‘These chicks go just as hard as us!’ (Un)doing gender in a Dutch CrossFit gym

2020 ◽  
pp. 101269022091352
Author(s):  
Suzanne Schrijnder ◽  
Noortje van Amsterdam ◽  
Fiona McLachlan

CrossFit is a relatively new fitness movement/sport, where women and men train together in the same space, performing the same athletic movements and gender equality is celebrated in CrossFit marketing, promoting equal opportunities for men and women. This paper explores how the much emphasized gender-equality narrative in CrossFit unfolds in gender performativity in a Dutch CrossFit gym. To this end, we draw from an ethnographic case study through which we examine the gendered narratives and bodily gestures of CrossFitters. Using Butler’s heterosexual matrix, we found that gender ideologies emerge in explicit and implicit narratives, materials and organizational structure, and embodied performances in the CrossFit gym. CrossFitters, on the one hand, explicitly challenge gender norms and create a space where women can undertake behaviour that is traditionally considered masculine. However, traditional gender norms, including heterosexual desire, are nonetheless implicitly reproduced through performances, narratives and organizational structures present in CrossFit.

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Juul Petersen

Based on a case study of Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), this article analyses organizational processes of norm translation, asking how IRW understands and employs global norms of gender equality. Approaching IRW as an organization positioned in between two different normative environments, the analysis explores the ways in which it seeks to align different sets of norms, balance between different kinds of expectations and create resonance with different audiences. In these processes, actors make use of a range of different strategies, including bridging, thinning and parallel co-existence, testifying to the complexities involved in translating organizational norms.


2021 ◽  
pp. 182-197
Author(s):  
Jemimah Njuki ◽  
Salome Bukachi

Abstract This chapter explores gender considerations and practices in the context of tertiary agricultural education (TAE) in Africa. It discusses (1) the key outcomes of gender equality in education, (2) the barriers to achieving gender equality, (3) strategies to achieve gender equality in education, and (4) education as a force for changing social and gender norms.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 627-639
Author(s):  
Lise Widding Isaksen ◽  
Mariya Bikova

This article explores the complexities and ambiguities in Norwegian families’ interaction with the public childcare system. Public childcare is a cornerstone in the ‘double dividend’, that is, social policies that equalize children’s life chances and support gender equality. The dual earner/dual carer family model interacts with full-time participation in the labour market, gender equality at home and universal access to childcare, and has made contemporary childhood multi-local and mobile. As part of their everyday organization of care, parents have to establish connections between home, work and childcare. Here, we use the concept of ‘care loops’ to analyse how local families ‘do’ combinations of welfare services, family resources, gender ideologies and the labour of migrant care workers. Drawing on empirical research on migrant care workers in Norwegian families and discussing recent studies of majority families’ care practices, the article discusses the paradox that egalitarian norms and ideals might generate extra workloads that in turn create demands for migrant care workers and trigger geopolitical inequality.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Knauss ◽  
Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati

In this introductory article to the special issue of Religion and Gender on gender, normativity and visuality, we establish the theoretical framework to discuss the influence of visual culture on gender norms. This introduction also provides a reflection on how these norms are communicated, reaffirmed and contested in religious contexts. We introduce the notion of visuality as individual and collective signifying practices, with a particular focus on how this regards gender norms. Two main ways in which religion, gender and normativity are negotiated in visual meaning making processes are outlined: on the one hand, the religious legitimation of gender norms and their communication and confirmation through visual material, and on the other hand, the challenge of these norms through the participation in visual culture by means of seeing and creating. These introductory reflections highlight the common concerns of the articles collected in this issue: the connection between the visualisation of gender roles within religious traditions and the influence of religious gender norms in other fields of (visual) culture.


