bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Asylum, Challenges Faced by Sexual Minorities
Authors: Lewis Rachel , Shuman Amy
Published: April 2016

Although sexual orientation and gender identity have been grounds for political asylum since the mid‐ to late 1990s, not all courts accept sexuality or gender as meeting the qualifications of membership in a particular social group. This entry provides an overview of some of the challenges to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex asylum claims.
Private/Public Spheres
Authors: Boyd Susan B.
Published: April 2016

The division between private/public spheres is key to Western knowledge and the liberal tradition. Critical analysis has exposed the division as ideological and as linked to power relations. The public sphere is constructed as the legitimate realm of powerful groups and reflects the hegemony of heterosexuality. The private sphere has been gendered female and homosexuality has been tolerated only if kept private. Both domestic labor and domestic violence have been hidden in the household. Despite challenges to the private/public divide by feminists and those with non‐normative sexualities, the divide continues to hold resonance and to be the site of critical inquiry, especially given the influence of neoliberalism.
Lesbians as Community Other Mothers
Authors: Hayman Brenda
Published: April 2016

The term other mother is often used to describe the non‐biological female parent in
de novo
lesbian families. A child attempting to differentiate two female parents will use a variety of words to call each of their mothers. While the identity of lesbian mothers is becoming more visible in society, specific language to describe the role and identity of the non‐biological mother in
de novo
families is still developing.
Glass Ceiling and Glass Elevator
Authors: Casini Annalisa
Published: April 2016

The glass ceiling metaphor refers to the hidden obstacles that, despite formal gender equality at work, contribute to maintain women in the lower positions of the professional ladder. Research has uncovered a complex set of factors that focus either on women themselves or on contextual elements, such as social norms, and organizational practices that explain this phenomenon. Contrary to women, men in female‐dominated jobs benefit from a so‐called glass elevator or glass escalator, that is, a set of invisible factors that facilitate their professional advancement. Both phenomena can be opposed through the adoption of a gender mainstreaming strategy. Nevertheless, as long as they are viewed as the result of an intricate set of sexist lay theories and practices integrated in the world of work, wider changes, going far beyond the labor market, must intervene so as to attain actual equality at the top of the hierarchy.
Gender and History of Revolutions in
E
astern and
C
entral
E
urope
Authors: Lovin C. Laura , Regulska Joanna
Published: April 2016

In looking at how economic, political, sociocultural, and epistemological transformations are coterminous with notions and practices of gender and sexuality, this entry highlights women's generative role in the production of radical or reformist changes and examines the operations of power that derailed or subsumed women's social agendas within the new socioeconomic, cultural, and political regimes. The timeline of this analysis includes watershed moments in the history of the region such as the Russian Revolution, the end of World War II in 1945, the fall of state‐socialist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and of the Soviet Union in 1989, and extends across the European Union accession years for 10 CEE countries up until the global financial crises of the late 2000s and early 2010s.
Feminism,Chinese
Authors: Fincher Leta Hong
Published: April 2016

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, various forms of authoritarianism have prevented the rise of an independent, large‐scale Chinese feminist movement and Chinese feminism has been overwhelmingly dominated by the Communist Party‐backed official state agency representing women, the All‐China Women's Federation (Quanguo Fulian). Small groups of feminist activists in recent years have staged innovative acts of “performance art” to raise awareness about women's rights abuses. Nonetheless, they are severely constrained by the Chinese state's elaborate “stability maintenance” system set up to absorb all expressions of political opposition. Very few Chinese women identify themselves as feminist in spite of the significant increase in gender inequalities in recent years of market reforms and rapid economic growth. Still, some women resist patriarchal norms and intense marriage pressure through individual life choices, such as choosing to stay single rather than get married.
Steroids
Authors: Henne Kathryn
Published: April 2016

Anabolic‐androgenic steroids, more commonly referred to as anabolic steroids or simply as steroids, are drugs that promote muscle growth and the development of male sexual characteristics in men and women. While anabolic steroids are used medically and recreationally, there is a well‐documented history of their use among elite athletes in the twentieth century. This entry addresses the gendered dimensions of the politics surrounding anabolic steroid use and its regulation in sport. It concludes with a brief reflection on the comparative dearth of such research on non‐sport‐related anabolic steroid use.
Feminisms, Anarchist
Authors: Willis Abbey
Published: April 2016

This entry briefly draws out some historical and contemporary relationships among anarchist and feminist theories and practices, highlighting the rise of a distinctive form of anarchist feminism. Anarchism and feminism have overlapped, intersected, and formed into what is oftentimes referred to as “anarcha‐feminism.” This entry will be of interest to those who research or participate in radical and liberatory politics and/or varieties of feminism.
AnglophoneCaribbean Feminism
Authors: Nair Supriya M.
Published: April 2016

