C3992&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When it was first revealed that Natalie Portman was to become the “female Thor” in Marvel’s latest superhero instalment, Thor: Love and Thunder, fans were quick to <a href="https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/if-she-be-worthy/259582">condemn the decision</a> on social media. </p>
<p>Portman was lambasted as not “<a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Swole">swole</a>” enough, too petite, and generally not what people imagined the character to be. Ten months of <a href="https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/movies/new-movies/natalie-portmans-trainer-reveals-how-the-star-got-so-ripped-for-thor/news-story/f068c4080ebb18716dcd25855905611b">intensive workouts and a high-protein diet</a> later, and Portman is being <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/natalie-portman-thor-arms-madonna-b2117769.html">applauded</a> for arms that “could actually throw giant hammers at baddies’ heads”. </p>
<p>Yet that early reaction to Portman’s casting attests to how the representation of female superheroes can be difficult for movie-makers when the established audience is often perceived to be young, white, cisgender and male. </p>
<p>It seemingly doesn’t matter that the number of women consuming superhero content has <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09540253.2019.1633460?journalCode=cgee20">increased</a>. Offering feminist depictions of characters that could challenge the defining masculinity of the genre remains a problem.</p>
<p>What does this mean for Portman and the female superheroes who have come before (and will follow) her? The answer seems to be that the makers of superhero movies inevitably <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793624598/The-Superhero-Multiverse-Readapting-Comic-Book-Icons-in-Twenty-First-Century-Film-and-Popular-Media">subvert some gender stereotypes</a> while maintaining others. </p>
<p>In short, they offer token female representation so as not to ostracise audiences. So while she might now be more muscular, Portman is still subordinated to Chris Hemsworth’s Thor by highlighting that she is first and foremost his love interest.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473303/original/file-20220711-12-cwnqgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473303/original/file-20220711-12-cwnqgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473303/original/file-20220711-12-cwnqgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473303/original/file-20220711-12-cwnqgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473303/original/file-20220711-12-cwnqgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473303/original/file-20220711-12-cwnqgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473303/original/file-20220711-12-cwnqgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">More muscles but still mainly the love interest: Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth in Thor: Love and Thunder.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Too few female superheroes</h2>
<p>Granted, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) franchise has at least attempted to cast female leads and to advocate for women’s issues. For example, Black Widow’s standalone film was in part <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/scarlett-johansson-black-widow-feminist-me-too-times-up-empire-a9704806.html">intended to contribute</a> to the dialogue around the #Timesup and #MeToo movements. </p>
<p>And the latest Thor offering explores the value of female friendships, with co-star <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2022/06/22/thor-love-and-thunder-natalie-portman-building-mighty-physique/7687523001/">Tessa Thompson attesting</a> to her character Valkyrie being “happy to have found a new sister”.</p>
<p>There’s no doubt female viewers can identify with these powerful women and their stories and as a result form positive attitudes to the superhero genre in general. But that means more superhero films need to be made with the female viewer in mind.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-witch-treatment-what-dr-stranges-wanda-tells-us-about-representations-of-female-anger-184509">The witch treatment: What Dr. Strange's Wanda tells us about representations of female anger</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Such offerings are few and far between, however. Let’s not forget it took Marvel ten years to give Black Widow her own film after her original introduction to the franchise (in 2010’s Iron Man 2). </p>
<p>In many ways, Marvel’s films continue to depict women as auxiliaries – damsels in distress, love interests, or subordinate in some way to their male counterparts. In fact, actress <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-57524423">Scarlett Johansson criticised</a> the earlier “hyper-sexualisation” of her Black Widow character. </p>
<p>Similarly, Scarlet Witch, one of the most powerful of the Avengers characters, is often defined by the male relationships in her life. In the recent Dr Strange: The Multiverse of Madness, she typifies many <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-witch-treatment-what-dr-stranges-wanda-tells-us-about-representations-of-female-anger-184509">unfavourable female tropes</a>, including the “hysterical woman” and “monstrous mother”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473309/original/file-20220711-23-gukdpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473309/original/file-20220711-23-gukdpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473309/original/file-20220711-23-gukdpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473309/original/file-20220711-23-gukdpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473309/original/file-20220711-23-gukdpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473309/original/file-20220711-23-gukdpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473309/original/file-20220711-23-gukdpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A billboard advertising Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow: ‘hyper-sexualised’ stereotypes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The hyper-sexualised stereotype</h2>
<p>Treating even powerful female characters as <a href="https://www.panicdiscourse.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/5-19-Holding-Out-for-a-Heroine.pdf">subordinate or dependent</a> might reassure male fans that superheroines aren’t a threat to the masculine undertones of the genre, but it does a disservice to the female audience. </p>
<p>Asked to assess superhero graphic novels and films, most women in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1045159514546214">one study</a> said they disliked and avoided the DC Comics character of Catwoman because she was presented as manipulative and emotional. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/captain-marvel-why-female-superheroes-are-not-just-for-international-womens-day-113083">Captain Marvel: why female superheroes are not just for International Women's Day</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Other <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/car.1094">research has found</a> that exposure to messages of powerlessness can lead girls to feel demoralised and dissatisfied with their own identities, and the overly sexualised depiction of female superheroes can result in <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-015-0455-3">lower body esteem</a> in women.</p>
<p>On the other hand, some also rebel against the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21504857.2014.916327">stereotypes</a>. <a href="https://thehawkeyeinitiative.tumblr.com/">The Hawkeye Initiative</a>, for example, parodies the male gaze within the comic book genre by depicting men in the same absurd costumes and poses normally reserved for female characters.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"751795774900543488"}"></div></p>
<h2>Male backlash and box office risk</h2>
<p>The real issue, though, is whether women should even have to challenge such depictions. If more films and comics were made by women for women, perhaps there would be fewer tokenistic portrayals to begin with.</p>
<p>Marvel has rejected criticism of its female characters, with its <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/marvels-kevin-feige-calls-black-widow-backlash-a-little-strange-boasts-his-movies-are-full-of-smart-intelligent-powerful-women/">president saying</a> the studio has always “gone for the powerful woman versus the damsel in distress” and pointing to the recent release of female-led superhero films and TV programs such as She-Hulk and Ms Marvel.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/supermans-not-the-first-hero-to-be-portrayed-as-bisexual-but-hell-bring-hope-to-lgbtq-fans-169898">Superman's not the first hero to be portrayed as bisexual, but he'll bring hope to LGBTQ+ fans</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Trouble is, it’s hard to keep everyone happy. Marvel has felt the backlash from die-hard male fans to a supposed feminist agenda underpinning the studio’s direction. 2019’s Captain Marvel, for example, was touted as <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-ca-mn-captain-marvel-directors-20190228-story.html">bringing feminism</a> to the Marvel universe, but <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/13/movies/captain-marvel-brie-larson-rotten-tomatoes.html">poor reviews and audience ratings</a> were attributed in part to perceived political correctness and a narrative based on female agency. </p>
<p>Researchers such as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21504857.2016.1219958?casa_token=DXr8QHcO8nUAAAAA%3AHBBbBqJoe6-VxG-a1kak5O-52rNPUXySYFwJRKjh9ALcXyO9KpYTQLcRL0j-7Q6AVIdGp6Kq7pVibA">Stephanie Orme</a> have contended that the dominance of men in the superhero genre leaves many female fans feeling alienated and unable to change the gender stereotypes, precisely because they’re not seen as the target audience.</p>
<p>It seems that without more and better film and comic female superheroes telling women’s stories, these male-centric genres will continue to alienate female audiences – and to fall short of their creative and commercial potential.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186639/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angelique Nairn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Director Taika Waititi’s new Thor: Love and Thunder features a female superhero, but again struggles to transcend the stereotypes of a genre where the male fan base still decides the rules.
Angelique Nairn, Senior Lecturer in Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/182382
2022-05-09T13:21:09Z
2022-05-09T13:21:09Z
There are reasons girls don’t study physics – and they don’t include not liking maths
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461986/original/file-20220509-22-x2m7us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C16%2C5570%2C3708&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teacher-conducting-physics-lesson-classroom-1837738717">Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“From my own knowledge of these things, physics is not something that girls tend to fancy. They don’t want to do it … There’s a lot of hard maths in there that I think that they would rather not do,” Katharine Birbalsingh, chair of the UK government’s Social Mobility Commission and a secondary school head teacher, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/katharine-birbalsingh-michaela-community-school-stem-mps-science-and-technology-committee-b2066829.html">told the Commons Science and Technology Committee</a> on April 27 2022. </p>
<p>Comments like this are extremely disappointing. There are multiple reasons why girls don’t choose to study physics at A-level or for a degree – and “not wanting to do maths” is not one of them. </p>
<p>Instead, the reasons include getting less support from teachers and parents and stereotypes about who generally takes these subjects.</p>
<h2>Comparing achievement</h2>
<p>Birbalsingh commented that “hard maths” was stopping girls taking physics. If this were the case, though, we would expect to see far fewer girls taking maths. However, in 2019, 39% of A-Level exam entrants in maths were girls, compared to 23% in physics. This shows that the reasons girls don’t take physics has more to do with physics than maths.</p>
<p>What’s more, girls and boys achieve similar grades in maths and physics. <a href="https://www.jcq.org.uk/examination-results/">In 2019</a> – the last year standard exams were set – 8.5% of girls achieved an A* in Physics A-level compared to 8.8% of boys; 28.7% of girls and 27.6% of boys scored an A grade. The same pattern can be seen in GCSE results. But more boys than girls choose to go on to study science at a higher level. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1519330876936663040"}"></div></p>
<p><a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/departments-and-centres/departments/education-practice-and-society/aspires-research#:%7E:text=Longitudinal%20research%20project%20studying%20young,March%202017%20during%20ASPIRES%202.">The ASPIRES project</a> has followed a group of students from the age of 10 to young adulthood, studying their ambitions related to science. <a href="https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10092041/6/Moote_9538%20UCL%20Aspires%202%20report%20online%20version.pdf">The project has</a> found that, throughout secondary school, boys are more likely than girls to say they would like to become a scientist. This difference increased over the course of secondary school, with the biggest gap being found in year 13. </p>
<p>There is evidence that the expectations placed on pupils by teachers plays a large role in which students go on to take physics at higher levels. <a href="https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10092041/6/Moote_9538%20UCL%20Aspires%202%20report%20online%20version.pdf">The ASPIRES project</a> found that from ages ten to 18, boys were significantly more likely than girls to say that their teacher expected them to do well in science, and to feel that their teacher was interested in whether they understood science. The research found that girls often did not feel “clever enough” to do physics, even though girls achieve similar grades to boys. </p>
<h2>Gender sterotypes</h2>
<p>In physics the stereotype is that boys are naturally better at it than girls, and this messaging is still being passed on (both intentionally and unintentionally) to our young people in school, in their home lives and through the the media. A well known example is the television show the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898266/">Big Bang Theory</a>, which features four male physicists and engineers and their ditsy female neighbour. </p>
<p>These findings are backed up by the <a href="https://www.iop.org/sites/default/files/2020-11/IOP-Limit-Less-report-2020-Nov.pdf">Institute of Physics’ (IOP) Limit Less</a> report, which found that girls are often told that physics is more suited to boys. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two girls in science class" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461979/original/file-20220509-19-mkr8t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4984%2C3318&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461979/original/file-20220509-19-mkr8t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461979/original/file-20220509-19-mkr8t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461979/original/file-20220509-19-mkr8t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461979/original/file-20220509-19-mkr8t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461979/original/file-20220509-19-mkr8t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461979/original/file-20220509-19-mkr8t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Girls and boys achieve similar results in physics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/students-class-electronic-projects-76986022">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another report by the <a href="https://www.iop.org/sites/default/files/2019-04/its-different-for-girls.pdf">IOP</a> shows that in single-sex schools a greater proportion of girls took physics than in coeducational schools, across both the state and private school system. In environments where gendered messaging is lessened, the participation rate of girls increases. </p>
<p>It is vitally important to remove the barriers to girls’ participation in physics. We are part of the South East Physics Network (<a href="https://www.sepnet.ac.uk/">SEPnet</a>), a collaboration of nine university physics departments working together to promote excellence in physics with a focus on diversity. </p>
<p>At SEPnet we created the <a href="https://www.sepnet.ac.uk/outreach/schools/shatteringstereotypes/">Shattering Stereotypes</a> programme in 2017 to raise awareness among students of gendered stereotyping in subject choice, and equip them with tools to be resilient to this. We also provide teacher training in this area to support teachers’ awareness of the damage gender stereotypes and gendered language can have, and to provide them with resources and tools to combat them. </p>
<p>The IOP runs multiple projects to address the gender imbalance in physics. Their Limit Less campaign supports young people from all backgrounds to fulfil their potential by doing physics. The <a href="https://www.iop.org/about/publications/improving-gender-balance">Improving Gender Balance Project</a> is a research project working with schools to identify ways to improve balance across the school environment.</p>
<p>In spite of all of this, Birbalsingh’s remarks show that we have a long way to go to normalise the idea that both girls and boys are capable of, and inherently interested in, studying physics. As a society we need to shift our perceptions on the relationship between gender and STEM subjects such as physics.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182382/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jen Gupta receives funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olivia Keenan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Girls report not feeling clever enough to take physics.
