Gendered Discourses

Citation:

Brandth, Berit, and Marit S. Haugen. 2000. “From Lumberjack to Business Manager: Masculinity in the Norwegian Forestry Press.” Journal of Rural Studies 16 (3): 343–55.

Authors: Berit Brandth, Marit S. Haugen

Abstract:

This article explores masculinity in an all-male discourse where gender is `taken-for-granted'. Through an examination of three volumes of a Norwegian forestry magazine, the article examines the ways in which masculinity is constructed at two of the main sites of forestry. These are the sites of practical forestry work and organisational management, which correspond to the `tough’ and the `powerful’ positions of masculinity in the industry. There are differences between the two positions of masculinity concerning structure, activity and display. Although quite coherently described in the magazine, there are noticeable signs of destabilisation. From being strongest in focus in the early volume, the old, sturdy working logger is replaced by the energetic, young man with efficient and powerful machinery. Most notable is the fact that the forestry worker seems to be giving way to the organisational man. After a macho-man flare up in the 1980s, the next decade marks a transition to greater hegemony of organisational masculinity.

Keywords: forestry, gender, masculinity, rural, discourse, media

Topics: Gender, Gendered Discourses, Gendered Power Relations, Media, Livelihoods Regions: Europe, Nordic states, Northern Europe Countries: Norway

Year: 2000

Citation:

Riley, Liam, and Belinda Dodson. 2016. “‘Gender Hates Men’: Untangling Gender and Development Discourses in Food Security Fieldwork in Urban Malawi.” Gender, Place & Culture 23 (7): 1047-60.

Authors: Liam Riley, Belinda Dodson

Abstract:

This article examines the social construction and contestation of gender and gender roles in the city of Blantyre in Malawi. In fieldwork on gendered household roles related to food security, interviews with men and women revealed a distinct set of connotations with the word gender, which reflected Malawians’ historical and contemporary engagement with concepts of development, modernity, and human rights. We denote the Malawian concept of gender as gender in order to distinguish the word participants used in interviews from the more widely accepted conventional definition. We then use this distinction to highlight the ways in which ideas of gender equality have been introduced and received in the Malawian context. The urban setting of the research is key to drawing out the association of gender with Westernization, bringing into focus the power dynamics inherent in the project of translating global discourses of gender rights and gender equality into meaningful social change in developing countries. Gender in Malawi denotes a top-down (and outside-in) process of framing Malawi’s goals for gender equality. This creates political constraints both in the form of resistance to gender, because it resonates with a long history of social change imposed by outside forces, and in the form of superficial adherence to gender to appear more urban and modern, especially to a Western researcher. Local understandings of gender as gender undermine efforts to promote gender equality as a means to address Malawi’s intense urban poverty and household food insecurity.

Keywords: gender, development, postcolonial feminism, urban, qualitative research, Malawi

Topics: Development, Gender, Gender Roles, Gendered Discourses, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Households, Security, Food Security Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Malawi

Year: 2016

Citation:

Vaughan, Tom. 2013. “Asian Fury: Gender, Orientalism and the Indo-Pakistani Nuclear ‘Threat’ in US Foreign Policy Discourse, 1998 – 2009.” Working Paper No. 09-13, School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.

Author: Tom Vaughan

Abstract:

Since India and Pakistan each carried out their second tests of nuclear weapons in 1998, US foreign policy discourse and Western media has often taken as fact the 'threat' of nuclear conflict in the region. This dissertation argues that a critical constructivist approach is required when studying Indo-Pakistani nuclear relations, given the inadequacies of structural realism and its unhelpful assumptions about the 'nature' of international politics. Since realist accounts make up the majority of recent literature on the subject, this dissertation aims to provide an alternative account, examining how US foreign policy discourse constructs the condition of threat through representations of the US, India and Pakistan. Using a discourse analysis methodology, I investigate the gendered and orientalist constructions of India and Pakistan which contribute to the mainstream perception of nuclear threat on the South Asian subcontinent. In a two-part analysis, I examine the effect that the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks have had on the US discourse around Indo-Pakistani nuclear behaviour. I find that the US discourse changes significantly over time. From the 1998 tests onwards, a direct and imminent nuclear threat to international security is constructed. After 9/11, this threat is increasingly negated. Across both periods, the US discourse constitently feminises and orientalises India and Pakistan in relation to a dominant US masculinity – practices which are instrumental in the representation of threat – although the uses and effects of these representational practices shift over time. The discursive changes observed demonstrate how 'radical breaks' in history can change knowledge about international politics, and illustrate how US foreign policy discourse reconfigures the US's global identity after 9/11.

