scholarly journals “They Came Home Over-Empowered”: Identifying Masculinities and Femininities in Food Insecurity Situations in Tanzania

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 4196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Bonatti ◽  
Juliano Borba ◽  
Izabela Schlindwein ◽  
Constance Rybak ◽  
Stefan Sieber

Gender inequality, embedded in sociocultural structures, persists in Tanzania. It is particularly manifest in access to productive resources, income-generating and employment opportunities, time-use, and educational possibilities. Seeking to contribute to the study of gender roles in Tanzania in the context of food insecurity, this paper presents findings regarding the social role of gender drawn from a study of food security problems and family experiences in Dodoma, Tanzania. The methodology comprised two phases: (1) Face-to-face structured interviews with 333 households; and (2) workshops based on TO—Theater of the Oppressed. These two phases were complemented by repeated research stays in the Dodoma region. TO helps to understand the connections between the private universe of families and their narratives about food insecurity. From the voices of community members in Dodoma, we identify aspects of how men and women perceive the food insecurity situation. Results show that there are several contextual factors related to food insecurity at the community level, and that issues related to domestic violence also appear when cultural patrons and gender roles are questioned. Based on theory and the data collected, we seek not only to comprehend how food insecurity and gender roles are interconnected, but also how to think about new forms of public policies that support gender equality among men and women in rural areas. We conclude that transdisciplinary studies on food insecurity can help public policies address complex scenarios, comprising the multiple and conflicting values present in sociocultural issues, while taking into account individual community needs and specificities.

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-509
Author(s):  
Ágnes Erőss ◽  
Monika Mária Váradi ◽  
Doris Wastl-Walter

In post-Socialist countries, cross-border labour migration has become a common individual and family livelihood strategy. The paper is based on the analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with two ethnic Hungarian women whose lives have been significantly reshaped by cross-border migration. Focusing on the interplay of gender and cross-border migration, our aim is to reveal how gender roles and boundaries are reinforced and repositioned by labour migration in the post-socialist context where both the socialist dual-earner model and conventional ideas of family and gender roles simultaneously prevail. We found that cross-border migration challenged these women to pursue diverse strategies to balance their roles of breadwinner, wife, and mother responsible for reproductive work. Nevertheless, the boundaries between female and male work or status were neither discursively nor in practice transgressed. Thus, the effect of cross-border migration on altering gender boundaries in post-socialist peripheries is limited.


2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Consuelo Paterna ◽  
Carmen Martínez

Men's discourse about the paternal role is changing significantly. Despite the fact that men still perceive themselves as being responsible for the family's economical protection and the children's discipline, they face increasing demands for more involvement in childcare. From this perspective, this work analyzes the traditional view of gender roles and the perception of inequality in a sample of 95 employed fathers, as well as the various levels of satisfaction with other life roles and their relevance as a function of some gender and sociodemographic variables. The results show that men do not maintain a very traditional gender ideology with regard to role distribution and they still consider the paternal role and feelings as the most important thing in their lives. However, the couple relationship gives them the most satisfaction. Level of traditionalism and age were the two significant predicting variables of perception of inequality of men and women.


Author(s):  
Agnieszka Legutko

Celia Dropkin, one of the greatest yet lesser-known Yiddish poets, revolutionized modern Yiddish poetry with her pioneering exploration of gender dynamics. Bold erotic motifs in Dropkin’s poetry shocked her contemporaries, while her poems, written mostly in the 1920s and 1930s, sound au courant in the twenty-first century. In her poetry, Dropkin addressed themes such as sexuality, love, artistic creativity, motherhood, and nature — as well as domination and sexual politics in man-woman relationships. Born in Bobruisk, Belarus as Tsilye Levin, she wrote her first poems in Russian at the age of 10. After her immigration to the USA in 1912, she began writing in Yiddish, making her literary debut in 1918. She was affiliated with modernist groups formed by Yiddish poets in America, such as Di Inzikhistin [Introspectivists] and Di Yunge [The Young]. During her lifetime, she published only one volume of poetry, In heysn vint. Her children reissued the volume after her death, updating it to include her short stories and reproductions of paintings that she created later in life. Dropkin’s modernist poetry shattered cultural stereotypes about the social and gender roles imposed on men and women, making her a path-breaking poet who ‘filled the stillness of Yiddish poetry with a passionate breath’ (Yakov Glatshtayn).