This entry presents a brief history of the specific context of anglophone Caribbean feminism and gender relations, with some of the main debates approached from an interdisciplinary perspective but with an emphasis on literature.
Heterosexism and Homophobia
Authors: Bender Sara C.
Published: April 2016

Homophobia refers to the overt discrimination against an individual regarding his or her sexual identity, which is often demonstrated via slurs, violence, or other expressions of an individual's dislike for another person's sexual preferences. Heterosexism represents society's implicit value of heterosexual practices over those expressed by sexual minorities. This sociopolitical construct is often evident via inequitable employment, healthcare, and educational practices. Both homophobia and heterosexism contribute to the continued oppression of sexual minorities.
Human Rights, International Laws and Policies on
Authors: de la Vega Connie , Kozai Kendall
Published: April 2016

While international law did not initially refer to gender and sexuality, there has been an expansion of the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sex and other status to include gender and sexuality. This entry reviews the developments on those topics in the principal treaty bodies, the UN human rights Charter‐based bodies, and regional bodies.
Gender Belief System/Gender Ideology
Authors: Davis Shannon N.
Published: April 2016

Gender ideology is defined as an individual's level of support for a division of paid work and family responsibilities that is based on the notion of separate spheres. This entry describes the social and demographic influences on gender ideology construction and the influences of gender ideology on family‐ and work‐related decisions and behaviors in the United States.
Cybersex
Authors: Davis R. E.
Published: April 2016

This entry examines the origins of cybersex, ways that it has been defined, its historical context, and the controversy surrounding its use and impact. Cybersex is the use of computer‐mediated erotic communications. It originated in the early 1990s with the introduction of computers into the home and their connection to cyberspace and Internet communication technologies. Current theorizing on cybersex include the progression towards the field of teledildonics.
Adolescent Pregnancy
Authors: McGary Nikki
Published: April 2016

Adolescent pregnancy refers to when a young woman becomes pregnant after the onset of puberty and before adulthood. Although the global rates of adolescent pregnancy have gone down over the past few decades, it still remains a problem worldwide, and the rates of adolescent pregnancy vary by region. Access to reproductive healthcare, education, and contraception, alongside social attitudes toward women, sexual violence against women and girls, child marriage, and poverty, all contribute to the rates of adolescent pregnancy.
Celibacy
Authors: Janssen Diederik F.
Published: April 2016

Customs and valuations of celibacy (chosen or unchosen singlehood after the legal age of marriage) vary extensively according to historical context, religious purpose, and cultural setting. Celibacy is a noted cause for controversy and schism throughout the history of Christianity. Across other religious contexts its practice is often heterodox, occasional, activist, or temporary.
Socialization and Sexuality
Authors: Janssen Diederik F.
Published: April 2016

Sexual socialization entails the lifelong engagement with especially normative frames for sexuality as they are encountered across family, peer, school, media, and other social contexts. The topic is variably operationalized and tackled across research vistas and theoretical angles. It draws specific attention to modern intimacy's epistemological, pedagogical, and developmental imprint.
“Don't Ask, Don't Tell” Policy in theUnitedStates
Authors: Schultz Tammy S.
Published: April 2016

This entry details the history of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the Clinton administration policy that did not allow gays and lesbians to serve openly, which was not overturned until the Obama administration.
Gender as a Practice
Authors: McInnes David
Published: April 2016

To understand gender as a practice is to see an individual's gendered identity not as biologically determined, that is, not as an outcome of some essential biological qualities or features. Rather, from a perspective of gender as a practice, an individual's gender is seen as the outcome or the achievement of what an individual
does
. Masculinity and femininity are produced by social interaction in and across contexts. Social practice is ordered, in part, through gender. Everyday life is systematically ordered and organized on a basic taken‐for‐granted understanding of physical, bodily structures such as sexual practice, reproduction, sexual differences, and the like. The idea of gender as a practice accounts for the way relations among people or groups of people are organized through an arrangement of social structures connected to a historically developed understanding of biology.
Lesbian Continuum
Authors: Béres‐Deák Rita
Published: April 2016

The lesbian continuum is a radical feminist model of sexual orientation, claiming that all women have a lesbian potential and that women's bonding, defined as lesbianism but not necessarily based on genital sexuality, is the only successful way to overthrow patriarchy. It was developed by Adrienne Rich in her 1981 essay “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” and triggered fierce debates within and outside lesbian feminism. This fluid model of female sexuality stands in contrast with the more essentialistic approach to sexual orientation represented by identity politics, but resurfaces in queer theory. Originally devised as a political tool to describe women's resistance to patriarchy, the notion of lesbian continuum has been used in literary and film criticism, and some queer theorists have expanded its use to cover gender as well as sexuality.
Nomadic Subject
Authors: Rowan Leonie
Published: April 2016