Olivia Keenan, SEPnet Director of Outreach and Public Engagement, School of Physical and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London
Jen Gupta, Senior Public Engagement and Outreach Fellow, University of Portsmouth
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/172279
2021-11-24T13:41:51Z
2021-11-24T13:41:51Z
Stereotypes about girls dissuade many from careers in computer science
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433194/original/file-20211122-27-gyvft9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C2986%2C2001&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Only about 1 in 5 computer scientists are women. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/project-mc2-mika-abdalla-victoria-vida-and-genneya-walton-news-photo/871499520?adppopup=true">Rachel Murray/Getty Images for MGA Entertainment</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Stereotypes about what boys and girls supposedly like aren’t hard to find.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/12/toys-are-more-divided-by-gender-now-than-they-were-50-years-ago/383556/">Toy advertisements</a> send signals that science and electronic toys are intended for boys rather than girls. Computer scientists and engineers on <a href="https://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/portray-her-full-report.pdf">television shows and movies</a> are often white men, like the guys on “The Big Bang Theory.”</p>
<p>Policymakers, teachers and <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2002-11235-005">parents</a> sometimes subscribe to these stereotypes, too. They might <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00049">spread them to children</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-073115-103235">Efforts</a> to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/07/business/google-women-engineer-fired-memo.html">combat these stereotypes</a> often focus on boys’ and girls’ abilities.</p>
<p>But as researchers who specialize in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_UmfrM8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">motivation</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JmWiiRAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">identity</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5jrePlgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">cognitive development</a>, we think society has largely overlooked another harmful stereotype. And that is the notion that girls are less interested than boys are in STEM.</p>
<p>In our peer-reviewed research – published in November 2021 in <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/48/e2100030118">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a> – we found that these stereotypes about girls’ interest in science, technology, engineering and math – or lack thereof – are fairly widespread among young people today. We also found that these stereotypes actually have an effect on girls’ motivation and sense of belonging in computer science and engineering.</p>
<h2>Gains made</h2>
<p>Fields like math are <a href="https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf21321">close to having gender parity</a> – that is to say, roughly equal numbers of men and women – and <a href="https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf21321">women are actually overrepresented</a> in fields like biology among college graduates in the U.S.</p>
<p>Yet, the nation is still failing to diversify computer science and engineering. <a href="https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf21321">Only about 1 in 5</a> degrees in computer science and engineering go to women.</p>
<p>Our research shows that societal stereotypes linking these fields with boys and men act as a barrier that keeps girls and young women away. There have been many conversations about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/magazine/why-are-there-still-so-few-women-in-science.html">the harm caused</a> by <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1999/08/thin-ice-stereotype-threat-and-black-college-students/304663">stereotypes about natural talent</a>, which assert that men are better than women at STEM. But what might be even more detrimental for girls’ motivation are stereotypes that men are more interested than women in these activities and careers. These stereotypes may give girls the sense that they don’t belong.</p>
<h2>Probing children’s perceptions</h2>
<p>For our study, our first step was to document whether children and adolescents believe these societal stereotypes. We surveyed 2,277 youths in grades 1-12 in 2017 and 2019 about how interested they think girls and boys are in computer science and engineering. The majority of youths reported that boys were more likely than girls to be interested in these fields. Most youths – 63% – believed that girls are less interested than boys in engineering. Only 9% believed that girls are more interested than boys in engineering. These “interest stereotypes,” if you will, were endorsed by youths from diverse backgrounds, including Black, white, Asian and Hispanic youths.</p>
<p>They were endorsed by kids as early as age 6, in first grade. These beliefs about gendered interests were also more common than stereotypes about ability, that boys are more talented than girls at these fields.</p>
<p>We also discovered that these interest stereotypes were linked to worse outcomes for girls. The more that a typical girl in our study believed in these stereotypes favoring boys, the less motivated she was in computer science and engineering. This wasn’t the case for the typical boy. The more he believed in these stereotypes, the more motivated he was.</p>
<h2>Effects on motivation</h2>
<p>We also did two laboratory experiments using a gold-standard random-assignment design to see whether interest stereotypes have causal effects on motivation. We told children about two activities they could try. The only difference between the activities was that one activity – one that was randomly chosen – was linked to a stereotype that girls were less interested than boys in that activity. </p>
<p>The other activity was not linked to such a stereotype. If children preferred one activity over the other, we could infer that the stereotype caused a difference in their preferences. We found that interest stereotypes can actually cause girls’ lower motivation for computer science activities.</p>
<p>Only 35% of girls chose the stereotyped activity over the nonstereotyped activity. These stereotypes – which favored boys in this case – weren’t a problem for boys, who showed no preference. There was no gender gap when there was no stereotype – a gender gap only appeared when the activity was stereotyped.</p>
<h2>Dismantling stereotypes</h2>
<p>Why are interest stereotypes so powerful? Interest stereotypes may make girls assume: If boys like these fields more than girls, then I won’t like these fields either. They also send a clear signal about who belongs there. <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2015-37516-001">A sense of belonging matters a lot</a> for motivation, including young women in STEM fields like computer science and engineering. The lower the girls’ sense of belonging, the lower their interest.</p>
<p>But what if the stereotypes are true? On average, girls in the U.S. usually do report being less interested than boys in <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2015-37516-001">computer science</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072712475290">engineering</a>.</p>
<p>Whether or not these cultural stereotypes are currently true, we believe they can create a vicious cycle. Girls might miss out on opportunities because of an assumption that they are not interested or should not be interested in certain STEM fields. Unless adults deliberately send girls a different message about who belongs in computer science and engineering, we as a society discourage girls from trying these activities and discovering that they like them. </p>
<p>But the good news is that the lack of belonging that many girls feel in certain STEM feels is not permanent. On the contrary, we think it can be changed.</p>
<p>There are simple ways to send kids a different message about who likes to do computer science and engineering. Parents and other adults can check their assumptions about what toys to buy girls for their birthdays or holidays, or what summer camps they should attend. Girls can be shown examples of women like <a href="https://www.becauseofthemwecan.com/blogs/news/self-driving-startup-zoox-led-by-black-female-ceo-aicha-evans-is-purchased-by-amazon-for-1-2-billion">Aicha Evans</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEeTLopLkEo">Debbie Sterling</a> – women who are changing the world through technology and enjoying themselves while doing so.</p>
<p>It’s not enough for girls to realize that they can do computer science and engineering. In order to change the status quo, we think it’s necessary to spread the word that many girls actually want to do these things as well.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172279/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allison Master receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the U. S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute of Education Sciences, the U.S. Department of Education, or other funders. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew N. Meltzoff gratefully acknowledges receipt of funding from the National Science Foundation, the Bezos Family Foundation, and the Overdeck Family Foundation. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the funders.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sapna Cheryan receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. The views expressed by the authors do not necessarily represent the views of these funders.</span></em></p>
Could it be that girls aren’t pursuing jobs in computer science and engineering because society has told them that’s not what they want to do? Three scholars weigh in.
Allison Master, Assistant Professor of Education, University of Houston
Andrew N. Meltzoff, Professor of Psychology, University of Washington
Sapna Cheryan, Professor of Psychology, University of Washington
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/168443
2021-11-10T13:41:08Z
2021-11-10T13:41:08Z
Betty Crocker turns 100 – why generations of American women connected with a fictional character
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430329/original/file-20211104-19-1kh000k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=57%2C0%2C421%2C325&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Betty Crocker's first official portrait, on the left, from 1936. Her most recent portrait, from 1996, is on the right.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://changeoffaces.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/betty-then-and-now.jpg">BettyCrocker.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Though she celebrates her 100th birthday this year, Betty Crocker was never born. Nor does she ever really age. </p>
<p>When her face did change over the past century, it was because it had been reinterpreted by artists and shaped by algorithms. </p>
<p>Betty’s <a href="https://www.bettycrocker.com/menus-holidays-parties/mhplibrary/parties-and-get-togethers/vintage-betty/the-betty-crocker-portraits">most recent official portrait</a> – painted in 1996 to celebrate her 75th birthday – was inspired by a composite photograph, itself based on photographs of 75 real women reflecting the spirit of Betty Crocker and the changing demographics of America. In it, she doesn’t look a day over 40. </p>
<p>More importantly, this painting captures something that has always been true about Betty Crocker: She represents a cultural ideal rather than an actual woman. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, women often <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/finding-betty-crocker">wrote to Betty Crocker and saved the letters they received in return</a>. Many of them debated whether or not she was, in fact, a real person. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aLNTLkAAAAAJ&hl=en">In my academic research on cookbooks</a>, I focus primarily on the way cookbook authors, mostly women, have used the cookbook as a space to explore politics and aesthetics while fostering a sense of community among readers.</p>
<p>But what does it mean when a cookbook author isn’t a real person?</p>
<h2>Inventing Betty</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.bettycrocker.com/menus-holidays-parties/mhplibrary/parties-and-get-togethers/vintage-betty/the-story-of-betty-crocker">From the very beginning</a>, Betty Crocker emerged in response to the needs of the masses. </p>
<p>In 1921, readers of the Saturday Evening Post were invited by the Washburn Crosby Co. – the parent company of Gold Medal Flour – to complete a jigsaw puzzle and mail it in for a prize. The advertising department got more than it expected.</p>
<p>In addition to contest entries, customers were sending in questions, asking for cooking advice. Betty’s name was invented as a customer service tool so that the return letters the company’s mostly male advertising department sent in response to these queries would seem more personal. It also seemed more likely that their mostly female customers would trust a woman. </p>
<p>“Betty” was chosen because it seemed friendly and familiar, while “Crocker” honored a former executive with that last name. <a href="https://www.bettycrocker.com/-/media/legacy/Images/Betty-Crocker/Menus-Holidays-Parties/MHPLibrary/Parties-and-Get-Togethers/Vintage-Betty/The-Story-of-Betty-Crocker/The-Story-of-Betty-Crocker_02.jpg">Her signature</a> came next, chosen from among an assortment submitted by female employees. </p>
<p>As Betty became a household name, the fictional cook and homemaker received so many letters that other employees had to be trained to reproduce that familiar signature.</p>
<p>The advertising department chose the signature for its distinctiveness, though its quirks and contours have been smoothed out over time, so much so that <a href="https://www.bettycrocker.com/-/media/Images/BC/content/about-us/BCSpoon_Horiz_Offset_2014_R.jpeg">the version that appears on today’s boxes</a> is hardly recognizable. Like Betty’s face, which was first painted in 1936, her signature has evolved with the times.</p>
<p>Betty eventually became a cultural juggernaut – a media personality, with a <a href="https://www.mnopedia.org/person/betty-crocker">radio show</a> and a vast library of publications to her name.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E0Isj-vFUGk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The many faces of Betty Crocker.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An outlier in cookbook culture</h2>
<p>As I explain to students in my food and literature courses, cookbooks aren’t valued solely for the quality of their recipes. Cookbooks use the literary techniques of characterization and narrative to invite readers into imagined worlds. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430382/original/file-20211104-20733-5xs2nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Handwritten recipe cards pictured above an open cookbook." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430382/original/file-20211104-20733-5xs2nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430382/original/file-20211104-20733-5xs2nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430382/original/file-20211104-20733-5xs2nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430382/original/file-20211104-20733-5xs2nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430382/original/file-20211104-20733-5xs2nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430382/original/file-20211104-20733-5xs2nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430382/original/file-20211104-20733-5xs2nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recipes can be imbued with nostalgia, personality and aspiration.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tom-sietsemas-mother-dorothy-brought-her-annotated-recipes-news-photo/472212206?adppopup=true">Deb Lindsey For The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By their very nature, <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/522415/pdf">recipes are forward-looking</a>; they anticipate a future in which you’ve cooked something delicious. But, as they appear in many cookbooks – and in plenty of home recipe boxes – recipes also reflect a fondly remembered past. Notes in the margin of a recipe card or splatters on a cookbook page may remind us of the times a beloved recipe was cooked and eaten. A recipe may have the name of a family member attached, or even be in their handwriting.</p>
<p>When cookbooks include personal anecdotes, they invite a feeling of connection by mimicking the personal history that is collected in a recipe box. </p>
<p>Irma Rombauer may have <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/462443?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">perfected this style</a> in her 1931 book “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Joy_of_Cooking.html?id=Bzm1PAAACAAJ">The Joy of Cooking</a>,” but she didn’t invent it. American publishers started <a href="https://upittpress.org/books/9780822965138/">printing cookbooks</a> in the middle of the 18th century, and even the genre’s earliest authors had a sense of the power of character, just as many food bloggers do today.</p>
<h2>An American ideal</h2>
<p>But because Betty Crocker’s cookbooks were written by committee, with recipes tested by staffers and home cooks, that personal history isn’t quite so personal. </p>
<p><a href="https://reader.library.cornell.edu/docviewer/digital?id=hearth4732504_48_010#page/6/mode/1up">As one ad</a> for the “Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book” put it, “The women of America helped Betty Crocker write the Picture Cook Book,” and the resulting book “reflected the warmth and personality of the American home.” And while books like “<a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924089593846&view=1up&seq=4">Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book</a>” open with a friendly note signed by the fictional homemaker herself, the recipe headnotes carefully avoid the pretense that she is a real person, giving credit instead to the women who submitted the recipes, suggesting variations or providing historical context. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430326/original/file-20211104-27-7tcjrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Drawings of two couples eating birthday cakes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430326/original/file-20211104-27-7tcjrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430326/original/file-20211104-27-7tcjrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430326/original/file-20211104-27-7tcjrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430326/original/file-20211104-27-7tcjrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430326/original/file-20211104-27-7tcjrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1049&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430326/original/file-20211104-27-7tcjrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1049&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430326/original/file-20211104-27-7tcjrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1049&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Betty Crocker dispenses advice for becoming ‘the most wonderful little wife ever.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31822031040041&view=1up&seq=7&skin=2021">Hathi Trust Digital Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Betty Crocker’s books invited American women to imagine themselves as part of a community connected by the loose bond of shared recipes. And because they don’t express the unique tastes of a particular person, Betty Crocker books instead promote taste as a shared cultural experience common to all American families, and cooking as a skill to which all women should aspire. </p>
<p>The “<a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31822031040041&view=1up&seq=5&skin=2021">Story of Two Brides</a>” that appears in Betty Crocker’s 1933 pamphlet “New Party Cakes for all Occasions” contrasts the good “little bride” who “has been taking radio cooking lessons from Betty Crocker” with the hapless “other bride” whose cooking and shopping habits are equally careless. The message here isn’t particularly subtle: The trick to becoming “the most wonderful little wife ever” is baking well, and buying the right flour.</p>
<h2>Betty today</h2>
<p>Despite its charming illustrations, the retrograde attitude of that 1933 pamphlet probably wouldn’t sell very many cookbooks today, let alone baking mixes, kitchen appliances or any of the other products that now bear the Betty Crocker brand, which General Mills now owns.</p>
<p>But if Betty Crocker’s branding in the supermarket is all about convenience and ease, the retro stylings of her newest cookbooks are a reminder that her brand is also a nostalgic one.</p>
<p>Published this year, for her 100th anniversary, the “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Betty_Crocker_Best_100.html?id=0_AJEAAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description">Betty Crocker Best 100</a>” reprints all of Betty’s portraits and tells the story of her invention. Rather than using <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a5/Betty_Crocker_official_logo.svg/1200px-Betty_Crocker_official_logo.svg.png">the logo that appears on contemporary products</a>, the front cover returns to the quirkier script of the early Betty, and the “personal” note at the opening of the book reminds readers that “it’s always been about recognizing that the kitchen is at the heart of the home.”</p>
<p>As Betty is continually reinvented in response to America’s evolving sense of self, perhaps this means valuing domestic labor without judging women by the quality of their cakes, and building community between all bakers – even those who won’t ever be good little brides.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168443/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth A. Blake does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
She never ages. Her visage morphs. And yet women used to write letters to this brainchild of advertising executives, a cultural icon who still looms large in the nation’s imagination.