Keywords: United States, India, Pakistan, nuclear, non-proliferation, Foucault, discourse, gender, orientalism

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Feminisms, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Discourses, Nationalism, Security, Weapons /Arms, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Regions: Americas, North America, Asia, South Asia Countries: India, Pakistan, United States of America

Year: 2013

Citation:

Corbridge, Stuart. 1999. “‘The Militarization of All Hindudom’? The Bharatiya Janata Party, the Bomb, and the Political Spaces of Hindu Nationalism.” Economy and Society 28 (2): 222–55.

Author: Stuart Corbridge

Abstract:

Keywords: Hindu nationalism, Bharatiya Janata Party, political space, Yatras, militarization, secularism

Topics: Gender, Gendered Discourses, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Nationalism, Religion, Violence, Weapons /Arms, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 1999

Citation:

Musinguzi, Laban, Vianny Natugonza, Jackson Efitre, and Richard Ogutu-Ohwayo. 2018. “The Role of Gender in Improving Adaptation to Climate Change among Small-Scale Fishers.” Climate and Development 10 (6): 566-76.

Authors: Laban Musinguzi, Vianny Natugonza, Jackson Efitre, Richard Ogutu-Ohwayo

Abstract:

Climate change disproportionately affects marginalized groups, especially women. To guide the integration of gender roles in interventions to improve adaptation, we examined gender roles among fishers on Lake Wamala, Uganda, which has been increasingly affected by climate change. We found lower participation of women than men in preharvest and postharvest fishing activities, with 99% of fishers and 92.9% of fish processors and traders combined being men. The men had more fishing experience, started fishing at a younger age and exited at a later age, targeted more species, used more fishing gears and bought more fish for processing and trading. Although we observed diversification to non-fishery livelihoods, such as crop and livestock production to increase food security and income among others, income from these activities was not controlled or shared equally between men and women. Compared to men, women worked longer hours, engaging in more simultaneous activities both in and out of the home and reported less time resting. The income controlled by women was used directly to meet household needs. The implications of these differences for adaptation, what men and women can do best to enhance adaptation and how some adaptation practices and interventions can be implemented to benefit both men and women are discussed.

Keywords: adaptation, climate change, small-scale fishers, gender, livelihoods, Uganda

Topics: Economies, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gender Roles, Gendered Discourses, Gendered Power Relations, Households, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Uganda

Year: 2018

Citation:

Collins, Andrea. 2018. “Saying All the Right Things? Gendered Discourse in Climate-Smart Agriculture.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 45 (1): 175-91. 

Author: Andrea Collins

Abstract:

Amidst debates about the role of ‘climate-smart agriculture’ (CSA), the intersection of concerns about climate change and agriculture offer an opportunity to consider how gender is considered in global policymaking. The latest module in the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, World Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development Gender and Agriculture Sourcebook – ‘Gender and Climate Smart Agriculture’ – offers an opportunity to reassess how gender factors into these global recommendations. This contribution argues that the module makes strides toward more gender-aware policymaking, but the version of CSA discussed in the module sidesteps the market-led and productivity-oriented practices often associated with CSA. As a result, though the module pushes a more feminist agenda in many respects, it does not fully consider the gendered implications of corporate-led and trade-driven CSA. 

