Paternalism or Gender-Neutrality?

The strong and widely-accepted reasons for using gender-neutral language presumptively apply to the gendered word paternalism and its gender-neutral counterpart, parentalism. So this article’s thesis is that legal scholars should begin with a presumption for using the gender-neutral word parentalism, while using paternalism only when emphasizing the important relevance of gender or otherwise trying to convey a gendered meaning. Accordingly, many legal scholars define paternalism in an expressly gendered way — such as “the institutionalization of male dominance,” or an “ideology [that] teaches men to minimize women's agency” — or fittingly use paternalism to describe an attitude especially characteristic of men or directed primarily toward women. All these many uses of the gendered word paternalism are supported by the writers’ apparent intent to emphasize the important relevance of gender to the writers’ points. On the other hand, and despite the spread of gender-neutral language throughout our society and legal profession, many legal scholars continue to use the gendered word paternalism without indicating any important relevance of gender or otherwise manifesting intent to convey a gendered meaning. These many writers use paternalism rather than parentalism to describe laws or policies aiming to protect people (of all genders) by restricting their choices. For example, these writers cite “paternalism” as a standard justification for restrictions on contractual choice or other private ordering, including the unconscionability doctrine, usury laws, the minimum wage, and countless regulations limiting the range of enforceable promises by consumers, borrowers, employees, investors, and others. In each of these contexts, better to use the gender-neutral word parentalism, unless the writer emphasizes the relevance of gender or otherwise manifests an intent to convey a gendered meaning. For example, a writer could justify using the gendered word paternalism by arguing that all our laws are gendered male so gendered language should be used to discuss any law, including using paternalism to describe laws aiming to protect people of all genders by restricting their choices. Or a writer could justify using the gendered word paternalism by arguing (after citing sufficient empirical data) that protect-by-restricting-choice parenting is gendered male, so analogous protect-by-restricting-choice laws and policies are also gendered male. Absent one of those two plausible arguments justifying use of the gendered word paternalism, laws or policies aiming to protect people of all genders by restricting their choices are better described as examples of parentalism. In short, a presumption for using the gender-neutral word parentalism to describe laws or policies aiming to protect people of all genders by restricting their choices is well-grounded in the strong and widely-accepted reasons for ordinarily using gender-neutral language. And examining legal scholarship’s many uses of paternalism and parentalism illuminates our understandings of gender in both law and parenting

Pay System Gender Neutrality

It was Francine Blau\u27s Equal Pay in the Office (1977) that laid out some of the seminal research on gender differences in labor market outcomes. Blau and other pioneering researchers established decades ago that the gender pay gap (then around 40%) could not be ignored by academic economists. Many organizations are concerned with whether their individual pay systems are gender neutral, but it is not easy to test robustly a pay system\u27s gender neutrality. To build such a test requires consideration of several issues, including control variables, occupational patterns, statistical specifications, and the often-overlooked difference between wage and salary income and total compensation. Of course, there are also important but nuanced statistical issues to consider when testing whether pay systems are gender neutral. Many statistical issues are not complicated. Most can be explained in simple, intuitive language, and handled right if confronted objectively

Gender neutrality in Swedish society

У статті розглядається актуальне останнім часом поняття ґендерної нейтральності. Аналізується визначення ґендеру. Розглянуто вплив визначення ґендеру на прикладі кількох країн, проте основна увага приділяється питанню ґендерної нейтральності у Швеції – поширенню використання ґендерно-нейтрального займенника «hen» i вихованню дітей у ґендерно-нейтральних дошкільних закладах. Висвітлюються можливі ефекти такого виховання.The article deals with the emerging concept of gender neutrality. The definition of gender is analyzed. The impact of gender determination is considered on the example of several countries, but the main focus is on gender neutrality in Sweden – the propagation of use of the gender-neutral pronoun «hen» and the education of children in gender-neutral pre-schools. The possible effects of such education are highlighted.В статье рассматривается актуальное в последнее время понятие гендерной нейтральности. Анализируется определение гендера. Рассмотрено влияние определения гендера на примере нескольких стран, однако основное внимание уделяется вопросу гендерной нейтральности в Швеции – распространению использования гендерно-нейтрального местоимения «hen» и воспитанию детей в гендерно-нейтральных дошкольных учреждениях. Освещаются возможные эффекты такого воспитания