Elizabeth A. Blake, Assistant Professor of English, Clark University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/169742
2021-10-15T03:29:50Z
2021-10-15T03:29:50Z
Caring or killing: harmful gender stereotypes kick in early — and may be keeping girls away from STEM
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426589/original/file-20211014-19-1u4h3a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C6%2C4304%2C2679&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Patricia Prudente / Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gender stereotypes begin in early childhood. Bright pink “toys for girls” and blue “toys for boys” are sold on store shelves around the world. </p>
<p>In the boys’ section you’ll find <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/02/when-are-science-toys-just-boys">science, construction and warfare toys</a> — perhaps a motorised robot, or a telescope. In the girls’ lane you’ll get toys related to cleaning, prams, dolls, kitchens, makeup, jewellery and crafts. </p>
<p>Our research, <a href="https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/berj.3767">published this week</a>, shows by the early years of primary school, gender stereotypes from a variety of sources have already influenced children — leading them to aspire to “traditional” male and female vocations. </p>
<p>This flows into <a href="https://www.lettoysbetoys.org.uk/why-it-matters/">lower numbers of girls</a> taking STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects at school. In turn, this means fewer women are going on to work in the sciences. Women make up only <a href="https://www.aauw.org/resources/research/the-stem-gap/">28% of the STEM workforce</a>. </p>
<p>The gender gap is particularly high in the fastest-growing and highest-paid jobs of the future, such as computer science and engineering. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-must-include-more-women-in-physics-it-would-help-the-whole-of-humanity-165096">We must include more women in physics — it would help the whole of humanity</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Gender-related aspirations are concerning</h2>
<p>We spoke with 332 students (176 girls and 156 boys) from 14 schools and found 7- and 8-year-old children have already made up their minds about what jobs they want in the future. Girls overwhelmingly aspire to traditionally “feminine” jobs, while boys are attracted to “masculine” pursuits.</p>
<p>For example, the top three choices for boys include careers in professional sports, STEM-related jobs, and policing or defence. Meanwhile, girls either want to be teachers, work with animals, or pursue a career in the arts.</p>
<iframe title="Year 3 students' career aspirations" aria-label="table" id="datawrapper-chart-SRoxP" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/SRoxP/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="595"></iframe>
<p>There are obvious patterns in girls’ and boys’ career choices which can be linked to gender stereotypes. Many girls talked about “feminine” ideas such as caring or helping others. They told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I want to work in a zoo because I want to take care of the animals — <strong>Sophie</strong></p>
<p>I want to be a nurse because I want to help people if they are hurt and take care of my Dad, and other people — <strong>Kate</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>They also talked about love, another traditionally “feminine” ideal.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I want to be a mother because I love babies — <strong>Maddi</strong></p>
<p>I want to be a teacher because I love little kids — <strong>Sara</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>On the other hand, the boys’ reasoning for their career choices heavily featured “masculine” themes, such as making money and having power over others. For instance, they wanted to work in the police force because:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I get to arrest people — <strong>Dan</strong></p>
<p>I want to shoot guns — <strong>Harry</strong></p>
<p>I can put people under arrest — <strong>Josh</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Or they wanted jobs that highlighted traditionally masculine attributes such as strength, dominance and physicality.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I want to be an assassin so I can kill people — <strong>Matt</strong></p>
<p>I want to be an army commando because you can shoot tanks — <strong>Ben</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Clearly, boys’ and girls’ career <a href="https://www.oecd.org/education/career-readiness/Dream%20Jobs%20Teenagers'%20Career%20Aspirations%20and%20the%20Future%20of%20Work.pdf">aspirations</a> are very different, even at this young age. And young people’s career aspirations are a good indication of <a href="https://www.oecd.org/education/career-readiness/Dream%20Jobs%20Teenagers'%20Career%20Aspirations%20and%20the%20Future%20of%20Work.pdf">job trajectories as they transition to adulthood</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426134/original/file-20211013-23-12am1z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426134/original/file-20211013-23-12am1z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426134/original/file-20211013-23-12am1z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426134/original/file-20211013-23-12am1z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426134/original/file-20211013-23-12am1z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426134/original/file-20211013-23-12am1z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426134/original/file-20211013-23-12am1z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There’s a noticeable link between young boys’ reported career aspirations, and the themes they’re exposed to through the toys that target them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ryan Quintal/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>But it’s not just about gender</h2>
<p>We also found differences in opinion that seemed to correlate with <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0001699318817594">social class</a>. Boys from affluent school communities (30%) aspired to STEM careers more than boys from disadvantaged school communities (8%), while girls from disadvantaged school communities had a greater desire to “help” and “care”. </p>
<p>These values can be <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01053/full">more important for</a> female students whose families have more traditional work- and family-related gender beliefs. If these girls go into STEM, they may go into the medical and life sciences, rather than fields such as physics or engineering, which are viewed by society as masculine.</p>
<p>Our findings help explain how gender-related trends continue to be visible in workplaces and industries, and why men from more socioeconomically advantaged communities are more likely to become employed in STEM jobs. </p>
<h2>Challenging old and outdated ideas</h2>
<p>We have to challenge problematic beliefs about the roles of men and women in society. And we have to challenge them early. One way to do this is to end the sale of gendered and stereotypical toys, which research has shown can give young children the <a href="https://www.naeyc.org/resources/topics/play/gender-typed-toys">wrong ideas about gender roles</a>.</p>
<p>Some stores and toy companies are finally under pressure to make this change.
Due to a law passed last month, department stores in <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-law-gender-neutral-toy-displays-department-stores/">California are now required</a> to display childrens’ products in a designated gender-neutral section. </p>
<p>Although the law stopped short of entirely outlawing separate sections for “boys” and “girls”, it makes California the first US state to work against reinforcing harmful gender stereotypes. </p>
<p>If you’re thinking there are plenty of gender-neutral toys available already — hello, LEGO? — think again. <a href="https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/lego-remove-gender-bias-products/XR5O7QN2TRESJCOZKK6IJLHGG4/#:%7E:text=Researchers%20with%20Geena%20Davis%20Institute,with%20the%20brick%20building%20system.">One study</a> found 76% of parents said they would encourage their son to play with LEGO, but only 24% would recommend it to a daughter. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426133/original/file-20211013-27-l097nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426133/original/file-20211013-27-l097nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426133/original/file-20211013-27-l097nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426133/original/file-20211013-27-l097nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426133/original/file-20211013-27-l097nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426133/original/file-20211013-27-l097nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426133/original/file-20211013-27-l097nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">While LEGO is often touted as a gender-neutral toy for kids, the reality is many people still associate it with play for boys.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ryan Quintal/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>LEGO, the world’s <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/lego-builds-on-its-position-as-worlds-no-1-toy-maker-11632843755">largest toy-maker</a>, this week announced its future products and marketing will be free of <a href="https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news/2021/september/lego-ready-for-girls-campaign">gender bias and harmful stereotypes</a>. </p>
<p>The company’s recently launched Ready for Girls campaign will celebrate girls who rebuild the world through creative problem-solving. This is a start. Hopefully more companies will follow suit. </p>
<p>We should stop telling children that what constitutes acceptable play depends on their gender. Let’s let girls be scientist and boys be carers, if that’s what they want. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/legos-return-to-gender-neutral-toys-is-good-news-for-all-kids-our-research-review-shows-why-169722">Lego's return to gender neutral toys is good news for all kids. Our research review shows why</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169742/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Scholes receives funding from the Australian Research Council </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah McDonald does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
We spoke to 332 Year 3 students about what they want to be when they grow up. Some responses raised alarms.