1993 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
DIANE N. LYE ◽  
TIMOTHY J. BIBLARZ

This study examines the relationship between the gender role and family attitudes of husbands and wives and five indicators of marital satisfaction. The authors argue that men and women who espouse nontraditional attitudes are likely to be less satisfied than their more traditional counterparts. An empirical analysis is presented using data from husbands and wives interviewed in the 1987-88 National Survey of Families and Households. Husbands and wives who hold nontraditional attitudes toward family life are less satisfied with their marriages, as are men and women whose attitudes diverge from their spouse's attitudes. The effects of attitudes did not vary according to the actual gender roles observed by the couple.


2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piroska Béki ◽  
Andrea Gál

Abstract In recent decades, women have begun to take up types of physical activity traditionally considered masculine. They appeared in previously one-gender team sports such as football or water polo, and nowadays they are also involved in ice hockey, canoeing, and are active in numerous combat sports as well. On the other hand, men have entered sport fields previously only available to women, such as rhythmic gymnastics. By this, sport can be regarded not only as a scene of gender stereotyping, but also a scene of redefining the concepts of masculinity-femininity in the negotiating of gender relations. Owing to these phenomena, there has been an emergence of studies analyzing sports from a gender aspect as well as the generalizations related to athletes involved in these sports. These studies have primarily focused on the constructions of gender identities and gender roles of women participating in traditionally masculine sports (football, weightlifting, and bodybuilding). This paper presents the results of empirical research designed to explore the opinions of top athletes involved in sports considered to be the most masculine and most feminine by the public and by sport experts: rhythmic gymnastics and boxing. They discussed their own sport and each other’s sport. With the information obtained from the structured interviews (n=22), it became possible to compare their social background, sport socialization and sport selection, as well as their conceptions of gender roles, femininity, and masculinity. As a conclusion of the research, it can be stated that from the aspects examined differences could mostly be observed in the circumstances of sport selection, but representatives of the two sports also diverged remarkably in their judgments about each other’s sport. While female boxers did not voice extreme opinions about rhythmic gymnastics, representatives of the sport regarded to be the most feminine reflected on boxing in a stereotypical and prejudiced way, even given their lack of experience.


Author(s):  
Martha Howell

This essay argues that the slow transition from the commercial economy of the later Middle Ages to early modern merchant capitalism produced significant changes in gender roles and gender meanings for women and men from the middle and upper ranks of cities where commerce had found its most secure home. The changes in gender were filtered, however, through a public/private divide that had taken shape in such cities during the centuries closing the Middle Ages, making this a story not just about economy and gender, but also about sociopolitical space. As prosperous men and women in commercial cities of the era came to be newly positioned along the axis dividing the public from the private, both acquired a new class identity presaging much that would characterize bourgeois Europe.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeleine Power ◽  
Neil Small ◽  
Bob Doherty ◽  
Barbara Stewart-Knox ◽  
Kate E. Pickett

Purpose This paper uses data from a city with a multi-ethnic, multi-faith population to better understand faith-based food aid. The paper aims to understand what constitutes faith-based responses to food insecurity, compare the prevalence and nature of faith-based food aid across different religions and explore how community food aid meets the needs of a multi-ethnic, multi-faith population. Design/methodology/approach The study involved two phases of primary research. In Phase 1, desk-based research and dialogue with stakeholders in local food security programmes were used to identify faith-based responses to food insecurity. Phase 2 consisted of 18 semi-structured interviews involving faith-based and secular charitable food aid organizations. Findings The paper illustrates the internal heterogeneity of faith-based food aid. Faith-based food aid is highly prevalent and the vast majority is Christian. Doctrine is a key motivation among Christian organizations for their provision of food. The fact that the clients at faith-based, particularly Christian, food aid did not reflect the local religious demographic is a cause for concern in light of the entry-barriers identified. This concern is heightened by the co-option of faith-based organizations by the state as part of the “Big Society” agenda. Originality/value This is the first academic study in the UK to look at the faith-based arrangements of Christian and Muslim food aid providers, to set out what it means to provide faith-based food aid in the UK and to explore how faith-based food aid interacts with people of other religions and no religion.


