Gender Equality in Human Resource Processes within the Department of Correctional Services, South Africa

The article discusses the human resource processes of the South African Department of Correctional Services (DCS) and assesses gender equality at all levels of management within the department. The article utilises the Mainstreaming Gender Equality (MGE) approach, known as gender mainstreaming to bring equal opportunities for both men and women in human resource development programmes within the DCS. A qualitative research approach was utilised to collect data. The article explores that there are challenges especially for women to advance their careers to senior management positions in the DCS. This is because of a lack of knowledge, compliance, and readiness to embrace gender transformation policies in the department. The article proposes policy recommendations to mainstream gender at institutional, departmental, and individual levels, and aims to contribute towards creating awareness to promote gender transformation in the public service (general context) and DCS (specific context).

The Ambiguity of the Gender of Avalokiteśvara: A Comparative Study on the Representations of Avalokiteśvara from India and China during Sui-Tang-Period

Buddhism was transmitted to China during the Han Dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE) and integrated with existing Chinese cultures such as Confucianism and Taoism. Within Buddhism itself, Avalokiteśvara, a Bodhisattva who is believed to have made a great vow to assist sentient beings in times of difficulty and postpone his Buddhahood until he has assisted every sentient being in achieving nirvana, experienced a long process of change. One of the striking changes in the image of Avalokiteśvara in China is the shifting of the gender of Avalokiteśvara. The great Sui-Tang dynasties patronized Buddhism as a state cult during the more significant portion of their reign. Many scholars like Wu Yan, Jiao Jie, Sun Xiushen, Cui Feng, etc. observed that the Sui-Tang period was the turning point for the gender transformation of Kuan-yin.[1] In this paper, I am going to do a comparative study on the representations of Avalokiteśvara from both India and China broadly from the seventh to tenth centuries, to see how Kuan-yin transformed in China and whether there might be influences from India in the ways that Kuan-yin’s gender is constructed in the iconography.

Gender Transformation of Kwan Yin in Central China: The Mother Stereotype

Kwan Yin, although typically depicted as female in Chinese literature and artworks, is originally a male deity Avalokite?vara in India. This essay examines the process, reason, and impact of Kwan Yin’s feminization in the ancient Chinese context and argues that her gender transformation is a transformation to the mother stereotype. The essay mainly relies on primary source of Buddhist texts and folklores of Kwan-Yin in China and secondary sources researching the gender transformation of Kwan-Yin through historical and sociological lens. The essay concludes that while the female Kwan Yin’s popularity could be seen as gender empowering, the mother stereotype she and female deities of other religions embody in fact dismisses woman’s individual value.

GENDER TRANSFORMATION OF EDUCATION IN THE ARCHITECTURAL AND CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

ormulation of the problem. The paper examines the gender transformation of education in the field of architecture and construction and conducts a thorough analysis of gender equality of students of the Dnieper State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture (PSACEA) when entering various faculties. Purpose: to investigate the gender equality of PSACEA students. Objectives: 1. To analyze the opportunities of women to receive higher technical education in different historical periods. 2. Investigate the ratio of boys and girls among full-time students of PSACEA when entering various faculties, as well as the opportunity to receive a scholarship. During the study, the data of 2214 PSACEA students as of February 2020−21 academic year were analyzed. Theoretical analysis and generalization of scientific and methodological literature were conducted to study the trends of gender transformation of education in different historical periods. Particular attention was paid to the study of women's opportunities for education in the field of architecture and construction. During the study, experimental data were processed using conventional methods of mathematical statistics. Conclusions: The study allows us to establish the gender equality of students in PSACEA. The analysis of publications showed that in previous historical periods, the representatives of the architectural and construction industry were mostly men. The growing number of girls in traditionally “male” specialties in the field of architecture and construction requires the modernization of educational programs and material and technical base and their adaptation to the capabilities of students of different genders, which can positively affect the encouragement of applicants during the introductory campaign.

Holy Queer and Holy Cure

This chapter explores the ways that sacred, physically impaired, and transgender embodiment(s) are all structured by reference to notions of wholeness, perfection, and cure. Focussing on the character of Blanchandin·e in the fourteenth-century French narrative, Tristan de Nanteuil, the analysis considers how disability, cure, and gender transformation are employed to modify a body according to the exigencies of the surrounding hagiographic narrative. Blanchandin·e’s physical form is repeatedly altered in response to the needs of their son, St Gilles. The chapter traces the shared effects and affects of the social formation – and disassembly – of trans-ness, sanctity, and physical impairment through the related, connected, and leaky bodies of Blanchandin·e and St Gilles.