Laura Scholes, Associate Professor and ARC Principal Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University
Sarah McDonald, Research Associate, University of South Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/169722
2021-10-13T04:40:09Z
2021-10-13T04:40:09Z
Lego’s return to gender neutral toys is good news for all kids. Our research review shows why
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426055/original/file-20211012-27-maq2wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4115%2C2733&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matt Hudson/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.lego.com/en-id/aboutus/news/2021/september/lego-ready-for-girls-campaign/">Lego announced this week</a> it would work to remove gender stereotypes from its brand, including no longer marketing toys distinctly to boys or girls and ensuring products are gender-neutral. </p>
<p>This move by one of the world’s most powerful brands comes in response to <a href="https://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/LEGO-Ready-for-Girls-Creativity-Study.pdf">research the Danish toy manufacturer commissioned</a> to understand how parents and children think about creativity.</p>
<p>The survey of nearly 7,000 parents and children across seven countries found strong endorsement of traditional gender roles among both boys and girls, with 78% of boys and 73% of girls agreeing “it’s okay to teach boys to be boys and girls to be girls”. </p>
<p>71% of boys were worried about being judged or made fun of for playing with toys gendered for girls and 54% of parents worry their sons will be made fun of if they play with toys associated with girls, compared to only 26% of parents worrying about the reverse. </p>
<p>Overall, the results suggest boys feel more pressure to conform to gender roles and norms for creative activities than girls. But the perceptions and beliefs of others may also be holding girls back. When toys are gendered, all children pay the price.</p>
<p>We recently conducted a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1836939121999849?casa_token=lFd5hGC155YAAAAA%3A5ETMgtwCFUJ42vTBhMxP_swrS44IYVgkTRMuOdcX_4NZjLpbFQhAxAuXHehz3sAqxxOACbtTqjSGqg&journalCode=aeca">systematic review of gender stereotypes and biases in early childhood</a>. </p>
<p>Awareness of gender as a social category develops early in life, and insight into some gender stereotypes begins early. For example, preschool aged children can <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1007084516910">hold beliefs</a> such as only boys can be policemen and only girls can be teachers or nurses.</p>
<p>Gender and racial stereotyping and prejudice can be observed in children as young as three to four years of age, as children take on cues from around them to decode and understand the world. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426084/original/file-20211013-23-1rg9tfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Boys and girls play with lego." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426084/original/file-20211013-23-1rg9tfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426084/original/file-20211013-23-1rg9tfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426084/original/file-20211013-23-1rg9tfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426084/original/file-20211013-23-1rg9tfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426084/original/file-20211013-23-1rg9tfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426084/original/file-20211013-23-1rg9tfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426084/original/file-20211013-23-1rg9tfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teaching children construction toys ‘aren’t for girls’ can discourage girls going into STEM fields.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shopping and ‘fixing things’</h2>
<p>When children observe different toys and tasks for different groups, they can <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11218-015-9320-z">learn stereotypes and prejudices</a>, such as viewing shopping as an activity for girls and “fixing things” and using tools as activities for boys. This can reinforce rigid binary views of gender.</p>
<p>Such stereotypes and prejudices can be carried throughout life, making early childhood critical for setting the foundations for lifelong attitudes. </p>
<p>The Lego research found parents were more likely to encourage their daughters to engage in activities that are more cognitive, artistic and performative (dressing up, dancing, colouring, singing and arts and crafts), and more likely to encourage their sons to engage more in digital activities, science and building.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/barbie-for-boys-the-gendered-tyranny-of-the-toy-store-34979">Barbie for boys? The gendered tyranny of the toy store</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Beliefs and expectations about what types of toys and play are appropriate for girls and boys can compound over time. </p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1007084516910">Some studies</a> show that play with some stereotypical girls’ toys, such as princess toys, is associated with more female gender-stereotypical behaviour among children. </p>
<p>Not engaging in play with construction toys may mean girls miss opportunities to develop spatial skills and mechanical reasoning skills necessary for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics: fields in which <a href="https://www.sciencegenderequity.org.au/gender-equity-in-stem/">women continue to be under-represented</a>.</p>
<h2>Rigid gender lines</h2>
<p>Toys are only one way in which children learn gender roles and stereotypes: they also learn from who they see around them in their daily lives, from the books they read and the TV shows they watch. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426082/original/file-20211012-25-soi9sl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young girl in overalls, holding lego blocks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426082/original/file-20211012-25-soi9sl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426082/original/file-20211012-25-soi9sl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426082/original/file-20211012-25-soi9sl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426082/original/file-20211012-25-soi9sl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426082/original/file-20211012-25-soi9sl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426082/original/file-20211012-25-soi9sl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426082/original/file-20211012-25-soi9sl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lego’s advertising, like this one from 1981, shows the company used to be a lot less rigid around gender.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lego</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Parents and caregivers have a key role in encouraging children of all genders to engage with a wide range of activities and toys.</p>
<p>But since the 1970s, toys have become <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/12/toys-are-more-divided-by-gender-now-than-they-were-50-years-ago/383556/">increasingly and rigidly</a> demarcated along binary gender lines. </p>
<p>Even Lego’s own marketing history demonstrates this: compare the gender neutral advertisements <a href="https://womenyoushouldknow.net/little-girl-1981-lego-ad-grown-shes-got-something-say/">from the early 1980s</a> to more <a href="https://www.lego.com/en-au/product/olivia-s-deluxe-bedroom-41329">recent gender specific marketing</a> with pink bricks and heart shapes.</p>
<p>The prevention of potentially harmful gender attitudes and stereotypes in childhood – before they become entrenched – is a key element in moves to achieve gender equity and to support health and wellbeing throughout life. </p>
<p>Efforts to reduce the gendered nature of toys and their marketing is one step we can take to give all children more equitable options for how they see themselves, the world, and their future.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-pink-and-blue-the-quiet-rise-of-gender-neutral-toys-95147">Beyond pink and blue: the quiet rise of gender-neutral toys</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169722/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naomi Priest receives funding from the ARC, NHMRC and from government and non-government sources.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tania King receives funding from the Australian Research Council (DE200100607).</span></em></p>
We reviewed research into gender stereotypes and biases in early childhood, and found gender as a social category develops early in life, and insight into some gender stereotypes begins early.
Naomi Priest, Professor, ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National University
Tania King, Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/169493
2021-10-08T12:27:11Z
2021-10-08T12:27:11Z
None of the 2021 science Nobel laureates are women – here’s why men still dominate STEM award winning
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425281/original/file-20211007-18946-pf7buf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1223%2C321%2C7020%2C5166&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Frances Arnold received the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nobelprize.qbank.se/mb/?h=7f34a741c65f2309fcc548afd9fd944e&_ga=2.87363736.1458753097.1633524725-438278705.1633524725">© Nobel Media. Photo: Alexander Mahmoud</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>All of the 2021 Nobel Prizes in science were awarded to men. </p>
<p>That’s a return to business as usual after a couple of good years for female laureates. In 2020, <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/charpentier/facts/">Emmanuelle Charpentier</a> and <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/doudna/facts/">Jennifer Doudna</a> won the chemistry prize for their work on the CRISPR gene editing system, and <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2020/ghez/facts/">Andrea Ghez</a> shared in the physics prize for her discovery of a supermassive black hole.</p>
<p>2019 was another year of all male laureates, after <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2018/arnold/facts/">biochemical engineer Frances Arnold</a> won in 2018 for chemistry and Donna Strickland received the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2018/strickland/facts/">2018 Nobel Prize in physics</a>. </p>
<p>Strickland and Ghez were only the third and fourth female physicists to get a Nobel, following <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/marie-curie/facts/">Marie Curie in 1903</a> and <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1963/mayer/facts/">Maria Goeppert-Mayer 60 years later</a>. When asked how that felt, Strickland noted that at first it was surprising to realize so few women had won the award: “But, I mean, I do live in a world of mostly men, so seeing mostly men <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/10/02/653779921/donna-strickland-becomes-first-woman-in-more-than-50-years-to-win-physics-nobel-">doesn’t really ever surprise me either</a>.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-10-09/only-20-nobels-sciences-have-gone-women-why">rarity of female Nobel laureates</a> raises questions about women’s exclusion from education and careers in science and the <a href="https://thebestschools.org/magazine/brilliant-woman-greedy-men/">undervaluing of women’s contributions on science teams</a>. Women researchers have come a long way over the past century, but there’s overwhelming evidence that women remain underrepresented in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math.</p>
<p>Studies have shown that those women who persist in these careers face explicit and implicit barriers to advancement. Bias is most intense in fields that are dominated by men, where women lack a critical mass of representation and are often viewed as tokens or outsiders. This bias is even more intense for transgender women and nonbinary individuals.</p>
<p>As things are getting better in terms of equal representation, what still holds women back in the lab, in leadership and as award winners?</p>
<h2>Good news at the start of the pipeline</h2>
<p>Traditional stereotypes hold that women “don’t like math” and “aren’t good at science.” Both <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/03/both-genders-think-women-are-bad-basic-math">men and women report these viewpoints</a>, but researchers have <a href="https://www.apa.org/action/resources/research-in-action/share.aspx">empirically disputed them</a>. Studies show that girls and women avoid STEM education not because of cognitive inability, but because of early exposure and experience with STEM, educational policy, cultural context, stereotypes and a lack of exposure to role models. </p>
<p>For the past several decades, efforts to improve the representation of women in STEM fields have focused on countering these stereotypes with <a href="http://www.apsbridgeprogram.org/igen/">educational reforms</a> and <a href="https://girlswhocode.com/">individual</a> <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5383">programs</a> that can increase the number of girls entering and staying in what’s been called the STEM pipeline – the path from K-12 to college and postgraduate training.</p>
<p><iframe id="qE27X" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/qE27X/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>These approaches are working. Women are increasingly likely to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2012002908">express an interest in STEM careers and pursue STEM majors</a> in college. Women now make up half or more of workers in psychology and social sciences and are increasingly represented in the scientific workforce, though computer and mathematical sciences are an exception. </p>
<p>According to the American Institute of Physics, women earn about 20% of bachelor’s degrees and 18% of Ph.D.s in physics, <a href="https://www.aip.org/taxonomy/term/155">an increase from 1975</a> when women earned 10% of bachelor’s degrees and 5% of Ph.D.s in physics.</p>
<p>More women are graduating with STEM Ph.D.s and earning faculty positions. But they encounter glass cliffs and ceilings as they advance through their academic careers.</p>
<h2>What’s not working for women</h2>
<p>Women face a number of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.21.080195.000401">structural and institutional barriers</a> in academic STEM careers.</p>
<p>In addition to issues related to the gender pay gap, the structure of academic science often makes it difficult for women to <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781135943974">get ahead in the workplace</a> and to balance work and life commitments. Bench science can require years of dedicated time in a laboratory. The strictures of the tenure-track process can make maintaining work-life balance, responding to family obligations and <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-todays-long-stem-postdoc-positions-are-effectively-anti-mother-51550">having children</a> or taking family leave difficult, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312711417730">if not impossible</a>.</p>
<p>Additionally, working in male-dominated workplaces can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.21.080195.000401">leave women feeling isolated</a>, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2777808">perceived as tokens</a> and susceptible to <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24994/sexual-harassment-of-women-climate-culture-and-consequences-in-academic">harassment</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010344929577">Women often are excluded</a> from networking opportunities and social events, left to feel they’re outside the culture of the lab, the academic department and the field.</p>
<p>When women lack a critical mass in a workplace – making up about 15% or more of workers – they are <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2884712">less empowered to advocate for themselves</a> and more likely to be perceived as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1999.tb08353.x">a minority group and an exception</a>. When in this minority position, women are more likely to be pressured to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-017-9454-2">take on extra service</a> as tokens on committees or <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/Ghost-Advising/242729">mentors to female graduate students</a>.</p>
<p>With fewer female colleagues, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243917735900">women are less likely</a> to build relationships with female collaborators and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-010-0256-y">support and advice networks</a>. This isolation can be exacerbated when women are unable to participate in work events or <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2018/02/07/conferences-should-be-more-family-friendly-women-scholars-children-opinion">attend conferences because of family or child care</a> responsibilities, and because of an inability to use research funds to reimburse child care.</p>
<p>Universities, <a href="https://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Fulltext/2002/10000/Increasing_Women_s_Leadership_in_Academic.23.aspx">professional associations</a> and federal funders have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20225">worked to address a variety</a> of these structural barriers. Efforts include creating family-friendly policies, increasing transparency in salary reporting, enforcing Title IX protections, providing mentoring and support programs for women scientists, protecting research time for women scientists and targeting women for hiring, research support and advancement. These programs have had mixed results. </p>
<p>For example, research indicates that family-friendly policies such as leave and onsite child care <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scu006">can exacerbate gender inequity</a>, resulting in increased research productivity for men and increased teaching and service obligations for women.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239534/original/file-20181005-72103-13n5zz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239534/original/file-20181005-72103-13n5zz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239534/original/file-20181005-72103-13n5zz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239534/original/file-20181005-72103-13n5zz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239534/original/file-20181005-72103-13n5zz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239534/original/file-20181005-72103-13n5zz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239534/original/file-20181005-72103-13n5zz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239534/original/file-20181005-72103-13n5zz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People haven’t really updated their mental images of what a scientist looks like since Wilhelm Roentgen won the first physics Nobel in 1901.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/sftaf5z8">Wellcome Collection</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Implicit biases about who does science</h2>
<p>All of us – the general public, the media, university employees, students and professors – have <a href="https://theconversation.com/most-people-think-man-when-they-think-scientist-how-can-we-kill-the-stereotype-42393">ideas of what a scientist</a> and a Nobel Prize winner look like. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13039">That image</a> is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1949-8594.2002.tb18217.x">predominantly male, white and older</a> – which makes sense given 96% of the science Nobel Prize winners have been men.</p>
<p>This is an example of an <a href="https://www.pbs.org/video/pov-implicit-bias-peanut-butter-jelly-and-racism/">implicit bias</a>: one of the unconscious, involuntary, natural, unavoidable assumptions that all of us – men and women – form about the world. People make decisions <a href="https://theconversation.com/measuring-the-implicit-biases-we-may-not-even-be-aware-we-have-74912">based on subconscious assumptions, preferences and stereotypes</a> – sometimes even when they are counter to their explicitly held beliefs.</p>
<p>Research shows that an implicit bias against women <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-a-scientist-looks-like/">as experts and academic scientists</a> is pervasive. It manifests itself by valuing, acknowledging and rewarding men’s scholarship over women’s scholarship. </p>
<p>Implicit bias can work against women’s hiring, advancement and recognition of their work. For instance, women seeking academic jobs are more likely to be viewed and judged based on <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/2018/preliminary/paper/nZ24K7b2">personal information and physical appearance</a>. Letters of recommendation for women are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-018-9541-1">more likely to raise doubts</a> and use language that results in negative career outcomes.</p>
<p>Implicit bias can affect women’s ability to publish research findings and gain recognition for that work. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2378023117738903">Men cite their own papers 56% more</a> than women do. Known as the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312711435830">Matilda Effect</a>,” there is a gender gap in recognition, award-winning and <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/08/16/new-research-shows-extent-gender-gap-citations">citations</a>. </p>
<p>Women’s research is less likely to be cited by others, and their <a href="https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/R7AQT1">ideas are more likely to be attributed to men</a>. Women’s solo-authored research takes <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/04/20/study-finds-women-economics-write-papers-are-more-readable-face-longer-publication">twice as long</a> to move through the review process. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-06678-6">Women are underrepresented</a> in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12950">journal editorships</a>, as senior scholars and lead authors, and as peer reviewers. This marginalization in research gatekeeping positions works against the promotion of women’s research.</p>
<p>When a woman becomes a world-class scientist, implicit bias works <a href="https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.00739-17">against the likelihood</a> that she will be <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/women-are-invited-to-give-fewer-talks-than-men-at-top-us-universities/548657/">invited as a keynote or guest speaker</a> to share her research findings, thus <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.12198">lowering both her visibility in the field</a> and the likelihood that she will be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312711435830">nominated for awards</a>. This gender imbalance is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096517000580">notable in how infrequently</a> <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/public_editor/2017/11/17/we-need-more-womens-voices-in-the-news.html">women experts</a> are <a href="https://www.poynter.org/news/lack-female-sources-ny-times-front-page-stories-highlights-need-change">quoted in news stories</a> on most topics.</p>
<p>Women scientists are afforded less of the respect and recognition that should come with their accomplishments. Research shows that when people talk about male scientists and experts, they’re more likely to use their surnames and more likely to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1805284115">refer to women by their first names</a>. </p>
<p>Why does this matter? Because experiments show that individuals referred to by their surnames are more likely to be viewed as famous and eminent. In fact, one study found that calling scientists by their last names led people to consider them 14% more deserving of a National Science Foundation career award.</p>
<p>Seeing men as prize winners has been the history of science, but it’s not all bad news. Recent research finds that in the biomedical sciences, women are making significant gains in winning more awards, though on average these awards are typically <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/02/research-women-are-winning-more-scientific-prizes-but-men-still-win-the-most-prestigious-ones">less prestigious and have lower monetary value</a>.</p>
<p>Addressing structural and implicit bias in STEM will hopefully prevent another half-century wait before the next woman is acknowledged with a Nobel Prize for her contribution to physics. I look forward to the day when a woman receiving the most prestigious award in science is newsworthy only for her science and not her gender.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-more-women-dont-win-science-nobels-104370">an article originally published</a> on Oct. 5, 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169493/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary K. Feeney is Program Director for the National Science Foundation's Science of Science: Discovery, Communication, and Impact (SoS:DCI) program.</span></em></p>
Science fields are improving at being more inclusive. But explicit and implicit barriers still hold women back from advancing in the same numbers as men to the upper reaches of STEM academia.