In gender and sexuality studies the term “nomadic subjectivity” is linked primarily to feminist philosopher Rosi Braidotti. Making reference to the work of Deleuze and Guattari, Braidotti critiques essentialist representations of subjectivity that represent the “self” as singular and fixed, and argues, instead, for a subjectivity that can be understood as multiple, fluid, and constantly changing. As an example of the political significance of feminist figurations, the nomadic subject illustrates subjectivity in process by moving between and across the traditional boundaries associated with categories such as gender or class and disrupting, in the process, traditional understandings of woman.
C
yborg
M
anifesto
Authors: Glazier Jacob W.
Published: April 2016

Donna Haraway's “Cyborg Manifesto,” published in the
Socialist Review
in 1985, sought to explicate a feminist position on science and technology studies as well as to offer a response to the rising conservatism during the 1980s in the United States. The Manifesto can largely be understood as a subversion of the philosophical position of essentialism, which believes in the static being of entities. The cyborg trope or metaphor is deployed to disrupt categories like gender and sexuality that have become essentialized in modernity. This loosely categorizes Haraway's project as fitting under the auspices of third‐wave feminism. Yet, the Manifesto's breadth is much wider, casting a net that gathers together disparate disciplines such as science studies, postmodernism, critical theory, biology, and linguistics. The Manifesto has had considerable influence in the years since its publication; most notably, in the fields of feminism, science studies, and critical theory. It may also be viewed as an important precursor to the development of queer theory and posthumanism in the 1990s for its rejection of gender and sexual categories and its approbation of polymorphous sexuality.
Gender Oppression
Authors: Ingrey Jennifer C.
Published: April 2016

Gender oppression is an effect of the social process of gender relations that institutionalize and reproduce certain norms of gender to privilege the dominant group and marginalize, exclude, or cause other harm to the oppressed group. Through feminist concerns (including third‐wave, poststructural, and postcolonial feminisms) as well as the efforts of queer activists/theory and transgender activists/studies, gender norms are unsettled because of the extreme abuses, violence, and dehumanization suffered by those who transgress gender norms. An overview of both global and historical trends of gender theory contributes to a rethinking of the systems of gender oppression.
Gendered Space
Authors: Andrews Hazel
Published: April 2016

This entry examines how space is encoded with ideas of gender and how these inform and shape gendered identities and practices. It considers key theories to illuminate how space is produced which can be used to understand how asymmetries of power and movement arise between genders. It suggests that understandings of gendered spaces will need to consider in the future different understandings of masculinity and the changing nature of space itself with the increased use of technology.
Archetype
Authors: McCarty Marguerite M. , Klostermann Keith
Published: April 2016

Carl Jung (1875–1961) is most often associated with the concept of “archetype”, which he links to his lifelong work in the field of psychoanalysis. He used the term to describe his theory of the human psyche which suggests primal and universal emotional experiences shared by humankind in what he called a “collective unconsciousness.” Archetypes are original imprints given to humans at birth which represent feelings, personality traits, virtues, and cultural, social and religious patterns. The influence of archetypes is found in the disciplines of psychology, philosophy, gender studies, anthropology, and literature.
Pacifism,Quakers, and Gender
Authors: Bell Erin
Published: April 2016

Originating in the 1640s and 1650s, an era of civil war in the British Isles, with many key members initially active in the Parliamentarian army, the Religious Society of Friends became well known from the later decades of the seventeenth‐ until the twenty‐first century for their peace testimony, one of several Quaker principles for ethical living. From its earliest years through the eighteenth century, the testimony developed as a central aspect of Quakerism, whilst from the nineteenth century it became closely related to Quaker opposition to slavery, and in the twentieth century, opposition to international warfare, including recognition of the gendered nature of militarism.
Feminism,
A
boriginal
A
ustralia and
T
orres
S
trait
I
slands
Authors: Schwarz Carolyn
Published: April 2016

There has been a diversity of feminisms in Indigenous Australia. First‐wave white Australian feminists campaigned for Aboriginal rights in the interwar and postwar periods. Feminist anthropologists writing about Aboriginal societies during the second wave of feminism addressed questions about the status of Aboriginal women and were influential in shaping analyses of gender relations and identities in contemporary ethnography. Indigenous activists and academics, who believed that white Australian feminists had failed to acknowledge the profound role that racism played in their lives, formed a “Black Women's Movement” that gave priority to indigenous concerns about land rights, sovereignty, and discrimination.
Two‐Spirit
Authors: Anhorn Michael
Published: April 2016

Over 150 of the indigenous cultures of North America had words, traditions and/or ceremonies for more than two gender identities. In English, these concepts are now referred to as “two‐spirit.” This entry explores the diversity of traditional concepts encapsulated in the contemporary use of two‐spirit and touches on the modern realities for two‐spirit people.
Declaration of Sentiments
Authors: Davis R. Casey
Published: April 2016

