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Article
Publication date: 1 January 1997

Gary L. Lemons

bell hooks says in “Reconstructing Black Masculinity” thatn[c]ollectively we can break the life threatening choke‐holdpatriarchal masculinity imposes on black men and create…

Abstract

bell hooks says in “Reconstructing Black Masculinity” that n[c]ollectively we can break the life threatening choke‐hold patriarchal masculinity imposes on black men and create life sustaining visions of a reconstructed black masculinity that can provide black men ways to save their lives and the lives of their brothers and sisters in struggle. Toward the work of political (re)unification of the genders in black communities today, black men must acknowledge and begin to confront the existence of sexism in black liberation struggle as one of the chief obstacles empeding its advancement. Making womanist space for black men to participate in allied relation to feminist movement to oppose the opression of women means black men going against the grain of the racist and sexist mythology of black manhood and masculinity in the U.S. Its underlying premise rooted in white supremacist patriarchal ideology continues to foster the idea that we pose a racial and sexual threat to American society such that our bodies exist to be feared, brutalized, imprisoned, annihilated‐made invisible.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 17 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Article
Publication date: 28 September 2012

Adam Baird

The aim of this paper is to help in understanding the relationship between the construction of the male identity and how social violence may be “reproduced” (using the concept of…

3084

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to help in understanding the relationship between the construction of the male identity and how social violence may be “reproduced” (using the concept of habitus after Pierre Bourdieu), in poor and socially excluded contexts. The paper aims to inform debate and policy making.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on empirical data collected in 2008, in the form of life‐history interviews with male youths – including members and non‐members of gangs – from two poor and very violent neighbourhoods in Medellín, Colombia's second largest city.

Findings

Masculinities alone do not account for urban violence, but they play an integral role why violence is reproduced. In socio‐economically excluded contexts the gang becomes an attractive vehicle for “doing masculinity” for boys and young men. Youths who did not join gangs tended to have family support to develop a “moral rejection” of gangs, crime and violence during childhood, which contributed to them finding non‐gang pathways to manhood. Youths who joined gangs were less likely to develop this “moral rejection” during childhood, often due to family problems; and were more likely to admire older gang members, and perceive the gang as an attractive pathway to manhood.

Research limitations/implications

As the sole researcher a limited number of 32 individuals were interviewed.

Originality/value

There is a lack of research on masculinities and gang affiliation in the UK and across the globe. This paper provides new conceptual ideas for understanding why young men make up the vast majority of violent gang members, whilst providing an original data set from a very violent urban setting.

Article
Publication date: 30 March 2010

Robert Smith

As a result of a plethora of scholarly articles by feminist scholars of entrepreneurship, it is now widely accepted that the notion of entrepreneurship is ideologically skewed…

Abstract

Purpose

As a result of a plethora of scholarly articles by feminist scholars of entrepreneurship, it is now widely accepted that the notion of entrepreneurship is ideologically skewed towards masculine ideology. Although this body of work has been quietly acknowledged, it has not invoked a reply, or refutation, from male entrepreneurship scholars. Nor has it led to an increase in studies about the influence of masculinity on entrepreneurial behaviour or identity. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to begin to address this by analysing an alternative social construction of entrepreneurship relating to how masculinity influences entrepreneurial identity in print. The data used are text from the thinly veiled biographical novel Cityboy written in an aggressive and unashamedly masculine style. Whilst the focus is not upon entrepreneurs per se, it is upon the male‐oriented entrepreneurial institution that is the “city.”

Design/methodology/approach

The methodological approach used in this paper is that of biographical analysis; supported by a supplementary analysis of similar biographies of traders; this is triangulated by photographs downloaded from the internet. This approach allows rich data to be collected from practical sources permitting a comparative approach to be adopted. The approach has obvious limitations but is a practical method.

Findings

The results from this empirical study are tentative but illustrate that the socially constructed nature of the “city trader” as an entrepreneurial identity is portrayed as being a manly pursuit; and how such discrimination is inherent within an institutionalised systemic behaviour in which men are encouraged to be risk‐takers and players. This institutionalised “boyish” behaviour is used to build up a masculine identity rooted in Thatcherite enterprise culture. Although no clear conclusion can be articulated because of the subjective nature of the interpretation, links with accepted entrepreneurship theory are drawn. It is thus an exploratory study into the pervasiveness of masculine doxa in constructing entrepreneurial identity. The paper makes an incremental contribution by acknowledging the power of male dominance in shaping entrepreneurial realities albeit the conclusions are mainly drawn from one book.