Mary K. Feeney, Professor and Lincoln Professor of Ethics in Public Affairs, Arizona State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/164344
2021-07-25T08:05:02Z
2021-07-25T08:05:02Z
Young Muslim women in Ghana feel stereotyped and judged: why it matters
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412625/original/file-20210722-17-1ex7xu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ghanaian students attend a class in a madrasa or Muslim school.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mohamed Hossam/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre in New York, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/11398538/How-the-Muslim-Brotherhood-fits-into-a-network-of-extremism.html">western media</a> have consistently questioned whether being Muslim sits well with the ideals of democratic citizenship. Young Muslim males are often demonised as potential terrorists and female Muslims are singled out for critique for their dress. In France, for example, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/france-burqa-ban-islamic-face-coverings-masks-mandatory/">veiled Muslim women</a> are often vilified for the explicit demonstration of their religion and failing to embrace “secular”, “republican” values. Such exclusionary practices risk alienating young Muslims. </p>
<p>These naïve stereotypes provoked us to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02589001.2021.1897537">explore</a> perspectives of national and religious identity in the Muslim-minority context of southern Ghana. We asked young Ghanaians what their national and religious identities meant to them, how they saw them in relation to each other, and how gender was relevant to both.</p>
<p>We had discussions with separate groups of young males and females in higher education and senior high school. What they told us about their experiences suggests that the curriculum should be reformed to address gender and religious biases. This would mean not only changing the content of what’s taught but also how gender is enacted in the classroom. </p>
<h2>Islam in Ghana</h2>
<p>Ghana has been a <a href="https://classic.iclrs.org/content/blurb/files/Ghana.pdf">republican secular democracy</a> since gaining independence from <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Ghana/Independence">Britain in 1957</a>. Following periods of instability and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Ghana/Independence">military rule</a>, democratic government has prevailed over several successive political rotations. Following missionary activity during colonial times, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02589001.2021.1897537">most Ghanaians in the south</a> are Christian. Islam is the dominant religion in the north. </p>
<p>Largely because of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02589001.2021.1897537">colonial expansion of commerce</a> and western education in coastal regions, poverty levels have been consistently higher in the north than the south, and education outcomes are lower. The <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02589001.2021.1897537">Muslim population</a> in the south is complex. It derives largely from migration, including Ahmadi Muslims who came to Ghana during colonial times, and conversions to Islam.</p>
<p>Overall, although Ghana has not been affected by religious conflict, the ways youth from the Muslim minority relate to their nation is an important question, particularly given the involvement of Islamic militants in kidnapping and violence in other African nation-states. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-did-it-the-kenyan-women-and-girls-who-joined-al-shabaab-151592">Why we did it: the Kenyan women and girls who joined Al-Shabaab</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-insurgent-groups-in-northern-nigeria-continue-to-kidnap-school-children-159965">Why insurgent groups in northern Nigeria continue to kidnap school children</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Marginalised as young Muslim women</h2>
<p>The young women in our research told us they were proud of Ghana’s record as a peaceful, democratic country and were strongly committed to their nationality as Ghanaians. Strikingly, however, their depictions of the ideal Ghanaian woman and man were strongly gendered. Almost all their national heroes were male icons in the public domain, whereas the ideal Ghanaian woman was described as “taking care of the house, the kids and other family matters”. </p>
<p>Another participant commented that “the ideal Ghanaian woman brings up her children very nicely in a very godly manner”. Clearly, religious values were also important in the ways they imagined the ideal Ghanaian woman.</p>
<p>When outside the family, women’s propriety was under constant scrutiny, particularly for the ways they dressed: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>…an ideal national woman, you will not see a Ghanaian, a ‘proper’ Ghanaian going to a meeting and she is in mini skirt … it shows her dignity, like it shows your respect, once they see you like that they say, ‘Oh, which country are you coming from?’ And you say ‘Ghana’. You are bringing respect to the nation. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Such judgements reflect traces of colonialism. Women’s dress was an important marker of the success of Britain’s “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/fashioning-africa-power-and-the-politics-of-dress/oclc/54079857">civilising mission</a>” and integral to Ghana’s post-colonial “anti-nudity” campaigns. </p>
<p>Importantly, Islamic dress clearly sat outside Ghana’s westernised ideals of dressing. Participants discussed how wearing the veil could mark them as “weird”. Alongside objections to their dress, their religious practices such as praying had also been prohibited or obstructed in both schools and workplaces. </p>
<p>While the young women were strongly committed to their identities as Muslims and Ghanaians, they also reported being confronted with negative stereotypes that associated Islam with violence. This left them feeling judged and belittled:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They (non-Muslims) think that we are violent and they see us as trouble makers, always causing problems. Even though it is not like that, that is how they see us.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>At the same time, senses of “otherness” and marginalisation were apparent not only between Christians and Muslims, but between those from different Muslim communities. This was especially the case for young women from the Ahmadi communities and those who had converted – both were regarded as not being “proper” Muslims.</p>
<p>Overall, despite Ghana’s commitment to republican democracy, young Muslim women in this research did not always feel valued as Ghanaian citizens. From their stories, some had experienced marginalisation and exclusions in schools and workplaces, as well as within Ghana’s different Muslim communities. </p>
<h2>Policy and research implications</h2>
<p>Our research shows there’s more to Muslim youth than the stereotypical depictions. Given the importance of schooling in the production of national identities, curricula and educational practices should take account of this. </p>
<p>More qualitative research is also needed into the intersections of nation, religion, ethnicity, gender and education in different contexts of Ghana. It is important to explore the voices of youth in Muslim-majority contexts in the north, and in the Muslim communities known as “zongos” in urban contexts of Ghana.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164344/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>n/a</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christine Adu-Yeboah, Eric Ananga, Máiréad Dunne, and Vincent Adzahlie-Mensah do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Although Ghana has not been affected by religious conflict, the ways youth from the Muslim minority relate to their nation is an important question.
