Masculinity at work: The experiences of men in female dominated occupations

This paper presents the findings of a research project on the implications of men's non-traditional career choices for their experiences within the organization and for gender identity. The research is based on 40 in-depth interviews with male workers from four occupational groups: librarian-ship, cabin crew, nurses and primary school teachers. Results suggest a typology of male workers in female dominated occupations: seekers (who actively seek the career), finders (who find the occupation in the process of making general career decisions) and settlers (who settle into the career after periods of time in mainly male dominated occupations). Men benefit from their minority status through assumptions of enhanced leadership (the assumed authority effect), by being given differential treatment (the special consideration effect) and being associated with a more careerist attitude to work (the career effect). At the same time, they feel comfortable working with women (the zone of comfort effect). Despite this comfort, men adopt a variety of strategies to re-establish a masculinity that has been undermined by the 'feminine' nature of their work. These include re-labeling, status enhancement and distancing from the feminine. The dynamics of maintaining and reproducing masculinities within the non-traditional work setting are discussed in the light of recent theorising around gender, masculinity and work

'Mine's a Pint of Bitter': Performativity, gender, class and representations of authenticity in real-ale tourism

Leisure choices are expressive of individual agency around the maintenance of taste, boundaries, identity and community. This research paper is part of a wider project designed to assess the social and cultural value of real ale to tourism in the north of England. This paper explores the performativity of real-ale tourism and debates about belonging in northern English real-ale communities. The research combines an ethnographic case study of a real-ale festival with semi-structured interviews with organisers and volunteers, northern English real-ale brewers and real-ale tourists visiting the festival. It is argued that real-ale tourism, despite its origins in the logic of capitalism, becomes a space where people can perform Habermasian, communicative leisure, and despite the contradictions of preferring some capitalist industries over others on the basis of their perceived smaller size and older age, real-ale fans demonstrate agency in their performativity

Feeding Steers -- Feed Value of Cotton Seed and its Products.

86 p

Measuring Children’s Perceptions of Their Mother’s Depression: The Children’s Perceptions of Others’ Depression Scale – Mother Version

Several theoretical perspectives suggest that knowledge of children’s perceptions of and beliefs about their parents’ depression may be critical for understanding its impact on children. This paper describes the development and preliminary evidence for the psychometric properties of a new measure, the Children’s Perceptions of Others’ Depression – Mother Version (CPOD-MV), which assesses theoretically- and empirically driven constructs related to children’s understanding and beliefs about their mothers’ depression. These constructs include children’s perceptions of the severity, chronicity, and impairing nature of their mothers’ depression; self-blame for their mother’s depression; and beliefs about their abilities to deal with their mother\u27s depression by personally coping or alleviating the mother’s depression. The CPOD-MV underwent two stages of development. First: (1) a review of the literature to identify the key constructs; (2) focus groups to help generate items; and (3) clinicians’ ratings on the relevance and comprehensibility of the drafted items. Second was a study of the measure’s psychometric properties. The literature review, focus groups, and item reduction techniques yielded a 21-item measure. Reliability, factor structure, and discriminant, convergent and concurrent validity were tested in a sample of 91 10- to17- year-old children whose mothers had been treated for depression. The scale had good internal consistency, factor structure suggestive of a single construct, discriminant, concurrent, convergent, and incremental validity, suggesting the importance of measuring children’s perceptions of their mothers’ depression, beyond knowledge of mothers’ depression symptom level, when explaining which children have the greatest risk for emotional and behavioral problems among children of depressed mothers. These findings support continued development and beginning clinical applications of the scale

Knowing your place and commanding space:de/constructions of gendered embodiment in mixed-sex karate

Feminists have long acknowledged that gendered divisions in access to spaces of leisure, and how women and men physically take up that space, reproduces gender inequality. This article will explore how karate practitioners participate in the space of mixed-sex karate practice and how such uses of space de/construct gendered embodiments and a gender hierarchy. Data presented is drawn from nine months of ethnographic emersion within three karate clubs and fifteen photo-elicitation interviews with karate participants from the three clubs. The findings of this paper suggest that whilst women often occupied spaces of expertise within the karate hall, gendered distinctions in uses of space emerged in the more subtle ways in which women and men used their voice, responded to the tacit and smelt dilemmas of sweat, and moved their bodies across physical space. This research highlights both the potential of physical leisure practice to ‘undo’ conventional gendered embodiments that particularly restrict women’s intentionality in the world (Young, 1980), and the power of spatially-attuned research to illuminate the minute ways in which unequal gender relations are naturalised, legitimised and done

Halocarbon ozone depletion and global warming potentials

Concern over the global environmental consequences of fully halogenated chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) has created a need to determine the potential impacts of other halogenated organic compounds on stratospheric ozone and climate. The CFCs, which do not contain an H atom, are not oxidized or photolyzed in the troposphere. These compounds are transported into the stratosphere where they decompose and can lead to chlorine catalyzed ozone depletion. The hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs or HFCs), in particular those proposed as substitutes for CFCs, contain at least one hydrogen atom in the molecule, which confers on these compounds a much greater sensitivity toward oxidation by hydroxyl radicals in the troposphere, resulting in much shorter atmospheric lifetimes than CFCs, and consequently lower potential for depleting ozone. The available information is reviewed which relates to the lifetime of these compounds (HCFCs and HFCs) in the troposphere, and up-to-date assessments are reported of the potential relative effects of CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs, and halons on stratospheric ozone and global climate (through 'greenhouse' global warming)

Disability in higher education: do reasonable adjustments contribute to an inclusive curriculum?

The study focuses on the importance of inclusive curriculum design in Higher Education (HE) and the impact of reasonable adjustments in ensuring inclusive practices. Although making reasonable adjustments attempts to ensure inclusivity, the data gathered suggests that some staff struggle to accommodate disabled students, due to a lack of knowledge, training and awareness of disability. The findings are drawn from qualitative data collected from five participants by way of in-depth interviews. The study explored the perceptions of staff members in a Law School, and attempts to offer practical recommendations to ensure HE institutions adopt inclusive practices in their curriculum design. The findings suggest that having an inclusive curriculum can in some cases minimise or obviate the need to make reasonable adjustments. It is suggested that HE institutions should now switch their focus to the social model of disability which focuses on attitudes, so as to transform the perception of staff towards disabled students. Additionally, practical solutions are provided in an attempt to recognise that disabled students may need to be treated differently, in order to achieve their full potential, which ultimately ensures inclusion within the curriculum

Field Tests with Corn at College Station and Beeville.

39 p