Research limitations/implications

This paper opens up the field for further studies of skewed masculine entrepreneurial identities under the rubric of the “bad boy entrepreneur.”

Originality/value

In critically discussing and acknowledging the male genderedness of entrepreneurial identity in a particular system, this paper makes a contribution to the understanding of the socially constructed nature of how to tell, understand and appreciate stories which present an entrepreneurial identity. Granted the hero of the story is fictional but the overlaps with the accepted storylines of entrepreneur stories are illuminating. The paper provides another heuristic device for understanding the social construction of gendered entrepreneurial identities, making it of interest to feminist scholars of entrepreneurship and to social constructionists alike.

Details

International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, vol. 2 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-6266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 July 2017

Angela Gracia B. Cruz and Margo Buchanan-Oliver

This paper aims to explore how marketplace-enabled performances help reconstitute masculinity in the context of transnational mobility.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore how marketplace-enabled performances help reconstitute masculinity in the context of transnational mobility.

Design/methodology/approach

Grounded in consumer acculturation theory, this paper draws on theories of gender performance to inform a hermeneutic analysis of depth interviews with skilled migrant men.

Findings

To navigate experiences of emasculation, participants performed three remasculation strategies: status-based hypermasculinity, localised masculinity and flexible masculinity.

Research limitations/implications

This study offers insights for the design of migrant settlement policy. Further research should investigate the remasculation strategies of low resource migrant men.

Originality/value

This paper makes two contributions to theories of gendered acculturation. First, while studies of acculturation as a gendered performance have shown how marketplace resources support the gendered identity projects of female migrants and the children of migrants, this paper provides the missing perspective of skilled migrant men. Beyond acting as “resistant” cultural gatekeepers of their family members’ gendered acculturation practices, first-generation migrant men emerge as creative, agentic and skilled negotiators of countervailing gender regimes. Second, transnationally dispersed families, migrant communities and country of origin networks emerge not only as acculturating agents which transmit gender regimes but also as audiences which enable the staging of remasculating performances.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 51 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 1987

John E. Elliott and Joanna V. Scott

This article examines relationships between capitalism and democracy as perceived by contending perspectives within the liberal capitalist‐liberal democratic tradition(s). Bentham…

Abstract

This article examines relationships between capitalism and democracy as perceived by contending perspectives within the liberal capitalist‐liberal democratic tradition(s). Bentham and the Mills are taken as initiating both this tradition and the core elements of the debate within it. Pre‐Benthamite theories are first reviewed. Then, after discussion of Bentham and James Mill and of John Stuart Mill, Mill's late nineteenth and early twentieth century successors are examined. We then go on to consider hypotheses concerning the “exceptional” quality of relationships between capitalism and democracy in the United States. The penultimate section of the article adumbrates the main contours of mid‐twentieth century pluralist‐elitist theories. We conclude with a summary.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 14 no. 7/8/9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Article
Publication date: 21 June 2013

Malcolm David Prentis

Guthrie Wilson (1914‐1984) was one example of the trend of migration of teachers from New Zealand public schools to Australian private schools. The purpose of this paper is to…

Abstract

Purpose

Guthrie Wilson (1914‐1984) was one example of the trend of migration of teachers from New Zealand public schools to Australian private schools. The purpose of this paper is to explore this particular case with a view to revealing some of the dynamics involved and challenges facing certain types of Australasian schools in the 1950s and 1960s.

Design/methodology/approach

This article is essentially founded on empirical historical research and on analysis of data from published and archival sources and from interviews with participants and observers. It is placed in the context of the literature on both educational change in Australasia and trans‐Tasman migration at the time.

Findings

Although Guthrie Wilson craved recognition as a novelist, he excelled as a school Principal, partly because he seemed to fit certain notions of education, leadership and manhood which suited the Council of The Scots College Sydney. In the 1960s, the Council wanted to maintain traditions which appeared to have been weakened by Wilson's progressive predecessor and challenged by social change. Though he fulfilled the Council's expectations, Wilson also proved to be a mediator between traditional and progressive education. Thus, Wilson could be both an honourable representative of the “Old School” and modestly progressive.

Originality/value

Biographical studies can reveal unsuspected patterns as well as challenge casual generalizations. Images of schools and of their leadership, held by both contemporaries and later observers, can prove to be subtly misleading on closer inspection. In particular, the article confronts a number of school myths which affect not only the schools involved but all schools, mutatis mutandis.