2021 ◽  
pp. 146879412098408
Author(s):  
Kate Haddow

This article addresses the complexities of being a female ethnographer studying an all-male group, as well as the advantages and the effects this had on the researcher. It draws on research undertaken for a doctoral research project, employing ethnography and semi-structured interviews to explore ‘hidden’ food insecurity in the town of Middlesbrough, with predominantly male participants. The existing literature surrounding research and gender addresses the problems associated with gender differences in the field such as fitting in, sexualisation and sexist treatment and confinement to traditional gender roles. This research highlighted many problems associated with being a female ethnographer but that ultimately gender was beneficial in gaining and maintaining access to the field. It concludes by arguing for academia to develop the notion of ‘hidden ethnography’, alongside a recognition that researchers should be supported emotionally in problems they face in the field.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fransiska Rahayu Myrlinda

ABSTRACT             Being males and females is biologically constructed since human beings were born. Meanwhile, there is also strict distinction done by society to divide people into men and women or usually called as doing gender stereotype. It effects on different assumptions that are attached to them. As the result, people are categorized based on their own gender roles in society. Java, as the symbol of patriarchal society, is the ethnic which agrees with this social phenomenon. Its beliefs symbolize how men and women have different social status. It also results in different gender roles. SITI is the film which deals with this phenomenon. It shows that being “obedient” Javanese women will give effect on social status towards different genders. The theories of sex and gender and also patriarchal society were used to get the reliable data. Keywords: SITI, Sex and Gender, Inequality, Javanese’s beliefs ABSTRAK                 Menjadi pria dan wanita secara biologis dibangun sejak manusia dilahirkan. Sementara itu, ada juga perbedaan mendalam yang masyarakat lakukan untuk membagi manusia menjadi pria dan wanita atau biasa disebut sebagai stereotip di gender. Hal ini berpengaruh pada perbedaan asumsi yang melekat padanya. Sebagai akibat, manusia dikategorikan berdasarkan peran gender mereka sendiri di masyarakat. Jawa, sebagai simbol masyarakat patriarkal, adalah etnis yang setuju dengan fenomena sosial ini. Kepercayaan yang ada pada masyarakat Jawa melambangkan bagaimana pria dan wanita memiliki status sosial yang berbeda. Hal ini juga menghasilkan peran gender yang berbeda. SITI adalah film yang merepresentasikan fenomena ini. Film ini menunjukkan bahwa sebagai perempuan Jawa yang “taat” akan memberikan efek pada status sosial dari gender yang berbeda. Teori seks dan gender serta masyarakat patriarki digunakan untuk mendapatkan data yang sesuai. Kata Kunci: SITI, Teori seks dan gender, Ketidaksetaraan, Kepercayaan Jawa


Author(s):  
Meghan DiLuzio

Roman society was patriarchal, which is to say that it was marked by sexual asymmetry in which males tended to have power over females. As in most ancient societies, religion contributed to a pervasive belief that such an arrangement was part of the “natural” order of things. Ritual practices allowed Romans to perform and internalize ideas about gender roles and the relation between the sexes. This was true in both civic rituals as well as in the ceremonies performed by individuals and households. The ritual sphere was an ideal space for the formation of gender roles because it was fundamentally inclusive. Numerous ancient sources testify to the communal and collective dimension of worship, and not just at births, marriages, and funerals, where women naturally performed a range of important ritual functions. Men and women worshiped the same gods and participated in many of the same civic cults and festivals. They held important public priesthoods and presided over many of the same rituals, including even blood sacrifice. Religion permeated the daily lives of men and women in ancient Rome, playing an important role in the transmission of cultural and social practices and values related to gender.


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