This entry explores the Declaration of Sentiments, which was debated, written, and ratified at the Seneca Falls Convention held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. Composed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton with the assistance of Lucretia Mott, this document mirrored the Declaration of Independence in structure and format. It listed the grievances that the signatories believed women had suffered in the United States of America up to this time.
Women's Centers
Authors: Cunningham Carolyn
Published: April 2016

Women's centers vary by structure and focus. In general women's centers address women's specific needs, including health, education, job skills, and economic development. Women's centers can be linked to larger efforts in the global women's movement. Trends in women's centers, including transnational advocacy and connection to social networks, are discussed.
Gender, Politics, and the State in Central and
E
astern
E
urope
Authors: Popa Raluca Maria , Krizsan Andrea
Published: April 2016

Countries in Central and Eastern Europe share the heritage of socialist projects of women's emancipation and a desire to join the European Union, but at the same time reveal significant political, social, and cultural diversity. This entry discusses gender and politics processes in Central and Eastern Europe over the twentieth century, through the lens of contemporary debates and trends in scholarship. Research cautions against the use of the regional as an unquestionable marker in the context of analyzing the politics of gender. At the same time, the intersection of gender and East/West inequalities remains a valid focus for feminist research. This entry highlights key policy polemics around several important gender policy issues and key silences around others. It looks at patterns of political participation of women and the presence of NGO‐ized but increasingly maturing and independent women's movements. Debates about international influence and Europeanization as a motor for change are discussed, emphasizing the screening effect of domestic mediating factors that ultimately determine if adopted gender norms are effective or remain at a symbolic level.
Microcredit and Microlending
Authors: Drolet Julie L.
Published: April 2016

Microcredit, or the provision of small loans to poor borrowers, has become a key development initiative in the Global South. The success of the Grameen Bank has demonstrated that providing credit to the poorest of society is realistic and feasible. Where traditional banks failed, the emergence of microfinance institutions serves to meet the credit needs of the poor using group and individual lending models. The majority of microcredit programs aim to reduce poverty and empower women, the subject of numerous impact studies. While microcredit serves the needs of the poor in accessing credit, there is a need for a more holistic approach. Future directions call for integrated and comprehensive approaches that include microcredit and microlending along with social protection floor initiatives, cash grants, microinsurance, education, health and social services.
Single‐Parent Households
Authors: Lansford Jennifer E.
Published: April 2016

Single‐parent households can result from divorce, death of a parent, parents living apart, and from parents who were never married. The demography of and reasons for single parenthood differ across countries. Single‐parent households are predominantly female headed and are typically of lower socioeconomic status than two‐parent households. Children in single parent families experience more behavioral, emotional, and academic problems, on average, than do children in two‐parent families, but most children in single‐parent families do not have long‐term negative outcomes. Factors such as parental well‐being and positive parenting are generally more important than family structure in relation to children's adjustment.
Midwifery
Authors: Happel‐Parkins Alison
Published: April 2016

Midwifery is the practice of caring for women during pregnancy, labor, birth, and post‐partum. Midwives are the primary providers of care for childbearing women around the world (Hatem et al. 2009). The midwifery model of care is a wellness model that is woman‐centered, holistic, and non‐interventionist. In contrast, the medical or obstetrical model of care is a model that focuses on management of pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Within this conceptualization of pregnancy and childbirth, pregnancy is understood as a condition that must be managed and controlled. Women with low‐risk pregnancies who have access to skilled midwives have better birth experiences.
Mother Nature
Authors: Douglas Steven
Published: April 2016

“Mother Earth” is a widespread and common concept, often synonymous with Mother Nature, though the latter can be cosmological in scale. Many cultures have or have had notions of Earth as “the mother,” inferring that humans are her children. In some, the Mother is perceived as nurturing, and in others, as hostile. Some ecofeminists argue that the notion of Mother Earth was revised during the Enlightenment to serve the exploitative agendas of scientific, political, and later industrial patriarchies for whom the feminine is something that they perceived they owned. However, the roots of a patriarchal view of Earth and Nature are older and run deeper in Western culture and religion. Irrespective of whether Earth is assigned gender, the deeper issue is whether Earth is assigned moral relevance that leads to a caring and healthy relationship between humans and the rest of the biosphere.
Womanist
Authors: Miller Khadijah O.
Published: April 2016

“Womanist,” first coined by Alice Walker in her 1983 publication,In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose, provided African American women with a term steeped in their cultural tradition reflecting their pride, self‐agency, community‐centeredness, and “gumption.” Womanist has evolved over the past couple of decades to reflect a position of empowerment for women of color who are concerned with the welfare of women, their communities, their men, and children. Womanists are holistic in their concerns for other women and humanity in general.
Gender, Politics, and the State in
S
outhern
A
frica
Authors: Gouws Amanda
Published: April 2016