Barbara Crossouard, Reader in Education, University of Sussex
Christine Adu-Yeboah, Associate Professor, Higher Education and Teacher Education, University of Cape Coast
Eric Ananga, Lecturer, International Education and Development, Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development
Máiréad Dunne, Professor of Sociology of Education, University of Sussex
Vincent Adzahlie-Mensah, Senior Lecturer, Social Studies
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/159220
2021-04-19T20:15:09Z
2021-04-19T20:15:09Z
Not only are some of the government’s consent videos bizarre and confusing, many reinforce harmful gender stereotypes
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395652/original/file-20210419-23-1nznjtp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://thegoodsociety.gov.au/playlists/the-field-model">Moving the Line video screenshot/Good Society</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Education academics, women’s rights campaigners and many in between have criticised some of the material in the government’s new respectful relationships resource for schools.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.news-mail.com.au/news/new-sex-ed-campaign-slammed/4240494/">Particularly controversial</a> in the <a href="https://thegoodsociety.gov.au/">Good Society resource</a> is a <a href="https://www.thegoodsociety.gov.au/playlists/moving-the-line">video of a girl asking a boy to try her milkshake</a>. When he says he’s happy with his own, she smears her milkshake all over his face. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1383944776785874947"}"></div></p>
<p>While well-intentioned, the video is simplistic and likely to be viewed by secondary students as condescending. The video is designed to be a lesson in decision-making when someone crosses the line in relationships that may be abusive.</p>
<p>I reviewed the entire Good Society resource from a gender-justice perspective and found problems beyond those in the milkshake video. These include that gender-based violence isn’t addressed in the materials for the primary school years, and harmful gender norms are perpetuated in some of the materials around consent. The resource also overwhelmingly focuses on heterosexual relationships.</p>
<h2>What is this resource?</h2>
<p>The Good Society resource is part of the Australian government’s <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/schooling/announcements/respect-matters-program-launched">Respect Matters</a> program, which aims “to support respectful relationships education in all Australian schools” and to “change the attitudes of young people towards violence, including domestic, family and sexual violence”. The Respect Matters program itself is part of the government’s <a href="https://plan4womenssafety.dss.gov.au/initiative/respect-matters/">National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children </a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tudge/teaching-australian-students-respect-matters">resource includes</a> more than 350 videos, podcasts and activities for children in the foundation year of school, up to year 12. </p>
<p>It’s divided into year levels (foundation–year 6, 7-9 and 10-12) with a series of activities for students to explore topics, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>positive relationships, inclusion and exclusion, friendships and identity (foundation-year 6) </p></li>
<li><p>peer influence, social power and gender (years 7-9) </p></li>
<li><p>sexual consent and sexting (years 11-12).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>There are positive aspects to this resource including teacher guides for each topic with clearly stated learning objectives. All content is linked directly to the Australian Curriculum and there are links in the resource to extensive professional learning support for teachers. </p>
<p>The resource draws on some powerful video material that foregrounds the voices of young people to stimulate students’ interest in, and discussion about, each of the topics. Some topics, like sexting, are addressed comprehensively.</p>
<p>But there are several serious issues.</p>
<h2>Nothing on gender-based violence for young children</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tudge/teaching-australian-students-respect-matters">government launched</a> The Good Society after Chanel Contos’ viral <a href="https://www.teachusconsent.com/">petition for sexual consent to be taught earlier</a> in schools. But the resource does not mention issues of sexual consent until years 11 and 12. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1369037214974275584"}"></div></p>
<p>Children live in a very gender inequitable world and absorb its messages. And the unfortunate reality is young children experience unwanted sexual contact. They need the <a href="https://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/Resource/LandingPage?ObjectId=29b6985a-935d-4053-97c9-f776a99b0fb6">language and strategies</a> to challenge these experiences and protect themselves.</p>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.vgls.vic.gov.au/client/en_AU/VGLS-public/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f0$002fSD_ILS:422825/one?qu=Alloway%2C+Nola%2C+1952-&ps=300">strong evidence</a> attesting to the significance of supporting young children in the early childhood and primary years to critically analyse harmful gender identities. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/parents-your-kids-are-watching-you-sex-education-begins-at-home-157502">Parents, your kids are watching you. Sex education begins at home</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>And we know young children are capable of understanding gender-based violence. In a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13384-019-00301-x">recent study</a>, my colleague and I observed a teacher in a year 1 to 2 class eliciting comments from students who defined different forms of gender-based violence including “when someone says girls can’t play soccer” and as “when boys are teased when they cry”. </p>
<p>This teacher was drawing on the teaching materials in the <a href="https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/capabilities/personal/Pages/respectfulrel.aspx">Victorian Respectful Relationships Education</a> curriculum. These materials focus on defining gender-based violence and examining its effects through age-appropriate playground and school scenarios. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1384019335786598401"}"></div></p>
<p>But such defining and analysis are absent in The Good Society materials from the first year to year 6. Gender identity features in some of the cartoon stories and there are some gestures to what gender respect might look like. But the materials are quite childish and condescending. </p>
<p>Of concern, some of the the stories reinforce gendered messages. One features a soccer game, where the male character outperforms the girls who “struggle to get the ball”. The girls are angry about the unfairness of the game and force him to pass the ball to them. Without proper critique, this story leaves gender binaries (boys as physically strong and in control and girls as less powerful) intact. </p>
<h2>Young women presented as sexual gatekeepers</h2>
<p>For years 11-12, The Good Society’s materials explore issues of sexual consent under the headings of influences (like social forces and technology) and situations (such as alcohol and drugs, and parties). These are important focus areas and there are some powerful videos in this section that could open up transformative conversations about gender justice. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/not-as-simple-as-no-means-no-what-young-people-need-to-know-about-consent-155736">Not as simple as 'no means no': what young people need to know about consent</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But several of the videos about sexual consent reinforce the notion of females as sexual gatekeepers and males as sexual initiators. </p>
<p>One year 11-12 resource video called “Kiss” involves two teenagers engaged in a passionate kissing session that, for the young woman, is getting out of hand. She halts the process and is relieved when her male partner agrees to “keep it above the clothes”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395650/original/file-20210419-19-11ivfki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395650/original/file-20210419-19-11ivfki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395650/original/file-20210419-19-11ivfki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395650/original/file-20210419-19-11ivfki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395650/original/file-20210419-19-11ivfki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395650/original/file-20210419-19-11ivfki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395650/original/file-20210419-19-11ivfki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395650/original/file-20210419-19-11ivfki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some Good Society resources position young men as sexual enforcers and young women as being responsible for policing their behaviour.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://thegoodsociety.gov.au/playlists/consenting-to-sex">Screenshot from Consenting to Sex materials/Good Society</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The teacher guidance associated with this video recognises tensions of ambivalence around sexual consent. But the decision-making centres on the sexual objectification of the woman. For instance, there are questions about whether the young woman should allow the young man to “squeeze her butt” or “squeeze her boobs”. </p>
<p>There is no real critical engagement with the gendered dimensions of sexual consent, such as the hetero-sexist presumptions that position boys with the power to sexualise and dehumanise girls, and girls with the responsibility to police boys’ excessive sexual appetites. </p>
<h2>There’s a good resource available</h2>
<p>Federal Education Minister <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/respectful-relationships-and-consent-should-be-taught-at-playgroup-20210417-p57k0c.html">Alan Tudge has said</a> the resource was developed in consultation with experts, such as the eSafety Commissioner, Foundation for Young Australians, and parent, teacher and community groups. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1384011249294352384"}"></div></p>
<p>I am surprised this consultation did not draw on the Victorian <a href="https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/Pages/respectfulrelationships.aspx">Respectful Relationships</a> model currently being taken up in more than 1,850 Victorian government, Catholic and independent schools. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lets-make-it-mandatory-to-teach-respectful-relationships-in-every-australian-school-117659">Let's make it mandatory to teach respectful relationships in every Australian school</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This program’s curriculum resources draw on an extensive evidence base. And it situates teaching and learning within a whole school approach, where gender respect and equality are examined and monitored in relation to staffing, school culture, professional learning, support for staff and students and community connections. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>A version of this article was also published at <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/">EduResearch Matters</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159220/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Keddie receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>
A gender-justice researcher reviewed the entire newly released government sexuality education resource for teachers. She found several significant problems.
Amanda Keddie, Professor, Education, Deakin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/158599
2021-04-08T14:52:53Z
2021-04-08T14:52:53Z
Women’s pain is routinely underestimated, and gender stereotypes are to blame – new research
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393999/original/file-20210408-17-1lo5b1j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=54%2C9%2C6038%2C3046&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Men and women underestimate women's pain – and overestimate the pain of men.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/aches-pains-collage-diverse-multiethnic-people-289427024">G-Stock Studio/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When a man consults a doctor about pain, he will hope to be taken seriously: to convince the doctor that the pain is real, and a problem that needs addressing. The experience is different for women, who may suspect that gender stereotypes could lead their doctor to conclude they’re not in as much pain as they say they are.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this suspicion is valid. Evidence suggests that healthcare staff routinely underestimate patients’ pain, and particularly women’s pain, based on a number of biases and beliefs that have little to do with their actual testimony.</p>
<p>Now, a <a href="https://www.jpain.org/article/S1526-5900(21)00035-3/fulltext">new study</a> has found gender stereotypes are particularly decisive in the estimation of patients’ pain. Because of the false belief that women are oversensitive to pain, and express or <a href="https://europepmc.org/article/MED/33531018">exaggerate</a> it more easily, healthcare staff, both men and women, often discount women’s verbal reports and <a href="https://www.ndcn.ox.ac.uk/publications/821343">nonverbal behaviour</a> expressing pain.</p>
<p>Not only do they tend to underestimate women’s pain but, on the basis of their underestimate, they often under-treat pain – and even recommend <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26934512/">psychological</a> rather than analgesic treatment to women. </p>
<h2>Gendered pain</h2>
<p>The new study ingeniously separates potential sources of observer bias in underestimating women’s pain: beliefs about women’s sensitivity to pain (“pain threshold”), about their willingness to report it, and their capacity to endure it (“pain tolerance”) – all, of course, <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/06/wont-hurt-bit-cultural-history-pain">compared to men as the norm</a> or ideal. </p>
<p>Researchers used brief video clips of real patients undergoing painful examinations, with supporting information about patients’ ratings of their own pain, and a quantification of their <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5771462">pain expression</a>. </p>
<p>Male and female lay participants watched a selection of these videos and, after each, recorded the patient’s sex, estimated their pain on a numerical scale, and rated their pain expressiveness too.</p>
<p>Compared with the patient’s own rating of their pain, observers of both genders consistently underestimated women’s pain and overestimated men’s pain. When men and women showed exactly the same amount of pain in their facial expression, women were thought to be in less pain than men. </p>
<p>An additional experiment showed that stereotypes drove these judgements: men’s pain was estimated higher by those who believed that the typical man endured pain better than the typical woman, and women’s pain was estimated lower by those who thought that women were more willing to report pain than men.</p>
<h2>Consistent findings</h2>
<p>The gender effect in pain estimation is surprisingly strong. In 2016, <a href="https://journals.lww.com/pain/Abstract/2016/08000/Health_care_providers__judgments_in_chronic_pain_.10.aspx">a study in my lab</a> examined whether clinicians’ pain estimations were affected by patients’ depression history and their “trustworthiness” – an automatic judgement we make of other people’s faces.</p>
<p>What emerged was a strong underestimation of women’s pain, again by participants of both sexes. If women were perceived to be untrustworthy, this further disadvantaged them – but untrustworthiness had little effect on estimates of men’s pain.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-everyday-myths-that-make-it-hard-to-understand-pain-25556">Five everyday myths that make it hard to understand pain</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These stereotypes do not necessarily help men, and serious studies of men’s pain <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2020.1813602">are rare</a>. While men’s pain may be estimated by clinicians closer to their pain self-ratings, being less than stoical can attract adverse judgements of being unmanly or weak, while the expectation of stoicism may encourage men to present symptoms to medical scrutiny <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154200.stm">later than they should</a>.</p>
<h2>Judging pain</h2>
<p>Pain expression is complex: though partly hard-wired by evolution, it is affected by many personal factors, including your personal history of pain and your <a href="https://journals.lww.com/pain/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2015&issue=07000&article=00007&type=Fulltext">social context</a>. The observer’s task of interpreting pain expression is also complex, modulated by their personal qualities, by social context, and by broader factors, such as gender, age and cultural norms.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-way-healthcare-professionals-measure-patient-pain-might-soon-be-changing-121280">Why the way healthcare professionals measure patient pain might soon be changing</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/24740527.2018.1442677">Several studies</a> of young children show that while boys and girls playing together have similar numbers of accidents (falls, collisions, conflicts) that might cause pain, and express their distress largely similarly, girls may be <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304395996032009">offered more physical comfort</a> than boys.</p>
<p>Although findings are not entirely <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/prm/1998/198043/">consistent</a>, and may be mediated by girls expressing distress more vocally, they do demonstrate that gender stereotypes about pain may take root early in our lives. And in these cases, differences in judgement may lie more in observers’ responses to the children than in any differences in behaviour from the children themselves.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three children laughing in a bundle on some grass" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394012/original/file-20210408-19-bgu3f5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394012/original/file-20210408-19-bgu3f5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394012/original/file-20210408-19-bgu3f5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394012/original/file-20210408-19-bgu3f5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394012/original/file-20210408-19-bgu3f5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394012/original/file-20210408-19-bgu3f5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394012/original/file-20210408-19-bgu3f5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We may learn gendered pain stereotypes as children, when adults respond differently to boys’ and girls’ pain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-children-playing-having-fun-summer-409391680">Robert Kneschke/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The gender bias effect even holds when observers are watching the same expression of pain. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02739615.2014.849918">In one simple experiment</a>, observers watched a video of a five year old having blood drawn from a finger, expressing pain. Observers for whom the child was described as “Samuel” rated the child’s pain higher than those for whom the same child was described as “Samantha”.</p>
<p>Further, participants believed that girls were more sensitive to pain, and were more willing to show it. Given how frequent minor painful incidents are for small children, as is the parental or other adult response, this is a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/24740527.2018.1442677">surprisingly neglected</a> area of enquiry.</p>
<h2>Pain bias</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, the pain expression database upon which many pain experiments are conducted consists mainly of middle-aged Canadian Caucasians. This provides little opportunity to explore another very consistent bias in pain assessment and treatment: discounting of the pain of <a href="http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1516047113">black and Asian or other non-white patients</a>, leading, in research studies, to <a href="https://academic.oup.com/painmedicine/article/10/1/11/1833112">shocking shortcomings</a> in <a href="https://www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/mbrrace-uk/reports/confidential-enquiry-into-maternal-deaths">treatment</a>. </p>
<p>There is much to be done by clinicians to abolish the inequalities in pain care – and many more inequalities, based on false stereotypes, to be unearthed through research. But this latest study, confirming that gender stereotypes inform our estimation of others’ pain, should help healthcare staff reflect on the social and personal bias they may bring to their practice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda C de C Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Both male and female observers are susceptible to the false belief that women exaggerate their pain.
