Category: Gender & Sexuality

Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Social Movements / Social Change

Forging A Gender-Household Plastics Nexus in The Circular Economy

Inexpensive, lightweight and durable, it is difficult to imagine a world without the ubiquitous plastics. If you have ever looked around your kitchen, bathroom or living room, you will realise something: plastic is everywhere. From packaging and bottles to bags and straws, it is hard to escape the pervasiveness of plastics. However, plastics are a double-edged sword. Despite playing an indispensable role in modern society, plastic pollution has become a pressing environmental issue. Household plastics in particular, is a key...

Applied Sociology / Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Organizations & Work

A gender milestone: First women presidents in U.S. higher education institutions

By In today’s tense higher education landscape, one may wonder why anyone would take on the role of a university or college president. Indeed, even before the recent accusations against women academics, women who sought to or served as executive leaders of higher education institutions (HEIs) faced gender bias, racial discrimination, and other challenges. Despite this, the number of women presidents in HEIs tripled from 9.5% to 33% between 1986 and 2023. In addition to the personal and professional satisfaction...

Class & Stratification / Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Political & Economic Sociology / Rural Sociology / Sociology of the Family

Empowerment in Action: How Women’s Choices Safeguard Food Security in Uganda

In many parts of the world, women play a crucial role in agriculture and food production. Their contributions to farming, fishing, and livestock keeping are significant for food security and nutrition, especially in rural communities. However, women often face challenges that limit their ability to make decisions about what food is grown, prepared, and consumed in their households. Understanding the link between women’s overall empowerment and their specific agency in nutrition can provide valuable insights into improving food security and...

Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Social Identity

Neurodiversity and Queer Phenomenology: Reflections from Life-Writings

Neurodiversity is a concept that recognizes neurodevelopmental disorders as natural variations of the human brain. The sexual politics of neurodiversity, which is often overlooked, sparked interest in our recently published research. In contrast to neurotypical persons, evidence suggests that neurodiverse individuals, particularly those on the autism spectrum, are more likely to be gender diverse and to have a lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or asexual sexual orientation (George & Stokes, 2018). The causes of this overlap are numerous, but one explanation is...

Class & Stratification / Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Social Identity / Sociology of Language

Diversity & Inclusion Research: Unveiling and Promoting Diversity, Inclusion, and Access

This is the first editorial by Drs Gabriela C. Zapata and Taylor Le Cui, Co Editors-in-Chief of new multidisciplinary, Open Access journal, Diversity & Inclusion Research, published by Wiley. It is was originally published in the journal, here, on 6 November 2023 and reproduced here for wider dissemination: The global crisis brought about by the COVID pandemic and the reinvigorated actions of social groups such as Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, and the Climate Movement once more brought to light the...

Applied Sociology / Class & Stratification / Feminist Theory / Gender & Sexuality / News / Population & Demography / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Research Methodologies / Social Identity / Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Social Theory / Sociology of Culture

Introducing a New Journal: Diversity & Inclusion Research

Launching in 2023! Diversity & Inclusion Research is an important new Open Access, multidisciplinary journal publishing high-quality research focussed on improving diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility at the individual, organizational, and societal level. Published by Wiley, the journal aims to contribute towards the deepening of local and international, theoretical and practical understandings of DE&I.​ There is an increasing urgency driving a need for rigorous inequality research. More than two-thirds of countries are experiencing increased income disparity, exacerbating the risks of economic and...

Class & Stratification / Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Political & Economic Sociology / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Research Brief / Sociology of Organizations & Work

Well-being is a characteristic of companies – not just individual workers

Work-related well-being has garnered significant public attention since the onset of COVID-19. Discussions of remote work, flexible work, and the importance of work/life balance have received heightened consideration as people and organizations across the globe adapt to an unprecedented historical moment and begin reassessing how they want to work (and live). While simply discussing work-related well-being is a step in the right direction, popular and academic understandings of well-being in the workplace have room for improvement. This is because well-being...

Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Research Brief / Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Sociology of Children / Sociology of Culture

Trans Children & Pathologisation in the UK

What happens when a society, backed by powerful institutions, media and majority culture designates a minority population as inherently disordered? When that categorisation and stigma is weaponised to legitimise abuse and discrimination? A new study highlights the legacy of one example of such pathologisation, focusing on transgender children in the UK. Introduction Across the globe, growing numbers of transgender (trans) children are being supported to live authentically in childhood. Global healthcare consensus now recognises trans identities, including in childhood, as...

Books and arts / Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Sociology of Children

Discarded Data

Data, if not saturated, Often are discarded. Data that affect are fated To be disregarded. * In my BA we were all taught Research starts with a gap. Sara Ahmed sparked a new thought: Why not start with a snap[1]? * I used a box to try to contain Data that were troubling. The lid came off under the strain; Spilt, the mess was bubbling. * The focus on relaxation Transformed into unrest. To defend such deviation: Put research skills...

Gender & Sexuality / Opinion

LGBTQIA+ youth in out-of-home care: The rain and the rainbow

Let’s get things straight. Nowadays, in almost all regions of the world, society discriminates against individuals who don’t fit into the imposed sexuality norms. Individuals who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual/Aromantic/Agender and other sexualities and identities (LGBTQIA+) are subject to systemic violations of their human rights. This is not news; it is a historical reality. LGBTQIA+ individuals are living under pervasive violence that comes in many forms: discrimination, harassment, criminalization, stigma, denial of services, invisibility… However,...

Feminist Theory / Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Social Identity / Social Movements / Social Change

Emotional Labor, Social Movements, and Being a Bad Feminist

Since Arlie Hochschild’s groundbreaking book The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling (1983), the concept of “emotional labor” has become increasingly popularized. Writing about jobs in the service industry, Hochschild defines emotional labor as the work that “requires one to induce or suppress feeling in order to sustain the outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others” (20). In other words, many (if not most) jobs require us to manage and negotiate our own feelings and the...

Gender & Sexuality / Opinion

Rain on the body: Bodies as mere objects

Bodies are inscribed with meaning in and through a web of social and power relations. Bodies are not neutral and object matter; rather, they (re)produce themselves when alone and when with others. The digital world can create bodies from afar and the offline world can do so, too. For example, one interacts with others online through digital platforms, such as Twitter or Facebook, shaping how the body is (un)seen and (un)heard; one can also interact with others offline, whereby a...

Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Political & Economic Sociology / Sociology of Organizations & Work

The Uneven Adjustment to Homeworking Among UK Sex Workers

The shift to homeworking under lockdown raises important concerns for those whose work involves physical and emotional connection, not least forms of work which have been undertaken in a shroud of secrecy. Here, I highlight the work of sex workers, in particular, who negotiate a sexual and emotional experience with clients through physical touch and emotional conversation. Of course, while some aspects of the experience can be – and are – undertaken remotely through online technologies in a burgeoning online...

Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Social Identity / Social Movements / Social Change

Identity Theory, Emotions, and the “Victim”—“Survivor” Binary

Sociological identity theory concerns itself with the concept of the self: what it is, how societal structures influence it, and how we navigate it. According to the symbolic interactionist tradition, heavily influenced by the work of George Herbert Mead, one’s sense of self or identity is built in and through social interactions with others. As such, there is a reciprocal relationship between the self and the external social world; society impacts the self, and in turn, the self impacts our...

Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Social Identity / Sociology of Health & Illness

‘Women of my age tend to drink’: Understanding how older Australian and Danish women negotiate the pleasures and risks of their alcohol use

When we think of risky drinking, typically we think of young people ‘binge drinking’, passing out on the footpath and generally looking a bit ‘messy’. The media reinforces the notion that drinking is primarily a problem among young people by regularly circulating stories and images of young people being drunk in public and causing problems either to themselves or bystanders. This emphasis on young people’s drinking is not surprising, particularly since they are more likely to drink in public places,...

Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Sociology of Organizations & Work

Upholding Equity Across Different Campuses

In the past decade the United States has witnessed an influx of conversations regarding sexual assault on college campuses. Cases like Brock Turner and Chanel Miller or Emma Sulkowicz became national examples of the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses as well as universities’ failures to protect survivors and seek justice. While there is much work left to be done, there seems to be a more concrete understanding of the frequency of sexual assault and the injustice done…