Close Encounters of Three Kinds: On Teaching Dominance Feminism and Intersectionality

I am pleased to be a part of this symposium honoring Catharine MacKinnon\u27s groundbreaking work as a feminist theorist, legal advocate, and global activist. This invitation not only presents the opportunity to examine the interface between dominance theory and intersectionality, but also the occasion to delve further into the vexed rhetorical politics surrounding feminism and antiracism. By now the fact that there has been a contested relationship between antiracism and feminism is almost axiomatic.1 Yet as with most things that have become matters of common knowledge, there is a risk that generalizations can metastasize into hardened conclusions that obscure rather than illuminate important dynamics among people, theories, and movements

Living in a foreign country : The meaning of place of origin and gender for risk perceptions, experiences, and behaviors

Previous research has convincingly proven that perceptions, experience, and exposure to risks vary among certain groups in society. By drawing from a unique combination of Swedish survey data and interviews, this study aims to investigate perceptions and experiences of risks as well as in relation to behavior by analyzing the cleavages related to interactions between place of origin and gender. Theoretically, we see individual risk perception as part of situated hierarchical power relations where an individual’s position (which is an intersection of, for example, gender, race, age, and place of origin) structures action and thought. Findings verify that foreign-born men and women perceive risks to a greater extent than those born in Sweden. However, no direct pattern of ethnicity is apparent in exposure to risks, but since predictors measuring experience of discrimination are shown to be significant, the effect can be mediated by such circumstances. In terms of how risks have affected behavior, women, irrespective of their ethnicity, are affected. Exposure to tragic experiences among those who are foreign born can pose risks that are perceived to a greater extent. Furthermore, more vulnerable material conditions can also affect how risks are perceived, and uncertainty due to a lack of resources and as an inherent ingredient of living in a foreign country seem to enhance perceptions of risk and feelings of unsafety. Last, the sense of discrimination appears to influence exposure to certain risks, which might capture an interaction between racism and violence

Gender and psychology

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.This chapter summarises the psychological research on gender. The first part of the chapter focusses on experimental and social constructivist psychology and discusses what psychological differences are found between genders and the different approaches put forward to explain these differences. These approaches include essentialist theories which argue that gender differences arise from evolutionary adaptations, and constructivist theories, which argue that gender differences are the result of cultural and contextual influences. We discuss the extent to which these approaches can explain gender differences in general, but also patterns of gender differences across cultures. The second part of this chapter discusses psychological research that adopts social constructionist approaches to studying gender, and outlines examples of discourse and conversation analytic research on the (re)production of gender in language and interactions. Finally, we will discuss how the retention of multiple perspectives and research methods by gender researchers is important for moving beyond additive (and dichotomous) models of gender, and beyond a European/US centric view