Amanda C de C Williams, Reader in Clinical Health Psychology & Science, Medicine & Society Network, UCL
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/157502
2021-03-25T18:54:14Z
2021-03-25T18:54:14Z
Parents, your kids are watching you. Sex education begins at home
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391569/original/file-20210324-17-1f79g19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/father-sons-washing-dishes-together-1412989922">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent days, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/202103-23/scott-morrison-parliament-house-sexism-culture-transcript/100022908">Prime Minister Scott Morrison</a> told Australians the treatment of women is not “of a scale that any government can simply change, it is something we must change as a society”. </p>
<p>And as a society, we are in the midst of a massive shift in this direction. From women’s rights advocate Saxon Mullins pushing for <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-15/saxon-mullins-parliament-house-march-action-sexual-assault/13248722">legislative change with consent laws</a>, Australian of the Year Grace Tame fighting for sexual assault survivors to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-12/grace-tame-speaks-about-abuse-from-schoolteacher/11393044?nw=0">have a voice</a>, former government staffer Brittany Higgins telling her story of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-24/brittany-higgins-makes-formal-police-complaint-alleged-rape/13189046">alleged rape</a> in Parliament House, to Chanel Contos launching a petition for <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/private-school-principals-to-meet-with-petition-organiser-over-sex-assault-claims-20210302-p5773x.html">better consent education in schools</a>, women of Australia are demanding change. </p>
<p>Contos has also called on schools to <a href="https://www.theurbanlist.com/a-list/chanel-contos-sexual-consent">expressly address issues</a> such as slut shaming, rape culture and toxic masculinity. School-based sexuality education is crucial, but it is supplementary at best. What happens in the home is vital if we want to see real change. </p>
<p><a href="https://healthywa.wa.gov.au/Articles/S_T/Talk-soon-Talk-often">Talking to children</a> about gender equality and respectful relationships is important. But parents must also show their children what they expect from them by modelling behaviour that demonstrates their belief in the right of people of all genders to have safe, pleasurable and respectful sexual encounters.</p>
<h2>Kids learn implicitly from parents</h2>
<p>Parents are perfectly positioned to be front-line sexuality educators. Positive communication between parents and children greatly helps young people establish individual values and make healthy decisions. <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED512816">Children want to hear from them</a>. </p>
<p>It is, after all, parents, not teachers, who have regular and long-term contact with children from birth onwards. Parents can influence activities and choices beyond school hours, have the benefit of knowing the needs and developmental stage of their children, and can present information in a way that aligns with their <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/cd.48">family values and circumstances</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/not-as-simple-as-no-means-no-what-young-people-need-to-know-about-consent-155736">Not as simple as 'no means no': what young people need to know about consent</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Children take their lead from their parents. The notion humans can <a href="http://www.uky.edu/%7Eeushe2/BanduraPubs/Bandura2005.pdf">learn through observing</a> others is not new. There are many examples that illuminate how children are influenced in their behaviours and attitudes by those of their parents.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391586/original/file-20210325-23-1hi8mu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Father and children playing football together" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391586/original/file-20210325-23-1hi8mu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391586/original/file-20210325-23-1hi8mu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391586/original/file-20210325-23-1hi8mu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391586/original/file-20210325-23-1hi8mu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391586/original/file-20210325-23-1hi8mu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391586/original/file-20210325-23-1hi8mu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391586/original/file-20210325-23-1hi8mu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children with active parents are significantly more likely to be active themselves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/boy-kicks-football-during-game-his-693609082">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For instance, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3556555?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">children of active parents</a> are significantly more likely to be active themselves. Being an <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1471-2458-13-1193">overweight parent</a> is a risk factor for raising an overweight child. Parents’ attitudes and modelling of behaviours around <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10935-005-0014-8.pdf">alcohol and cigarettes</a> are associated with adolescent rates of use. </p>
<p>And, interestingly, children who have been exposed to a <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10591-015-9364-4.pdf">parent’s infidelity</a> are more likely to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01926187.2011.601192">engage in infidelity</a> themselves.</p>
<p>Early adolescents (10 to 13 years) perceive pressure to conform to “typical” <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11199-020-01136-y.pdf">behaviours associated with their gender</a>. Parents can challenge what is “typical” through role modelling. </p>
<h2>Role modelling positive behaviours</h2>
<p>Parents can set an example in many ways.</p>
<p>For instance, a son who observes his father crying and expressing his emotions will be reminded men have feelings that can be released gently. </p>
<p>A daughter who overhears her father say “that politician shouldn’t have interrupted her like that” learns women are entitled to take up space in a debate.</p>
<p>A son who observes his father enjoying the company of his female friends understands women are multi-dimensional and not only romantic objects. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/still-serving-guests-while-your-male-relatives-relax-everyday-sexism-like-this-hurts-womens-mental-health-116728">Still serving guests while your male relatives relax? Everyday sexism like this hurts women's mental health</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A child who observes their mother eating cake joyfully, without a disclaimer about exercising later or “being a bit naughty”, knows women are not required to obsess about body image. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391579/original/file-20210324-15-he5c8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Father and son hugging." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391579/original/file-20210324-15-he5c8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391579/original/file-20210324-15-he5c8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391579/original/file-20210324-15-he5c8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391579/original/file-20210324-15-he5c8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391579/original/file-20210324-15-he5c8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391579/original/file-20210324-15-he5c8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391579/original/file-20210324-15-he5c8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A father expressing his emotions shows his son men have feelings and can show them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/emotional-family-hug-father-crying-35239153">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A father who responds to a misogynistic joke with “that’s bang out of line, mate”, or “can you explain why that’s funny?” shows his children he recognises gendered violence can be born of disrespect cloaked in humour. </p>
<p>A daughter who screams “Stop!” mid-wrestle with her father, and is heard and respected, learns there are boundaries, rights and responsibilities with physical contact and that her bodily autonomy should be, and is, respected.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/use-proper-names-for-body-parts-dont-force-hugs-how-to-protect-your-kids-from-in-person-sexual-abuse-139970">Use proper names for body parts, don't force hugs: how to protect your kids from in-person sexual abuse</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If we want a society in which children learn respect for women and can, when the time is right, negotiate a sexual encounter safely and joyfully, we should consider what we model to our children. They are watching us, following our lead, and we are accountable.</p>
<p><em>For tips on how to talk about relationships and sexuality with your children at any age, see <a href="https://healthywa.wa.gov.au/Articles/S_T/Talk-soon-Talk-often">Talk Soon, Talk Often</a>. This provides age-appropriate topics, strategies and guidance for parents.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157502/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katy Thomas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Children take their lead from their parents. And it is, after all parents, not teachers, who have regular, long-term contact with children from birth onwards.
Katy Thomas, PhD Candidate, University of Tasmania
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/156126
2021-03-04T02:50:58Z
2021-03-04T02:50:58Z
4 assumptions about gender that distort how we think about climate change (and 3 ways to do better)
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387388/original/file-20210302-13-uz4rms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C1023%2C676&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/theworldfishcenter/7751390394/in/photolist-cNXUJh-cNXUiY-cNXNPS-dus7W2-dYev6W-dYeswG-cgaWLw-dY8Qhr">WorldFish/Mike Lusmore</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gender influences how people experience and respond to climate change. This is particularly evident in developing nations where women and men adapt to climatic shocks <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0638-y">differently</a>. Women work harder and longer, in poorer conditions, while men are more likely to migrate to find work that’s often insecure and unreliable.</p>
<p>In an <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-00999-7">article</a> published today in Nature Climate Change, we reviewed the literature on climate change and gender in low and middle-income countries from the last six years. And we discovered many unhelpful assumptions still plaguing climate change policy and research. </p>
<p>These <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/assumption">assumptions</a> hinder the pursuit of gender equality. They do this by misdiagnosing the causes of inequality and propping up ineffective strategies that seem like good ideas.</p>
<h2>Assumption 1: Gender equality is a women’s issue</h2>
<p>In many climate change policies and projects, gender equality is assumed to be a women’s issue. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cfa/ifr/2015/00000017/00000001/art00005#">a 2015 analysis</a> looked at the United Nations’ REDD+ schemes (<a href="https://redd.unfccc.int/">Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries</a>) in six countries. It found most projects defined gender equality as women’s participation in pilot projects. </p>
<p>But in many cases, this participation amounted to women simply being passive recipients of information, rather than having an active role in decisions about the design and implementation of initiatives. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387389/original/file-20210302-23-158l4sl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387389/original/file-20210302-23-158l4sl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387389/original/file-20210302-23-158l4sl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387389/original/file-20210302-23-158l4sl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387389/original/file-20210302-23-158l4sl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387389/original/file-20210302-23-158l4sl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387389/original/file-20210302-23-158l4sl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In many climate change policies and projects, gender equality is assumed to be a women’s issue.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Finn Thilsted/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 1980s, targeting women was a <a href="https://interactive.unwomen.org/multimedia/timeline/womenunite/en/index.html#/">key strategy</a> of development organisations to achieve economic development and poverty alleviation. But this often played out as development “being done” for women, regardless of their actual needs and aspirations. </p>
<p>At worst, it co-opted women into labour markets, such as the <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/the-women-who-make-your-shea-butter-are-often-abused-exploited_n_57460300e4b0dacf7ad3ca5e?ri18n=true">shea butter industry</a>, where they received low wages and had their labour exploited by more powerful actors in the value chain.</p>
<h2>Assumption 2: Women and men are homogeneous groups</h2>
<p>Within genders, there are <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-016-0825-2">many differences</a>. For example, the circumstances of older widows are likely to be vastly different to those of a young, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305750X15002776?via%3Dihub">unmarried</a> woman. Likewise, the needs of men may vary depending on their ethnicity or economic status. </p>
<p>In Australia, for instance, <a href="https://www.acoss.org.au/media_release/household-income-spent-on-energy-hits-new-high-for-people-on-low-incomes/">women and men on low incomes</a> (often single parents) are likely to be most vulnerable to rising energy prices. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-lagging-on-climate-action-and-inequality-but-the-pandemic-offers-a-chance-to-do-better-149983">Australia is lagging on climate action and inequality, but the pandemic offers a chance to do better</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But we found climate change projects and policies often gloss over these differences, missing opportunities to increase resilience. </p>
<p>This was shown in a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-019-02447-0">2019 analysis of 155 policy documents</a> on agri-food policies to build climate change resilience in Tanzania and Uganda. It found many characterised women as marginalised and vulnerable, while men were largely ignored.</p>
<p><a href="https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/100269">In Mali</a>, older and younger women and men had different farming strategies and goals, and so very different needs for climate information. The information provided by Mali’s Agrometeorological Advisory Program was only really useful for around 15% of men.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387392/original/file-20210302-13-7mt2ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387392/original/file-20210302-13-7mt2ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387392/original/file-20210302-13-7mt2ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387392/original/file-20210302-13-7mt2ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387392/original/file-20210302-13-7mt2ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387392/original/file-20210302-13-7mt2ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387392/original/file-20210302-13-7mt2ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Women fish retailers negotiate fish prices with wholesalers in Shakshouk village, Fayoum, Egypt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sara Fouad</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Assumption 3: Women are innately caring and connected to the environment</h2>
<p>As with economic development in the 1970s, climate change work continues to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016718519302301">position women</a> as innately caring and more “in touch” with their environment through domestic work, such as water collection and firewood gathering. </p>
<p>This assumption is also present in Australia — <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/06/eco-gender-gap-why-saving-planet-seen-womens-work">eco-friendly products are more often marketed at women</a> and <a href="https://www.broadagenda.com.au/2019/far-from-equal-the-gendered-impacts-of-climate-change-australia/">women are believed to be at the forefront of climate change</a> action. </p>
<p>Buying into this assumption means women get saddled with responsibility to act as saviours of their environments, families and communities. In the process, women’s labour gets doubled or tripled in the name of climate adaptation or mitigation. </p>
<p>For example, in <a href="http://www.conservationandsociety.org/article.asp?issn=0972-4923;year=2015;volume=13;issue=2;spage=189;epage=199;aulast=Westholm">Burkina Faso</a> in West Africa, a REDD+ program connected women with global markets for non-timber forestry products to enhance gender equality. But women’s desire to be involved in the programme was taken as a given, and women had little voice in negotiating the terms of their labour. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387393/original/file-20210303-15-1sdouuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387393/original/file-20210303-15-1sdouuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387393/original/file-20210303-15-1sdouuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387393/original/file-20210303-15-1sdouuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387393/original/file-20210303-15-1sdouuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387393/original/file-20210303-15-1sdouuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387393/original/file-20210303-15-1sdouuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Women are often depicted as connected to the environment through domestic labour.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ILRI/Georgina Smith</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Assumption 4: Gender equality is a numbers game</h2>
<p>If women take part in a forum or activity in numbers equal to or <a href="https://bulletin.ids.ac.uk/index.php/idsbo/article/view/594">greater</a> than men, climate projects and policies often consider this an adequate proxy for gender equality. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-conferences-are-male-pale-and-stale-its-time-to-bring-in-women-128060">Climate conferences are male, pale and stale – it's time to bring in women</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cfa/ifr/2018/00000020/00000003/art00005">In India, UN REDD+ projects</a> aimed to have an equal number of women and men in decision-making groups. But the women had little to no influence in the decision-making process, couldn’t sway opinions and were dissatisfied with decisions and accountability within the group.</p>
<p>While reaching equal numbers of women and men in decision-making groups is indeed an important step, it is not enough. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/news-item/a-gender-agenda-the-effectiveness-of-quota-systems-in-increasing-womens-meaningful-participation-in-politics">Numbers don’t</a> automatically translate to equal benefit or empowerment. Strategies are needed to ensure women and men can engage in ways that support their rights, voice and influence. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387395/original/file-20210303-15-1k7sh2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387395/original/file-20210303-15-1k7sh2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387395/original/file-20210303-15-1k7sh2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387395/original/file-20210303-15-1k7sh2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387395/original/file-20210303-15-1k7sh2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387395/original/file-20210303-15-1k7sh2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387395/original/file-20210303-15-1k7sh2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Composting at a farm near Rupa Lake, Nepal, as part of the Climate Smart Villages initiative.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CIAT:CCAFS/N. Palmer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Moving beyond assumptions: three ways forward</h2>
<p>Gender assumptions in climate change work have <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4191904?casa_token=MOGM5PDjalAAAAAA%3A5LB_9xBA7Im_RONgDYSZ4G64ZsCsMUECnGTPRf3q_2PZjG5nCgZzQFxsSpChDPg13IOn-okyVy8IgLU-wWVaEgBGRD-DzQzoCr5yPNPj-k7pwriivrI&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">long been critiqued in development studies</a>, an <a href="https://www.developmentstudies.asn.au/about/">interdisciplinary field</a> that examines the tools, practices and outcomes of development.</p>
<p>So, with these assumptions laid bare, we suggest three ways forward for anyone engaging in climate mitigation and adaptation strategies and associated research. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/misogyny-male-rage-and-the-words-men-use-to-describe-greta-thunberg-124347">Misogyny, male rage and the words men use to describe Greta Thunberg</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>First, be specific and precise about gender equality. What does an organisation, project or a policy seek to achieve in terms of <a href="https://www.ifpri.org/blog/reach-benefit-or-empower-clarifying-gender-strategies-development-projects">reach, benefit or empowerment</a>? Each has different <a href="https://www.ifpri.org/project/weai">measures</a> and goals.</p>
<p>Second, conduct, critique and communicate data that separate gender and gender research. This is a critical <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/3/627">first step</a> for research, evaluation and communication. </p>
<p>Finally, <a href="https://gennovate.org/">understand</a>, question and <a href="https://www.cgiar.org/innovations/gender-transformative-approaches/">shift</a> the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/gender/202001/gender-and-environment-what-are-barriers-gender-equality-sustainable-ecosystem-management">more intractable barriers to gender equality</a>. These include the gender norms that manifest in material differences in tenure and inheritance rights, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40152-019-00147-0">livelihood opportunities</a>, education, health care and access to material and credit resources. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-and-migration-in-bangladesh-one-womans-perspective-107131">Climate change and migration in Bangladesh – one woman's perspective</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To do this better, climate change programs and institutions need to direct more resources towards gender equality, longer time lines and better gender training and capacity. </p>
<p>As the world braces for more climate change impacts, working towards gender equality requires serious and informed commitment at all levels: from <a href="https://www.shechangesclimate.org/">global leadership</a> to organisations and communities at the forefront of change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156126/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Lau works for WorldFish—an international, not for profit research organization and part of the CGIAR that seeks to deliver research for a more food secure world, particularly for societies most vulnerable women and men. This research was supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Fish Agri-Food Systems and the ARC Centre for Excellence in Coral Reef Studies. Dr. Danika Kleiber, currently at NOAA, contributed to this article.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philippa Cohen works for WorldFish - an international, not for profit research organization and part of the CGIAR that seeks to deliver research for a more food secure world. This research and collaboration has been facilitated by funding support from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Oak Foundation and the CGIAR Research Program on Fish Agri-Food Systems (FISH) led by WorldFish.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Lawless' research is supported by the ARC Centre for Excellence in Coral Reef Studies. This research collaboration was undertaken as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Fish Agri-Food Systems (FISH) led by WorldFish.</span></em></p>
Experts reviewed the literature on climate change and gender in developing countries, and found many unhelpful, outdated assumptions are still kicking around.