2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 334-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosmary Crompton ◽  
Nicky Le Feuvre

In this paper, we will explore how contrasting national discourses relating to women, and gender equality have been incorporated into and reflected in national policies. In the first section, we will outline the recent history of EU equal opportunities policy, in which positive action has been replaced by a policy of 'mainstreaming'. Second, we will describe the evolution of policies towards women and equal opportunities in Britain and France. It will be argued that whereas some degree of positive action for women has been accepted in Britain, this policy is somewhat alien to French thinking about equality - although pro-natalist French policies have resulted in favourable conditions for employed mothers in France. In the third section, we will present some attitudinal evidence, drawn from national surveys, which would appear to reflect the national policy differences we have identified in respect of the 'equality agenda'. In the fourth section, we will draw upon biographical interviews carried out with men and women in British and French banks in order to illustrate the impact of these cross-national differences within organizations and on individual lives. We demonstrate that positive action gender equality policies have made an important impact in British banks, while overt gender exclusionary practices still persist in the French banks studied. In the conclusion, we reflect on the European policy implications of our findings.


Author(s):  
Valērijs Makarevičs ◽  
Dzintra Iliško

Values has been explored in connection to a deeper understanding of human behavior. Values provide the answer to the basic existential questions, help to provide meaning in one’s life. Values are the key aspects of one’s self-esteem. They reflect diverse aspects of one’s social identity. According to a number of scientists, ethnic identity is a part of social identity. A number of studies in psychology has a focus on the connection between ethnicity and ethnic values. There are two main approaches towards the study of values can be distinguished. On the one hand, there are values that have the existential basis for the existence of people. On the other hand, the information about ethnic values can have applied aspect. The aim of this study is to identify differences in value orientation among representatives of two main linguistic groups that live in Eastern Latvia: the group of Latvian and Russian-speaking participants. The second goal is to explore the influence of religion, age and gender on the values of the research participants. The methodology used for the purpose of this study was to determine value orientation towards family, religious and friendship. The authors discovered statistically significant differences only in relation to a value of friendship. This value turned out to be the highest among the Russian-speaking group as compared to the Latvian-speaking group, as well as in the Orthodox group as compared to the group of Catholics.


Author(s):  
Eni Maryani ◽  
Preciosa Alnashava Janitra ◽  
Detta Rahmawan

A report from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 2016 says that Indonesia is still struggling to close its gender equality gap. However, looking at the development of internet usage and the penetration of social media in Indonesia, it can be said that Indonesia has the opportunity to utilize social media to address various gender issues. This article uses a case study to explore and analyze the way “Aliansi Laki-Laki Baru” (ALLB) or “New Men’s Alliance”, a form of activism which emphasizes the importance of men's involvement in fighting for gender equality, utilizes social media to promote their ideas. As a social movement, ALLB consistently use social media to reach their audiences, engage their partners, and creating a sense of community. They focus in promoting mutual relationships between men and women and the importance of men’s involvement to support gender equality. The study on men’s involvement in promoting the agenda of feminism and gender issues is critical, yet there are still few studies in the context of Indonesia. This study shows that through ALLB, advocacy on gender issues has undergone a fundamental change that does not make women as the main focus but rather on men, and their role to fight for gender equality and justice for women.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Britt-Inger Keisu ◽  
Lena Abrahamsson ◽  
Malin Rönnblom

This article takes as its starting point two current trends in academia – the promotion of academic entrepreneurship and innovation and the promotion of gender equality – and discusses how different gender equality perspectives are interwoven, or not, into academia’s transformation processes towards entrepreneurial universities. On the basis of an analysis of 26 interviews conducted with personnel at two Swedish universities, the article investigates how concepts of academic entrepreneurship and innovation on the one hand and gender equality on the other hand are constructed and filled with meaning as well as how they are entangled and what effects are produced by this way of thinking and acting. Our analysis reveals tensions between the two policy goals, together with tensions within each goal. An overall conclusion is that articulations and ways of speaking about the policy goal of academic entrepreneurship and innovation were to some extent interwoven with the policy goal of gender equality, especially in the broader perspectives on academic entrepreneurship. However, the articulations of strategies and practice of the two policy goals essentially ran parallel, and were not entangled with one another. This is because strategies or substantial initiatives for merging gender equality into the agenda of academic entrepreneurship and innovation were lacking.


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