In this entry the nature of the state in African countries and its impact on gender politics are discussed by looking at women's entry into government through special mechanisms such as quotas, as well as their entry into the state through the creation of National Gender Machineries, called state feminism. Where the crucial nexus between women in the state and a women's movement in civil society is absent it becomes harder to put gender issues on the agenda. Gender issues may also be suppressed by women's leagues of political parties whose members want to prevent their alliances with men from becoming destabilized.
Sexualities
Authors: Holmes M. Morgan
Published: April 2016

The use of the term “sexualities” is best understood as a corrective response to the commonly held notion that human beings have one shared, universal sexuality determined primarily by reproductive biology, largely unchanging over time, and common to all cultures, even if there are some variations on the generally reproductively oriented theme.
Sexual Assault/Sexual Violence
Authors: Ullman Sarah E. , Bhat Meghna
Published: April 2016

This entry reviews recent research on the prevalence and health impact of global sexual violence, including sexual assault and harassment of women. Definitions of sexual violence are provided and studies are cited showing significant prevalence of this problem worldwide. Health‐related consequences of partner and non‐partner sexual violence are noted. Issues related to reporting and underreporting and lack of prosecution and sentencing for this crime are discussed, as well as recent media attention to the problem of rape and other sexual violence against women globally. Finally, it is noted that activism and organizing are needed to continue to fight this gendered form of violence that is perpetuated by patriarchal societies.
Representation
Authors: Meyers Helene
Published: April 2016

Gender studies has historically been interested in issues of representation because language and images not only reflect the world but also shape it. Debates about pornography, postfeminism, and intersectionality involve issues of representing women and feminism. Representation also gets to the central political issue of who speaks for whom and with what authority.
Cosmetic Surgery in the
U
nited
S
tates
Authors: Frederick David , Yoshiura Reyn , Scott Terri
Published: April 2016

Plastic surgery, or reconstructive surgery, is designed to repair damage to the body. In contrast, cosmetic surgery involves surgical procedures that are not necessary to improve one's health, but intended to alter one's appearance. Women express more interest in cosmetic surgery than men and over 90 percent of cosmetic surgeries and cosmetic procedures are performed on women. Common cosmetic surgeries and procedures include breast augmentation, nose reshaping, liposuction, injection of botulinum toxin (e.g., Botox), and soft tissue fillers. Generally speaking, people who seek cosmetic surgery do not differ in overall body satisfaction from people who do not seek this surgery. Instead, they typically have higher dissatisfaction with the specific aspect of the body they are seeking surgery for.
Sexual Objectification
Authors: Frederick David , Sandhu Gagan , Doll Kathleen
Published: April 2016

Sexual objectification consists of valuing the body, aspects of the body (e.g., breasts), or appearance separate from the individual. The mass media routinely sexually objectify women's bodies. Objectification theory explains how sexual objectification can have negative effects on women's psychological well‐being and body image. This theory posits that experiencing sexual objectification results in women viewing themselves as sexual objects and valuing themselves for their appearance and sexuality, which can lead them to detect or imagine flaws and to feel shame about their bodies. Psychologists assess attitudes related to objectification theory using the Objectified Body Consciousness Scale, Self‐Objectification Questionnaire, and Interpersonal Sexual Objectification Scale.
Genderlect
Authors: Hidalgo‐Tenorio Encarnación
Published: April 2016

This entry discusses the notion of “genderlect” as it functions in sociolinguistics. The main features of both male and female linguistic varieties are addressed in the light of what are known as the deficit, dominance, difference, and diversity approaches. The notion's unavoidable association with language stereotypes is made reference to as well.
Masculinity and Femininity, Theories of
Authors: Schippers Mimi
Published: April 2016

This entry traces the shift from theorizing masculinity and femininity as personality types resulting from socialization or biological differences between men and women to conceptualizing masculinity and femininity as organizing features of social relations and embedded within and constitutive of gender, race, ethnic, class, and sexual inequalities. The entry covers main theorists and theories by identifying and defining key concepts, their effects on empirical research, critiques, and innovations.
Feminist Psychotherapy
Authors: Kaschak Ellyn
Published: April 2016

Feminist psychotherapy came into existence in the late 1960s and early 1970s and has continued to be developed and practiced currently in many diverse countries in addition to English‐speaking cultures. As it is currently practiced, multiculturalism, intersectionality, and multiplicity of shifting and overlapping identities are fully integrated into feminist practices.
Reproductive Health
Authors: Wirtz Elizabeth
Published: April 2016

The concept of reproductive health addresses a wide variety of topics regarding human sexual and reproductive functions spanning the life course from conception to death. Reproductive health is best understood when viewed through the intersecting nature of biological, medical, social, and economic factors. Because reproduction is a politically charged topic, intense debates exist around causes of reproductive health inequalities and how to address them. Contemporary focuses on reproductive health address pressing issues of reproductive morbidity and mortality in an effort to improve global reproductive health and secure reproductive rights for all.
Men's Magazines
Authors: Frederick David , Lynn Justin , Ronne Brandon
Published: April 2016