Jacqueline Lau, Research fellow, James Cook University
Pip Cohen, Research Leader of Small-scale Fisheries at WorldFish, CGIAR, and Adjunct Research Fellow at ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University
Sarah Lawless, PhD Candidate, James Cook University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/154183
2021-02-14T23:34:13Z
2021-02-14T23:34:13Z
Gymnastics NZ has apologised for past abuses — now it must empower athletes to lead change
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383910/original/file-20210211-13-126drn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C0%2C4470%2C3173&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Within days of serious allegations of <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/300071427/an-insidious-culture-new-zealand-gymnastics-rocked-by-allegations-of-psychological-and-physical-abuse">physical and psychological abuse</a> in New Zealand gymnastics emerging in late 2020, the sport’s governing body <a href="https://www.gymnasticsnz.com/">Gymnastics New Zealand</a> commissioned an <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/422836/gymnastics-new-zealand-under-review">independent review</a>. </p>
<p>A series of media investigations had earlier painted a picture of widespread harm, including <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/north-harbour-gymnastics-face-allegations-of-abuse-over-training-and-fat-shaming-of-young-athletes/FUULSPQVXXFU5PVSCFQYQPDDDA/">over-training and fat-shaming</a>, predominantly affecting girls. The allegations echoed similar situations <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/ep4377/we-wont-stop-gymnasts-around-the-world-are-organizing-to-end-abuse">around the world</a>.</p>
<p>The eventual <a href="https://www.gymnasticsnz.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Gymnastics-New-Zealand-Independent-Report-10-February-2021.pdf">report</a> was released last week and Gymnastics New Zealand <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/300225622/were-sorry--gymnastics-new-zealand-apologises-for-abusive-practices">apologised</a> for the past abuses. However, the report does not contain specific findings, perhaps a result of its broad <a href="https://www.gymnasticsnz.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Final-GNZ-Independent-Review-Terms-of-Reference-070820.pdf">terms of reference</a>. </p>
<p>Instead, it identifies the main areas where change might happen, including the health, safety and well-being of gymnasts, coaching standards, finances, complaints procedures and organisational structure.</p>
<p>The report recommends change in each of these areas, plus the establishment of a body to monitor implementation of those reforms.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1359247922429382656"}"></div></p>
<h2>A lack of athlete and children’s voices</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.gymnastsforchange.com/blogs">Gymnasts</a> and <a href="https://www.oru.se/globalassets/oru-en/research/projects/hv/iscwag/iscwag_manifesto_23-signatures.pdf">academics</a> have already floated many of the report’s ideas, which would make a positive change in the sport. </p>
<p>On the other hand, academic research contradicts some of the claims within the report. For example, the idea that Eastern bloc coaches “introduced” abusive methods to the sport is inaccurate. There is <a href="https://theconversation.com/girls-no-more-why-elite-gymnastics-competition-for-women-should-start-at-18-143182">evidence</a> of abuse in gymnastics in both Eastern and Western countries since the 1970s. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/girls-no-more-why-elite-gymnastics-competition-for-women-should-start-at-18-143182">Girls no more: why elite gymnastics competition for women should start at 18</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Fostering a belief that outsiders are responsible for such abuse feeds <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2020/08/usa-olympics-gymnastics-red-scare-heavy-medals-athlete-a">anti-immigrant stereotypes</a> and deflects the focus from local culpability.</p>
<p>The report also fails to take account of gender. It is mentioned only once, even though the majority of allegations came from females. Moreover, research has shown the sport’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/girls-no-more-why-elite-gymnastics-competition-for-women-should-start-at-18-143182">expectations of femininity</a> are a big part of the power imbalances that lead to abuse. </p>
<p>And while the report calls for promoting athlete voices and child-safe policies, the lack of child and athlete voices in the text is striking — particularly as <a href="https://www.gymnasticsnz.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Gymnastics-NZ-annual-report-2018.pdf">around 90% of gymnasts are under 12</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/436154/gymnastics-review-recommendations-very-difficult-to-action">Only 70 athletes participated</a> in the review, out of a population of 35,000 gymnasts registered with Gymnastics New Zealand (not including former members). </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1289269874670280704"}"></div></p>
<h2>A history of abuse</h2>
<p>This is not the first time gymnastics has been at a crossroads. There were scares in 1995 with Joan Ryan’s book <a href="https://www.google.co.nz/books/edition/_/P36hQgAACAAJ?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjUprWl597uAhXF4zgGHesFCZ0Q7_IDMBN6BAgSEAI">Little Girls in Pretty Boxes</a> about abuse in gymnastics and figure skating, an inquiry into <a href="https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll10/id/5373/rec/1">Australian gymnastics abuse</a> that same year, and more allegations around the world throughout the 2000s. </p>
<p>The difference now is that we have the social science evidence and human rights frameworks upon which to base our response. </p>
<p>The report, then, must be considered as only one input into a wider program of change — beginning with an acknowledgement that the problems within gymnastics are highly gendered. That is, they disproportionately affect girls and women, and are related to the narrowly defined femininity that gymnastics demands. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/winning-at-all-costs-how-abuse-in-sport-has-become-normalised-142739">Winning at all costs – how abuse in sport has become normalised</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Girls are selected and trained to adopt certain traits — docility, passivity and compliance — that make them <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/49512933_Foucault_in_Leotards_Corporeal_Discipline_in_Women's_Artistic_Gymnastics">easier to control</a>. <a href="https://www.google.co.nz/books/edition/Women_s_Artistic_Gymnastics/8GEPEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA1&printsec=frontcover">Coaches enforce these behaviours</a> by using emotionally abusive “training methods”: yelling, insulting, public ridicule, isolation, neglect and physical violence. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.24heures.ch/un-quart-des-gymnastes-a-subi-des-violences-physiques-195996008315?fbclid=IwAR3Az-u5tqcLNxUbh2IgqMSv9a61L_-_JHb2vl1sB40gCFzApe5X4SGO8WE">recent investigation</a> in Switzerland found one in two gymnasts had been subjected to treatment that fits accepted definitions of <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cat.aspx#:%7E:text=For%20the%20purposes%20of%20this,a%20third%20person%20has%20committed">torture</a>. Given that about <a href="https://www.gymnasticsnz.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Gymnastics-NZ-annual-report-2018.pdf">90% of gymnasts are under 12</a> and <a href="https://www.gymnasticsnz.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Gymnastics-NZ-annual-report-2018.pdf">79% are female</a>, this amounts to gendered child abuse.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JzeP0DKSqdQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A global problem: ‘Athlete A’ documented USA Gymnastics’ protection of abusive coaches over several decades.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Gender, authority and exploitation</h2>
<p>The power differential between coaches and other officials (positioned as adults and experts), and gymnasts (inexpert and children) has allowed abuse to be <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17430437.2015.1124567?casa_token=Ntd3pFJais0AAAAA%3AZWURAZM5VcAWKM9LaPFrttjbc5qKrv-NT04KX_qmGRpM04xrH5_jtvGMJgpJRu8UyZHTe5nvfpyf8fM">normalised</a>. </p>
<p>This subordination of female athlete voices doesn’t just happen in the gym. It’s echoed in the reviews taking place around the world. We’re assured sports authorities will listen to the reviewers, so why didn’t they listen when gymnasts first raised concerns? </p>
<p>A United Nations Report from June 2020 identified <a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3872495?ln=en">gender discrimination</a> in sport as a human rights concern:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The discrimination faced by women and girls in competitive and non-competitive sport cannot be divorced from the discrimination they face in society more broadly.</p>
<p>[Countries should] consider taking collective action on behalf of athletes, including with the involvement of sporting bodies, to address the gaps in accountability arising from the practices and policies of sporting bodies.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a member of the international <a href="https://www.hrc.co.nz/your-rights/what-are-human-rights/">human rights community</a>, as well as a party to the recent Commonwealth <a href="https://thecommonwealth.org/media/news/commonwealth-countries-adopt-statement-promoting-human-rights-through-sport">consensus statement</a> on human rights in sport, New Zealand has an obligation to take action. This could begin with gymnastics.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nassars-abuse-reflects-more-than-50-years-of-mens-power-over-female-athletes-90722">Nassar's abuse reflects more than 50 years of men's power over female athletes</a>
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<h2>Athletes are the experts</h2>
<p>While new policies, education and monitoring will all need to be developed, amplifying athletes’ voices is the first step.</p>
<p>One guide might be the disability sector’s mantra of “<a href="https://www.google.co.nz/books/edition/Nothing_About_Us_Without_Us/ohqff8DBt9gC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA3&printsec=frontcover">nothing about us without us</a>”. Athlete voices have been <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jofolympstud.1.2.0093?seq=1">absent from decision-making</a> for too long. Welfare concerns now plaguing many sports are a symptom of this.</p>
<p>It’s time to recognise athletes as the experts they are. They know their sport better than anyone. Most are <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/amateurism-and-professionalism">amateurs</a> who also need a paying job and have experience in other fields that can contribute to athlete welfare. </p>
<p>National sports organisations need to embed athletes in governance — not just as another party to consult, another toothless committee, but as a mandatory requirement for boards. </p>
<p>Athlete welfare and empowerment strategies need to be designed by or with the athletes themselves or their representatives. People with expertise in human rights, abuse, child protection and gender equity have valuable knowledge to share with the sports community. </p>
<p>Finding a way to fix gymnastics is a real opportunity to create something that will transform all women’s sports in New Zealand. But first we must start listening to the athletes themselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154183/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Georgia Cervin has been advocating for gymnasts' rights in New Zealand since August 2020.</span></em></p>
Reform of New Zealand’s abusive gymnastics culture offers an opportunity to improve women’s sports in general.
Georgia Cervin, Honorary Research Fellow, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.