Gender Neutrality and the Pakistani Bureaucracy

Pakistan inherited the British Weberian model at its birth in 1947 (Braibanti, 1966). The Weberian framework is the basis of the professional code of the Pakistani bureaucracy. The Framework highlights the importance of gender neutrality towards ensuring impartiality, promotion of merit and efficiency in organizations. The Pakistani bureaucracy has been categorized as being Weberian by recent research, and hence should be gender neutral. This paper examines if the Pakistani bureaucracy is indeed gender neutral. It inspects the gender norms prevalent in the context of the macro sociocultural environment in Pakistan and finds that these norms are reflected in women’s position in the bureaucracy. Using the perceptions of male and female bureaucrats and ministers as symptomatic evidence, the research deliberates on how the socially determined status hierarchies interact with organizational rules and regulations to perpetuate gender bias and lack of gender neutrality within the bureaucracy. The paper concludes by reinforcing that the bureaucracy operates in a larger social and cultural environment, which is unable to be a socially transformative agent in the case of Pakistan, and hence, is not gender neutral and by consequence, not Weberian

Need for Gender Neutrality in Cartooning Scholarship

The person of a woman seems to continue to mean inability, weakness and perhaps, inexistence in especially the field of cartooning. Hypothetically, the cartooning scholarship basically presents cartooning studies with a mere mention of the female cartoonist in a ratio of about 1 to 80 studies done. This article presents a case in point where a female cartoonist had worked in a newspaper along with other male cartoonists and yet scholars mostly present their works as though female cartoonists do not exist. The article describes the depictions and draws comparisons to express that the female cartoonists work may have inspired some of the male cartoonists depictions. Some of the facial parts resemble each other against the backdrop of depictive influences between the works of the female and male cartoonists. Again, the stature of the characters of the first three male cartoonists is as short as those of the female cartoonist.Key words: stereotype, ignominy and gender exclusio

Democratization and gender-neutrality in English(es)

"Democratization" and "gender-neutrality" are two concepts commonly used in recent studies on language variation. While both concepts link linguistic phenomena to sociocultural changes, the extent to which they overlap and/or interact has not been studied in detail. In particular, not much is known about how linguistic changes related to democratization and gender-neutrality spread across registers or varieties of English, as well as whether speakers are aware of the changes that are taking place. In this paper we review the main theoretical issues regarding these concepts and relate them to the main findings in the articles in this issue, all of which study lexical and grammatical variation from a corpus-based perspective. Taken together, they help unveil some of the conscious and unconscious mechanisms that operate at the interface between democratization and gender-neutrality.Peer reviewe

Sporting equality and gender neutrality in korfball

This paper explores the extent to which korfball can be considered egalitarian. The intention of this research was to use ethnographic methods to discover the ways in which gender was negotiated, challenged or recreated in a junior korfball setting and examine to what extent korfball provided an opportunity to promote gender egalitarianism. Analysis of the data incorporated a broad Foucauldian lens and subsequently revealed that sex equality was visible to some degree in the junior korfball space. From observations and interviews it was clear that male domination was rarely evident when considering the vocal nature of the game, the physicality and competitiveness of players, or their general ability and skill, yet when interviewed players still constructed gender in traditional ways. Nevertheless, korfball was seen to offer a space where there were possibilities for sporting equality although the influence that the sport had beyond the court was less apparent

Striving for Justice: The Movement towards Gender Neutrality in Family Law

Gender neutrality in family law has become a critical movement in recent years. And this article Striving for Justice: The Movement towards Gender Neutrality in Family Law will delve into it. Traditional gender roles and assumptions about gender have been deeply ingrained in family law, resulting in unfair outcomes for women and other gender minorities. This movement towards gender neutrality has been driven by several factors, including the changing roles of women in society, increased awareness of gender inequality, and changing attitudes towards gender and sexuality. As a result, laws and policies related to divorce, child custody, child support, and other family law matters have undergone significant changes in recent years. Many states have adopted a presumption of shared parenting, which prioritizes the involvement of both parents in the lives of their children regardless of gender or sex. Additionally, the best interests of the child standard, which is used to determine custody arrangements and other family law matter, now take into account a wide range of factors beyond just gender and sex. The benefits of gender-neutral family law are many. By avoiding assumptions based on gender or sex and instead focusing on individual circumstances, gender-neutral family law promotes increased fairness and equality in family law proceedings. This approach also reduces reliance on gender stereotypes and assumptions, leading to more individualized and nuanced decisions