Men's magazines focus on men's lifestyle issues, particularly as they relate to sex, relationships, physical fitness, and sports. The first male lifestyle magazine to gain widespread popularity was
Loaded
in the mid‐1990s.This was followed by similar magazines such as
Maxim
and
FHM
. A common theme in men's magazines is an emphasis on sexuality. Men's magazines routinely feature photographs of slender women posed in sexual positions with little clothing, and articles in men's magazines encourage men to attain sexual satisfaction outside of committed relationships and provide tips for how to seduce women. Correlational studies have found that men who read these magazines are more likely to express an interest in casual sex, expect a greater variety of sexual activities in a long‐term relationship, but do not report greater acceptance of “rape myths.” The extent to which reading these magazines actually impacts men's attitudes and behaviors remains largely speculative and untested.
Lesbian Stereotypes in the
U
nited
S
tates
Authors: Sorensen Anna
Published: April 2016

Stereotypes about lesbians are oversimplified and exaggerated images of lesbian identities, styles of self‐presentation, relationships, and sexual behavior that have been used to marginalize and discriminate against lesbians. These stereotypes are often based on the ways that lesbians have constructed their identities in various sociopolitical contexts, but they are constructed from a heteronormative perspective that imagines lesbianism as an inferior mimicry of heterosexuality. Lesbians have used these dominant images and ideas in the process of identity construction and in their efforts to achieve cultural acceptance and visibility.
Feminist Theories of Organization
Authors: Calás Marta B. , Smircich Linda
Published: April 2016

This entry presents a broad outline of how feminist theorizing has contributed to organization and management studies, also considering its prospect to continue doing so. It highlights the contributions that five feminist theoretical tendencies – liberal, radical, psychoanalytic, socialist, and poststructuralist – have made to understanding gendered aspects of organization and management studies scholarship. It also illustrates changes in this scholarship as the literature has ranged from concerns with women's access to participation in organizations, to concerns about the gendering of organization processes and practices, and to further concerns for organization and management theorizing regarding the stability of categories such as “gender,” “masculinity,” “femininity,” and “organization.” The ending acknowledges emerging tendencies in feminist theorizing engaging with transnationalism, neoliberalism, and new materialisms, considered relevant for the future of organization and management studies as a domain of theory and practice.
Fetal Rights
Authors: Wellman Carl
Published: April 2016

It is unclear whether the international human right to life applies to the human fetus, and most national constitutions confer a right to life only after birth. Other fetal rights sometimes recognized in the law are the right to inherit property, the right not to be wrongfully injured before birth, a right to necessary medical treatment, and a right not to be born seriously defective. Philosophers disagree about whether a human fetus is the kind of a being that can possess any moral or legal rights. Hart, Wellman, and Warren argue that they cannot; Feinberg, Wade, and Baier insist that they can.
Feminist Magazines
Authors: Groeneveld Elizabeth
Published: April 2016

Feminist magazines have been part of the feminist and women's rights movements from the 1850s onwards. These publications have been used to influence government policy, attract new supporters, and document the movement. Each upsurge of feminist activism has been accompanied by a rise in magazine publishing by feminists. The magazines can introduce new readers to feminism, keep readers up‐to‐date with the debates and events within the various strands of the movement, and help to engender momentum or growth.
Feminism in
S
outh
A
frica
Authors: Buiten Denise
Published: April 2016

South African feminisms have been shaped as much by struggles for political and racial equality as by national and transnational struggles for gender equality. Forged in the context of anti‐apartheid struggles, early feminist concerns were largely subsumed by, and mobilized in the service of, African and Afrikaner nationalisms. The transition to democracy in 1994 provided a critical juncture for ensuring that the priorities of the post‐apartheid state included gender equality and equitable representation of women. While this was largely achieved in formal institutional and legal terms, feminist activism and radical transformational politics were largely diluted, and current debates center around the role of “state feminism” in relation to civil society. Contemporary South African feminisms continue to engage deeply with questions of difference at the intersection of gender and the role of feminism within broader national and international struggles for class and racial equality.
Women's and Feminist Activism inRussia,Ukraine, andEurasia
Authors: Fábián Katalin , Hrycak Alex , Johnson Janet Elise
Published: April 2016

Women in Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia have expressed their interests and demands through numerous forms of activism shaped by varied experiences of colonialism and national liberation struggles, Soviet totalitarianism and Communist Party‐led emancipation, and post‐Soviet democratization, authoritarianism, economic instability, and warfare.
Queer Literary Criticism
Authors: Spargo Tamsin
Published: April 2016