Keywords: agriculture, climate change, gender, FAO, global governance

Topics: Agriculture, Development, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gendered Discourses, Households, International Organizations, Livelihoods

Year: 2018

Citation:

Allan, Joanna. 2019."Constructions of Gender in the Nationalist Discourses of the Obiang Regime." In Silenced Resistance: Women, Dictatorships, and Genderwashing in Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea, 131-52. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Author: Joanna Allan

Abstract:

Topics: Gender, Women, Gendered Discourses, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality Regions: Africa, Central Africa Countries: Equatorial Guinea

Year: 2019

Citation:

Jayasinghe, Namalie, and Maria Ezpeleta. 2019. "Ensuring Women Follow the Money: Gender Barriers in Extractive Industry Revenue Accountability in the Dominican Republic and Zambia." The Extractive Industries and Society, April 15, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2019.04.003

Authors: Namalie Jasyasinghe, Maria Ezpeleta

Abstract:

Social accountability initiatives (SAIs) can be important to help push for oil, gas, and mining revenues to go to communities impacted by extractive industries (EI). Local investments in targeted services and programs can improve development outcomes and address negative impacts caused by EI. Ensuring that women and women’s rights organizations (WROs) are part of SAIs is likewise crucial, without which investments financed by EI revenues may not reflect the needs and interests of women, missing an opportunity to advance women’s rights and gender equality. This article shares preliminary results from a project that involves: (1) research exploring a women’s rights approach to SAIs on EI revenue transparency; and (2) program activities intended to foster joint agenda-setting between WROs and EI revenue transparency civil society organizations (EITCSOs) that distinctly focus on advancing women’s rights. Initial findings suggest that addressing structural barriers to women’s participation, such as socio-cultural norms, women’s lack of ownership of land and resources, gender-insensitive consultation processes, inaccessibility of information, and women’s lack of awareness of their rights, in SAIs related to EI revenue transparency could improve women’s agency. Through this project, WROs and EITCSOs are building advocacy agendas that respond to these barriers to promote women’s rights.

Keywords: gender, women's rights organizations, social accountability, revenue, extractive industries, Dominican Republic, Zambia, transparency

Topics: Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Gendered Discourses, International Organizations, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa, Americas, Caribbean countries Countries: Dominican Republic, Zambia

Year: 2019

Citation:

O’Reilly, Kathleen, Sarah Halvorson, Farhana Sultana, and Nina Laurie. 2009. “Introduction: Global Perspectives on Gender–Water Geographies.” Gender, Place & Culture 16 (4): 381–5. 

Authors: Kathleen O'Reilly, Sarah Halvorson, Farhana Sultana, Nina Laurie

Abstract:

Keywords: gender, water, neoliberalism, nature-society, modernity, agua, neoliberalismo, naturaleza-sociedad, modernidad, gênero

Topics: Development, Environment, Feminisms, Gender, Gender Analysis, Gendered Discourses, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Livelihoods

Year: 2009

Citation:

O’Reilly, Kathleen. 2006. “‘Traditional’ Women, ‘Modern’ Water: Linking Gender and Commodification in Rajasthan, India.” Geoforum 37 (6): 958–72.

Author: Kathleen O'Reilly

Abstract:

In this paper, I analyze the connections made between women and water in a Rajasthani drinking water supply project as a significant part of drinking water’s commodification. For development policy makers, water progressing from something free to something valued by price is inevitable when moving economies toward modernity and development. My findings indicate that water is not commodified simply by charging money for it, but through a series of discourses and acts that link it to other “modern” objects and give it value. One of these objects is “women”. I argue that through women’s participation activities that link gender and modernity to new responsibilities and increased mobility for village women involving the clean water supply, a “traditional” Rajasthani woman becomes “modern”. Water, in parallel, becomes “new”, “improved” and worth paying for. Women and water resources are further connected through project staff’s efforts to promote latrines by targeting women as their primary users. The research shows that villagers applied their own meanings to latrines, some of which precluded women using them. This paper fills a gap in feminist political ecology, which often overlooks how gender is created through natural resource interventions, by concerning itself with how new meanings of “water” and “women” are mutually constructed through struggles over water use and its commodification. It contributes to critical development geography literatures by demonstrating that women’s participation approaches to natural resource development act as both constraints and opportunities for village constituents. It examines an under-explored area of gender and water research by tracing village-level struggles over meanings of latrines.

Keywords: water, gender, India, NGOs, development, Latrines, commodification

Topics: Development, Economies, Environment, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Gendered Discourses, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Political Economies, Privatization Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2006