Governmentality and South Africa’s Edifice of Gender and Sexual Rights

Leading feminist scholars and activists have critiqued the current impact of South Africa’s provisions for gender equality and sexual rights. The country boasts one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, and its formal mechanisms for gender transformation and sexual citizenship are – at a global level – pathbreaking. At the same time, however, violence against women, gender non-conforming people and gays and lesbians or ongoing gender-based injustices in workplaces, educational institutions and many homes testify to the fact that such measures have not transformed ideological beliefs, institutional cultures and power relations in many public and domestic contexts. This article confronts the disjuncture between the formal provision of rights and actual practice, by analysing the effects of provisions devoid of transformative impact. It is argued that the country’s seemingly democratic arrangements for gender justice and sexual citizenship reproduce new forms of governmentality, biopolitics and biopower. By drawing on the work of Jasbir Puar, the article argues that South Africa’s imagining as a democratic state is based largely on its provision of rights around sexuality and gender, and in relation to peripheries that are ‘measured’ by the absence of these. In the global imagining, gender equality and sexual citizenship currently serve as tropes for definitive freedoms and democracy. The recognition of gender equality and sexual citizenship ratifies a particular international understanding of ‘democracy’, one that is congruent with global neoliberal standards, and that actively reproduces the gendered, heteronormative, classist and racist status quo.

GENDER ASPECTS OF UKRAINIAN SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT: ACHIEVEMENTS AND PROBLEMS

The authors note the existence of significant changes in the legal field of Ukraine on gender equality, awareness of the majority of the society of the importance of this issue for achieving equal opportunities and realization of women in the field of career and socio-political life. It is proved that the state pays more and more attention to specific mechanisms of gender transformation and takes into account international agreements signed and ratified by Ukraine. It is becaming a part of the world gender technologies. The state recognizes the main directions of gender democracy, restrictions which are based on the grounds of sex and aimed at the weakening, recognition, usage or exercising by women on the basis of equality between men and women, human rights and fundamental freedoms in political, economic, cultural, social or any other field of activity. The article concetrates on the imbalance between the awareness and the real state of gender issues in the labour market, wages and participation in politics. It is concluded that the most perfect laws and decisions of the Government will not be effective without overcoming the existing low level of gender culture in the society, creation of a sufficient information and consultation network in all regions of the country on implementation of equal opportunities of policy for men and women, introduction of equal treatment and equal opportunities for women and men in public policy in the field of labor, social policy, economic policy in order to prevent occupational segregation, eliminate inequality in wages, stimulate the growth of women's entrepreneurship, as well as to assess women's work; cooperation and interaction of various public administration bodies in the implementation of the principle of equal treatment and equal opportunities for women and men; balanced representation of women and men in the lists of candidates in elections and decision-making, improving the actual situation through the implementation of effective and concrete decisions and strategies.

The challenges to gender equality in the legal profession in South Africa: A case for substantive equality as a means for achieving gender transformation

SUMMARY South Africa lags behind with regard to an effective framework supporting substantive equality in the legal profession. The structure of the legal profession and the number of women represented in the legal profession do not as yet reflect the diversity of South African society. A number of factors play a role in the skewed representation of female attorneys and advocates in the legal profession. In addition, formal equality cannot translate into gender transformation, as the issues that cause such inequalities extend beyond the scope of attaining sameness. International instruments suggest that special measures be adopted to achieve substantive equality specifically with regard to the role of women in the workplace. This article analyses the current composition of the legal profession from the perspective of gender and race, while promoting the concept of substantive equality as a preferred approach to gender transformation in the legal profession. It considers the theoretical framework for gender equality as a human right in South Africa by examining relevant legislation and international and regional instruments, and analysing the extent to which the Cape Bar maternity policy, as an existing transformation initiative, implemented on the basis of a gender stereotype, encourages substantive gender transformation in the legal profession. Key words: gender equality; human rights; legal profession; substantive equality; formal equality; gender transformation; gender stereotypes

Gender, Genre and the Reboot: From Ocean’s 11/Eleven to Ocean’s 8/Eight

This chapter investigates the case of Ocean’s films – Ocean’s 11, 12 and 13 – and its Ocean’s 8 reboot. As in the case of some other new millennial reboots, Ocean’s 8 is a ‘gender reversal’ reboot of (in this case) a typically male-oriented heist genre that reinterprets collaboration to emphasise feminine bonding. In addition to marking out the film’s gender transformation, the chapter outlines the intricate textual and intertextual network that exists among the series of films – including its unofficial ‘reboot’, Lucky Logan – to describe Ocean’s 8 as an auteur-reboot, one that playfully absorbs commercial imperatives into the structure and narrative of each installment.