Queer literary criticism denotes a range of approaches to textual scholarship that analyze and contest heteronormative structures and relations of meaning. It emerged from a combination of post‐structuralist deconstruction of essentialist understandings of gendered and sexual identities and gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex political activism in the 1980s. It is closely aligned with queer theory and is often cross‐ or multidisciplinary.
Child Sexual Abuse and Trauma
Authors: Warner Sam
Published: April 2016

Child sexual abuse is a worldwide social problem that has many individual negative physical and emotional effects. Victims often dissociate in response to trauma and actively try to repress their traumatic memories thereafter. This can result in memory fragmentation and survivors having their “recovered” memories being disbelieved. Many survivors are plagued by their traumatic memories, resulting in post‐traumatic stress responses. Treatment should be understood in a social context. Current approaches favor a rights‐based agenda, as enshrined in United Nations (UN) policy, which can be used to target services at particularly vulnerable and disenfranchised groups. The current emphasis is on providing seamless sexual violence services that are inclusive of investigation and support, and which are coordinated at local, national, and international levels. Trauma‐focused therapies are most effective in promoting recovery, and “mindfulness” and “Attachment Theory” are currently being explored in this context.
Suttee (Sati)
Authors: Major Andrea
Published: April 2016

Few practices are as controversial as sati/suttee, the burning of a Hindu widow on her husband's funeral pyre. Revered by some as a miraculous and meritorious act that embodies ideals of Hindu femininity, spirituality, and tradition, it is condemned by others as an act of manifest violence against women and an indicator of her subjugation and oppression. A site of conflict and debate in precolonial, colonial and postcolonial India, sati's social, cultural and political significance goes far beyond its limited numerical occurrence, intersecting with debates about women's rights, postcolonial modernity, and Hindu identity.
Genocide
Authors: Sharlach Lisa
Published: April 2016

The definition of genocide in international law has resulted in a silence on genocide's gendered forms, such as targeted killings of sexual minorities (homosexual men, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered) and sexual violence. This entry attempts to “queer” and “gender” genocide by investigating the grounds for which one might consider the annihilation of homosexuals during the Holocaust and mass rape of women in certain modern wars to fit under the purview of the United NationsConvention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Feminism, Black
Authors: Brewer Rose M.
Published: April 2016

This entry examines the development and changes in black feminist thought from the twentieth to the twenty‐first centuries. The major contributors to black feminism(s) are noted, and the key ideas are interrogated. The signature contribution of black feminism, intersectionality, is explored in some detail. New theorizations grounded in African feminism, queer of color critique, and black trans thinking are discussed. While there are multiple feminisms globally, the central concern of black feminism in the United States and the African world is attentiveness to race, nation, class, and gender as categories of analysis and systemic realities. These are social forces deeply interconnected in the lives of black women. Black feminism challenges a generic feminism unmediated by race and class. This theoretical move is intersectional.
Mysticism
Authors: Mercer Calvin
Published: April 2016

This entry reviews the historical and social scientific material relating to gender and mysticism, understood as a religious experience fundamentally characterized by a sense of unity. Several female mystics briefly summarized include Julian of Norwich (Christian), St Theresa of Avila (Christian), Rabia Basri (Muslim), Saraba Devi (Hindu), and Yeshe Tsogyal (Buddhist). A leading theory is that the embodied mysticism (i.e., bodily nature of spirituality) of Christian medieval female mystics provided a path to God in a patriarchal context. An important social scientific study is summarized that shows a positive correlation between mysticism and feminine gender orientation.
Popular Culture and Gender
Authors: Olivieri Domitilla
Published: April 2016

Gender and popular culture are deeply intertwined in multiple ways and their interrelation produces considerable and far‐reaching effects in society. Popular culture is one of the major agents of socialization through which people learn norms and values. Therefore, it also plays an important role in the production and reproduction of gender norms and gendered subjects, as the socially constructed ideas of gender are reinforced by the dominant narratives in popular culture. Images, texts, and sounds conveyed by a wide array of media and across cultural phenomena – such as television, film, music, performance, magazines, comics, novels, games, fashion, and advertising – all produce and represent the set of beliefs and values about masculinity and femininity dominant in a given culture at a given time.
Feminist Economics
Authors: Barker Drucilla K.
Published: April 2016

Economics is a biased and incomplete account of economic phenomena. It is an androcentric account of human agency that privileges self‐interested contractual exchange above all other forms of human interaction. As such, it rationalizes and naturalizes income inequality, poverty, and other social hierarchies based on gender, race, ethnicity, class, and nationality
Butch/Femme
Authors: Smith Christine A.
Published: April 2016