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1997

Michael S. Kimmel

Since the late eighteenth century, American men have supported women's equality. (see Kimmel and Mosmiller, 1992). Even before the first Woman's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls…

Abstract

Since the late eighteenth century, American men have supported women's equality. (see Kimmel and Mosmiller, 1992). Even before the first Woman's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, New York heralded the birth of the organized women's movement in 1848, American men had begun to argue in favor of women's rights. That celebrated radical, Thomas Paine, for example, mused in 1775 that any formal declaration of independence from England should include women, since women have, as he put it, “an equal right to virtue.”(Paine, [1775] 1992, 63–66). Other reformers, like Benjamin Rush and John Neal articulated claims for women's entry into schools and public life. Charles Brockden Brown, America's first professional novelist, penned a passionate plea for women's equality in Alcuin(1798).

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 17 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Article
Publication date: 21 November 2023

Ana C. González L., Yeny E. Rodríguez and Carol Sánchez

This study examines how women and men in family firms respond differently when asked about perceptions of financial performance. The study poses three research questions around…

Abstract

Purpose

This study examines how women and men in family firms respond differently when asked about perceptions of financial performance. The study poses three research questions around this topic: Are there differences among female and male responses, do those perceptions change if men and women are leaders of the family business and does the family's socioemotional wealth (SEW) influence such responses.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a quantitative research design to determine if financial performance perceptions of family firms differ based on the gender of the respondents and their leadership position, and second, if SEW's dimensions influence those perceptions, using data from the Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices (STEP) survey in 2015.

Findings

The findings indicate that due to the lack of theory regarding gender as a social construct, empirical data collected for family business studies should take under consideration if respondents are women, men, leaders and the family influence in the family business when collecting data from surveys and asking for perceptions of financial performance. Results show that women in family businesses tend to have more positive perceptions of financial performance than men, but if women are leaders, those perceptions not only decrease but become negative. In addition, the family's socioemotional wealth (SEW) exacerbates those tendencies.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature by helping to understand the potential limitations of subjective measures of financial performance, as women increasingly become family business leaders. It also contributes to gender studies by demonstrating that there is a lack of gender theoretical perspectives specifically, gender roles, suggesting that differences in self-promotion and self-evaluation between men and women leaders of their family firms. Finally, this study adds to the study of SEW as a multidimensional construct by showing the different effects, or lack of them by each dimension and showing the strong effect of family continuity on the perception of financial performance.

Details

International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, vol. 15 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-6266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1968

William Ready

MAN IS HARD TO HANDLE; often he rejects, let alone Gandalf, his God. For as long as man lives all nature and beyond are trying to relate to him, but there is something in Man…

Abstract

MAN IS HARD TO HANDLE; often he rejects, let alone Gandalf, his God. For as long as man lives all nature and beyond are trying to relate to him, but there is something in Man, both divine and diabolic, that rejects this. When his dark side embraces nature it is to subdue it and harness it to his will. When his good side woos nature it is to excape his manhood and be subject within it. The body's chemistry, land, sea, sun and sky are all directed this way or that. What is eternal in the mind contains this record, but overlords it with a vain and brave attempt, encompassing catastrophe, to break free of his past, to relate or not relate as the will moves, not to share in love, but to control or to cower. Man leaps from ice floe to ice floe, from hummock to tussock, to avoid what the baying may bring forth, what will come from surrender of his will that causes so much woe, and yet without which he would not be.

Details

Library Review, vol. 21 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2010

Jenny K. Rodriguez

Literature on “gender and organisation” in developing countries is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to unveil the way in which gender construction is understood and operates…

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Abstract

Purpose

Literature on “gender and organisation” in developing countries is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to unveil the way in which gender construction is understood and operates within public organisational settings in the Dominican Republic.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 27 women and 13 men from three organisations in the public sector in the Dominican Republic. The research was developed using a feminist poststructuralist methodological framework and used discourse analysis.

Findings

Gender construction and dynamics in the Dominican public sector reproduce paternalistic assumptions and beliefs. Organisational culture operates as a gendered system where sexualised structures and processes perpetuate ideas about male superiority and female inferiority, which translate in expectations of men being dominant and women being submissive.

Research limitations/implications

The experience of a group of employees from three public institutions cannot generalise the whole of the public sector all around the country. More importantly, it cannot be assumed to represent all feminist voices from developing countries.

Practical implications

The implications of this research are significant both for gender sensitive employment public policy reform and human resource management practices in the public sector.

Originality/value

The research focused on how gender is articulated in organisational culture, situating this problematisation in the public sector in the Dominican Republic. The paper contributes to the limited knowledge of gender and organisation in the Hispanic Caribbean, particularly the Dominican Republic.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 29 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

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