The construction of masculinities and femininities in the Church of England:the case of the male clergy spouse

The ordination of women to the priesthood in the Church of England in 1994 signified great change. The impact of the new priests was well documented, and their integration became the focus of much research in the following years. One important area of change was the altered dynamics of gender identity. New roles had opened up for women, but new identities had also emerged for men. While women priests were a new historical emergence, so too were clergy husbands. This paper will consider the historical construction of masculinities and femininities within the church and will go on to look at this in the context of clergy spouses, specifically focusing on men occupying this role. Some provisional findings, acting as work in progress, will be considered.

It's in his eyes? The negotiation and interpretation of masculinity using the Dolce et Gabbana's 2005 Print advertising campaign

The concept of 'masculinity' has over more years received increased attention within consumer research discourse suggesting the potential of a 'crisis of masculinity', symptomatic of a growing feminisation, or 'queering' of visual imagery and consumption (e.g. Patterson & Elliott, 2002). Although this corpus of research has served to enrich the broader gender identity debate, it is, arguably, still relatively underdeveloped and therefore warrants further insight and elaboration. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to explore how masculinity is represented and interpreted by men using the Dolce et Gabbana men's 2005 print advertising campaign. The rationale for using this particular campaign is that it is one of the most homoerotic, provocative, and well publicised campaigns to cross over from the 'gay' media to more mainstream UK men's magazines. Masculinity, and what it means to be 'masculine', manifests itself within particular ideological, moral, cultural and hegemonic discourses. Masculinity is not a homogenous term which can be simply reduced, and ascribed, to those born as 'male' rather than 'female'.

Constructing their own space: British Asians explore cultural identity, women, gender differences and feminism within multicultural society.

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Understanding the role of self-identity in habitual risky behaviours: pedestrian road-crossing decisions across the lifespan

Self-identity as a careful pedestrian has not been fully considered in previous work on predicting intention to cross the road, or actual crossing behaviour, in non-optimal situations. Evidence suggests that self-identity may be a better predictor than attitudes in situations where decision-making styles have become habitual ways to respond. This study compared contributions of self-identity and attitudes to the prediction of intentions in two situations differing in level of habitual crossing expectation, and to crossing behaviour. Three hundred and sixty-two adults (17–92 years) completed a questionnaire measuring self-identity, attitudes, intentions, experience, social identity variables (e.g. age, gender) and personal limitations (mobility). Two hundred and five participants also completed a road-crossing simulation. Self-identity and attitude were both shown as significant independent predictors of intention in both situations. However, self-identity was less effective as a predictor in the higher risk scenario, where intention to perform the behaviour was lower, and for participants aged >75 years who had lower intention across scenarios. Self-identity strongly predicted intention to cross, which in turn predicted behaviour, but self-identity did not directly predict behaviour. Self-identity was strongly predicted by age. Implications for theories of compensation in older age and for design and targeting of pedestrian safety education are discussed.

Living language:language, power and identity

An exploration of different kinds of social power and the ways in which language is used by influential groups and institutions. Central to the work is the theme of consumerism and the three contexts in which it may be investigated: media, gender and citizenship.

Gender and subject in higher education

This thesis is concerned with the issue of gender inequality in higher education. It examines the relationship between gender and subject specialisation, looking in particular at the reasons for the predominance, at undergraduate level, of men in the physical sciences, and of women in the humanities. It investigates ideas of `masculinity' and `femininity' and how these relate to constructions of `science' and `arts'. The thesis argues that students choose which subject to study on the basis of certain qualities these subjects are seen to hold, and that these qualities have close connections with beliefs about `masculinity' and `femininity'. It examines this through an interview study of male and female students on six higher education courses: two university courses of physics, two university courses of English, a polytechnic course in communications and a polytechnic course in physical science. The interview study demonstrates that the science subjects are perceived by science students as more certain, more useful and more important than the humanities, and emphasise the value of their degree in gaining a well-paid and important job. Female science students, however, experience conflict between being `a good scientist' and being `feminine'. English and communications students emphasise the breadth, uncertainty and individuality of their subjects, and find science restrictive and narrow. They make little link between their degree and their future career. Men, however, feel no conflict between their identity as men and their chosen subject. It is argued that there is a close link between the construction of masculinity and the construction of physical science, but that English and communications are more ambivalent: in some senses `masculine', in some `feminine'. Men are advantaged in these subjects because of their greater visibility and assertiveness. The thesis concludes that the division between `science' and `arts' reinforces ideas of masculinity and femininity, and argues that female `failure' in education is in part the result of higher education's inability to transcend that division.

(S)excerpts from a Life Told:sex, gender and learning lisability

This is an article about Sarah’s sexual teenage journey, seen through the lens of her mother, the author. It tackles learning disability, sexual experimentation, education, governance and responsibility. By using an autoethnographical method the article speaks personally to these intimate lived experiences and yet broadly and contextually these issues can give further insight into the difficult social processes that permeate surveillance and control, of sexual activity amongst a particular group of adults (young, learning disabled), by way of legal practice and sex education; family practices and the negotiation of power and control over sexual activity; and sexual citizenship and rights to a sexual identity.

Man, I feel like a woman:when and how gender-role motivation helps mind-reading

Two experiments were undertaken with 3 goals: (a) to determine whether manipulating the desirability of including empathy as part of one's gender-role identity motivates accurate mind-reading, (b) to ascertain whether target readability moderates the strength of this effect, and (c) to test whether these effects are mediated by the complexity of perceivers' inferential strategies. Participants viewed videotapes of 2 couples discussing relationship problems and attempted to infer each partner's thoughts and feelings. Both experiments demonstrated that motivation improved accuracy when male and female perceivers valued the empathy-relevant aspects of the traditional female gender role. However, as predicted, high levels of motivation facilitated the accurate reading of easy targets but not of difficult targets. Several mediational models were tested, the results of which showed that the complexity of perceivers' attributions mediated the link between motivation and mind-reading accuracy.

Coping with uncertainty:gender and leadership identities in UK corporate life

Within corporate contexts, senior leaders must construct credible leadership identities if they are to demonstrate effectiveness in achieving business goals. This is a particular challenge for women, who have struggled historically to gain senior leadership positions. This chapter explores the identity struggles experienced by Karen, a woman Human Resources director within a management meeting as she delivers bad news about ‘company restructuring’ to her colleagues. Using Feminist Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis (FPDA), I show how this leader struggles to maintain a professionally competent identity as she negotiates the bad news. The analysis reveals that despite the demands of her role, Karen demonstrates extraordinary linguistic competence in managing her team within a turbulent business world that continues to remain inhospitable to female leaders.