In the 1930s and 1940s in the United States, a visible lesbian culture emerged, especially in working‐class communities. Many working‐class lesbian communities had strict rules in which a woman must assume either a butch or femme role and presentation. To be butch meant that a woman presented a masculine appearance and mannerisms. The term butch also signified the active or dominant partner in sexual relationships. Femmes adhered to more traditionally feminine forms of dress, hairstyles, and interests. Butch and femme fell out of favor in the 1970s as feminists began to critique gender relations. In the 1980s, lesbian communities, especially urban, middle, and upper‐middle class, began reclaiming these identities, but with greater performative aspects and with less class division. Academically, theorists and writers continue to examine butch and femme as historical constructs as well as current expressions of the lesbian experience.
Pink Triangle
Authors: Lautmann Rüdiger
Published: April 2016

Gay inmates held in the Nazi concentration camps were forced to wear an insignia, a pink triangle. They experienced the worst treatment by the SS guards and formed the lowest class within the camp hierarchy, hence the death rate of gay prisoners was significantly higher than that of other categories. The extent to which the pink triangle extended to women and to Jews is discussed. Surviving gays did not receive recognition as Nazi victims until 2000, and historical research ignored the matter. The pink triangle was turned by the homosexual emancipation movement into an emblem of identity and accompanied the struggle for civil rights.
Anthropological Perspectives on Sex
Authors: Power Camilla
Published: April 2016

Beliefs and customs surrounding sex, however variable, may fundamentally separate humans from non‐humans. Despite the difficulties in finding valid data, anthropology has a long history of enquiry into sex and society. Some Victorian scholars of “primitive” human sexuality boldly asserted women's original sexual freedom. Early anthropological fieldwork on sexual cultures showed a strong association of matrilineal kinship with sexual equality. This made concepts of paternity a cultural problem for Western researchers. Indigenous ideologies of conception and pregnancy requiring repeated sexual acts may lead to belief in multiple fathers where frequent practice of sex outside marriage forms part of ritual and economic systems. Magical interaction in exchanges of bodily fluids and sexual substances reflect cycles of social reproduction and economic production.
Gender Bias in Research
Authors: Upchurch Meg
Published: April 2016

Gender bias in research results from androcentrism, gender insensitivity, and double standards concerning appropriate behaviors and social roles for females and males. Historically, males and their actions and artifacts have been overrepresented as subjects of research in the social and natural sciences. Findings derived from research on male samples have been generalized to the population as a whole, sometimes resulting in the development of social policies beneficial to males but detrimental to females or the use of medical treatments that are ineffective or harmful to females. Corrections to gender bias include recruitment of more females both as researchers and as research participants, separate statistical analyses of data derived from females and males, careful attention to the language and metaphors used in research, and identification and elimination of double standards in the interpretation and application of results.
Feminist Theories of Experience
Authors: Nuñez Caryl
Published: April 2016

This entry explores a broad set of feminist theories that draw on lived experience to shift ontological, epistemological, and methodological frames. Experience is an extensive dimension of feminist theory and includes interdisciplinary perspectives from both within and beyond the West. There is a focus on important theories and influential scholars in this field. Some theories include standpoint, intersectionality, third world, and postcolonial. Important figures included are Joan W. Scott, Judith Butler, Audre Lorde, Cherríe Moraga, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, and Sara Ahmed.
The Hite Report on Female Sexuality
Authors: Casazza Stephen P. , Cohn Tracy J.
Published: April 2016

The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality
was originally published in 1976 and reprinted in 2004 with an updated introduction by its author, Shere Hite. The intent of the report was “to discover how women view their own sexuality.” Five domains were assessed in the report: orgasms, sexual activities, relationship status, life stage, the ending. The Hite Report was innovative in its approach to female sexuality, that is, it asked women about their opinions on sex and how sex or orgasms really feel rather than telling them how they should feel. The report profoundly shaped the way that contemporary culture thinks about female sexuality, sexual slavery, and female orgasms.
Female Criminality
Authors: Arnekrans Allison K.
Published: April 2016

Little attention has been given, both internationally and in the United States, to the topic of female criminality before the early 1980s due to popular beliefs that the female crime rate was low and the nature of offenses of women were minimal. More recent statistics over the past decade indicate a surge in women entering the justice system at various stages and for multiple offenses. This increase has been attributed to the deinstitutionalization process, need for equality among the sexes, and the harsher government policies and enactment procedures. Both sex roles and drug abuse have been linked to the upward trend in female criminality, in addition to understanding how violence can affect female behavior.
Tomboys and Sissies
Authors: Heasley Robert B. , Crane Betsy
Published: April 2016

The words tomboys and sissies are colloquial expressions used to describe children who do not confirm to gender expectations. The girl who is seen as a tomboy, and the boy labeled a sissy, both display qualities that call into question the idea that biological males and biological females are by nature “opposites.” Such qualities include behaviors, appearance, or other social characteristics that have been culturally assigned to the “opposite” sex. This entry describes the history and effects of these terms.