The Journal of Gender Research: Open issue

DOI: 10.18261/issn.1891-1781

Abstracts

Doing gender-aware parenting in Norway today – interpretations and practices

By Elisabeth Stai, Jennifer Elise Branlat and Guro Korsnes Kristensen

Gender diversity is increasingly up for discussion in Norway today. In 2023, the government’s Action Plan for Gender and Sexuality Diversity was published, with the objective of creating greater acceptance in relation to this issue. Despite this increased interest in creating a more inclusive society, we have little knowledge about how parents implement and work with these topics in their parenting. This article presents the ways in which parents who attempt what we refer to in this article as gender-aware parenting reflect on their ideas and attempts to challenge gender norms in parenting. Using Anthony Giddens’ theory of modernity, and West and Zimmermann’s theory of doing gender, we show that the parents featured in this study argue from a child-centred ideal which is about giving children the freedom to be themselves. By extension, gender for these parents is something that must be constantly reflected on, and cannot be taken for granted. When it comes to the parents’ experiences with the practical implementation of gender-aware parenting, we find that parents become aware of a strong gender dichotomy permeating society, making it more challenging than they had imagined.

Keywords: parenting, parenthood, childrearing, gender, gender-aware, gender norms

Hearing queer temporalities: The audiovisual disjunction in Blue (1993) and The Terence Davies Trilogy (1983)

By Breno Mota Alvarenga

The concept of queer temporality is explored in queer studies as a possibility for engaging with time in other ways than the straight time framework, which is anchored in a heteronormativity idea of personal progress, encompassing conjugal matrimony, reproduction and monetary inheritance. Inspired by Carla Freccero’s perspective of queer spectrality (2006), this article aims to investigate how some autobiographical films invite the spectator to glimpse into ways of experiencing queer temporalities in audiovisual narratives, where past, present and future may coincide. Specifically, I analyze the use of audiovisual disjunction as a cinematic technique that manifests a sense of asynchronicity and being “out of joint.” In this regard, I do a parallel reading of two autobiographical films directed by gay filmmakers: Blue (1993), by Derek Jarman, and The Terence Davies Trilogy (1983), by Terence Davies. Hence, this article aims to elucidate the use of soundtracks in these films as kinesthetic devices, enabling the audience to momentarily perceive queer temporalities through auditory experiences.

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Keywords: queer temporality, queer cinema, audiovisual disjunction, sound of cinema

“A feeling of belonging, one is not alone.” The meaning of networks for women in technical occupations as empowerment, labor collective and community

By Hedvig Skonhoft Johannesen, Ellen Møller, and Inger Vagle

This article addresses the meaning and functions of female networks related to work life and gender for women in technical occupations as a gender minority, analyzed from qualitative data. The context of the study is the extremely gendered labor market in technical occupations, where the occupations of the respondents have a low percentage of women, with 1% in building and construction, and 3% in motor vehicle construction and electrical installation. The findings show that the networks are about empowerment, labor collective, identification with like-minded others, and becoming role models as a gender minority. The networks appear as communities for like-minded women to share and process experiences from working life. However, the results show that participation in women’s networks does not protect women from harassment. Core contributions of the analysis are Kanter’s (1977) theory about tokenism and the benefits of more diversity in working life, followed by the critique by Yoder (1991) pinpointing to the inadequacy of counting numbers of women. The labor collective, coined by Lysgaard ([1961] 2001) emphasizes the strength of the subordinated in networks, which are still not strong enough, and situates the analysis in the Norwegian context.

Keywords: women’s Networks, vocational education and training, gender minority, harassment, Kanter, tokenism, Empowerment, Lysgaard, labor collective

Stories from girls in male-dominated maritime professions

By Gry-Helen Leikanger

This article is about girls who have taken maritime vocational education (to become sailors or ship engine mechanics) in upper secondary school in Norway, and their experiences of their apprenticeship and early professional life. In 2022, only 7 % of the apprentices within the maritime trades were girls. Through in-depth interviews with 9 girls in the maritime industry, this article seeks to increase the understanding of what it is like to be a girl and a minority in a highly male-dominated sector. The article shows, among other things, that gender is important for the girls’ experience of the apprenticeship, and that there are gendered practices in maritime industries that can work to the girls’ disadvantage.

Keywords: girls, minority, vocational education, maritime subjects, male-dominated profession, gender

Flexibility and friction. Research collaboration, gender and ruling in the global knowledge economy

By May-Linda Magnussen, Hanne Haaland, Tale Steen-Johnsen, Irene Trysnes, and Hege Wallevik

In higher level governing texts that shape our everyday work lives, academics are portrayed as brains, and the ideal academic is portrayed as brain power gliding around in what Susan Wright (2014) calls an international knowledge economy without friction, connecting with ‘strong’, ‘excellent’ research communities. In this article, we explore the doing of research collaboration, with the help of institutional ethnography (Smith 2005) and qualitative interviews with us authors and nine other associate professors at the faculty of social sciences at the University of Agder, Norway. Our main aim is to make visible our considerations of why we have participated and participate in research collaboration. Our analysis shows how the understanding of the ideal academic as international in certain ways has shaped our considerations and choices. First and foremost, however, it shows choices and considerations that are concealed and possibly distorted by the mentioned ideals – and they seem to have to do with gender. Making these visible can contribute to increased consciousness around and discussion about established understandings and ideals in academia, and to increased appreciation of diversity in the ways we do academic work. Such diversity often falls in the shadow of numerical gender balance or diversity along other acknowledged sociological categories, and is under threat.

Keywords: research Collaboration, academia, university, gender, internationalization, class, institutional ethnography

Read the full issue at Idunn.no