Gender and military issues : a categorized research bibliography

The purpose of this report is to give an overview of research related to gender issues in the military

‘It is passable, I suppose’ - Adult Norwegian men’s notions of their own bodies

This is the peer reviewed version (post-print version) of the following article: Hervik, S.E. & Fasting, K. (2014). "It is passable, I suppose" - Adult Norwegian men's notions of their own bodies, which has been published in final form in International Review for the Sociology of Sport at http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1012690214557709. The post-print version posted here is subjected to a Creative Commons-license (CC BY-NC-ND).Dette er den fagfellevurderte versjonen (postprint-versjonen) av artikkelen: Hervik, S.E. & Fasting, K. (2014). "It is passable, I suppose" - Adult Norwegian men's notions of their own bodies, som ble publisert i International Review for the Sociology of Sport, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1012690214557709. Denne postprint-versjonen er underlagt en Creative Commons-lisens (CC BY-NC-ND).The aim of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of how men aged 40-90 years with different educational and ethnic backgrounds talk about their own bodies, and how social dimensions, especially masculinity and age, are reflected in their talk. Eighteen men from a small rural town in Norway were interviewed. The findings indicate that the men have a complex relationship to their own bodies. Three main themes were found in the way they talked about their own bodies; functionality in relation to their everyday life and in relation to sport and physical activity; physical and mental health; appearance both in relation to how their bodies were perceived by others and in relation to their own perception of their body. The three themes were not mutually exclusive and were often interwoven in terms of how they were talked about. The results are discussed in relation to theories of masculinity with a focus on Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity. One of the conclusions that can be drawn from the project is that the men expressed their relationships with their bodies in conflicting and complex ways, including concerns which can be interpreted as gendered and age-related

Kampen mot kjønnsstereotypiene: En komparativ studie av kvinnelige fotballspilleres oppfattelse av maskulinitet og feminitet

Kari Fasting, Gertrud Pfister & Sheila Scraton: Disrupting gender? A cross-national study of female soccer players’ perceptions of masculinity and femininity Traditionally football has been a masculine sport, even though there has been a dramatic increase in the number of female footballers in many countries since the beginning of the 1970s. Through qualitative, in-depth interviews with female football players in England, Germany, Norway and Sweden (N= 40), the article explores how far women, who are engaged at a highly competitive level in a “male“ sport like football, actively construct alternative femininities, subvert traditional meanings of femininity and/or respond to the cultural ideals of “acceptable“ femininity. The results indicate that the football players do all these.They actively construct alternative femininities while responding to cultural ideals of acceptable femininity at the same time. The data also revealed that sport is a social field that not only produces gender, but that it is also an arena where gender can be bent, shifted and changed. The most striking result of the study, however, was that the results were much the same across the national borders

Consequences of sexual harassment in sport for female athletes

Sexual harassment research was first undertaken in the workplace and educational settings. Research on sexual harassment in sport is scarce but has grown steadily since the mid-1980s. Even so, very little is known about the causes and/or characteristics and/or consequences of sexual harassment in sport settings. This article reports on the findings from interviews with 25 elite female athletes in Norway who indicated in a prior survey (N =572) that they had experienced sexual harassment from someone in sport. The consequences of the incidents of sexual harassment that were reported were mostly negative, but some also reported that their experiences of sexual harassment had had no consequences for them. “Thinking about the incidents”, a “destroyed relationship to the coach”, and “more negative view of men in general” were the most often negative consequences mentioned. In addition, a surprising number had chosen to move to a different sport or to drop out of elite sport altogether because of the harassment

Prevalence of sexual harassment among Norwegian female elite athletes in relation to sport type

Although it is often assumed that the prevalence of sexual harassment is different in different sports, this assumption has not been empirically tested. This study considers whether the experience of sexual harassment varies by sport. The female elite athletes (N = 553) in the study participated in 56 different sport disciplines. These were grouped as follows :1) team or individual sports; 2) extent to which clothing required for competition is revealing ; 3) gender structure (male-or female dominated membership statistics); and 4) gender culture (masculine, gender-neutral, or feminine). The data show that sexual harassment occurs in every sport group. Female elite athletes who participated in ‘masculine’ sports appear to experience more harassment than women in the other groups. We conclude that, when it comes to female athletes’ experiences of sexual harassment, sport type matters far less than sport participation per se

Sexual harassment and abuse in sport: The research context

This special issue of the Journal of Sexual Aggression draws on the contributions to a Symposium on ‘Sexual Harassment in Sport – Challenges for Sport Psychology in the New Millennium’, held at the Xth Congress of the International Society for Sport Psychology, Skiathos, Greece from May 28th to June 2nd 2001. The symposium, which was organised by the authors of this editorial, was intended to move forward the international research agenda on sexual harassment and abuse in sport and to examine professional practice issues for sport psychologists. It was clear from the attendance of over 60 delegates at that symposium that international interest in this subject is growing. Further evidence of this came from the attendance of 26 members states – from Azerbaijan to Sweden - at a Council of Europe seminar on The Protection of Children, Young People and Women in Sport, held in Helsinki in September 2001

Flere kvinner i Forsvaret? En analyse av studier om rekruttering av kvinner og kvinners erfaringer i og med Forsvaret

Den markante underrepresentasjonen av kvinner i Forsvaret danner bakteppe for dette prosjektet, initiert av Sjef Forsvarets høgskole, kontreadmiral Louise K. Dedichen. Prosjektet søker å finne svar på ”hvorfor Norge ikke klarer å få opp kvinneandelen i forsvaret?”, hvor dette er den første av to delrapporter. Delrapporten tar utgangspunkt i problemstillingen ”Hva er kvinners opplevelser og erfaringer med førstegangstjeneste, utdannelse ved forsvarets skoler og engasjement/ansettelse i det norske forsvaret?”, og bygger på et større litteratursøk etter publikasjoner relatert til kjønn og det norske Forsvaret. Flere av studiene er basert på lav svarprosent, relativt små utvalg, få intervjuer og korte feltarbeid. Sammen med det relativt lave antallet studier bidrar dette til at analysen og konklusjonen i denne rapporten bygger på et noe begrenset grunnlag. I tråd med tidligere undersøkelser viser analysen av publikasjonene at problemet med å få opp kvinneandelen har sammenheng med kulturen i Forsvaret. Denne er preget av en dominerende form for maskulinitet som virker begrensende for mangfold. I forbindelse med opptak og seleksjon tyder det på at en bestemt type maskulinitet verdsettes, blant annet manifestert i fysisk kapasitet. Dette medfører at mange opplever og oppfatter at Forsvaret ikke passer for dem. På den annen side har de kvinnene som gjennomfører førstegangstjenesten positive opplevelser fra denne perioden. Imidlertid ser det ut til at hverdagen fortoner seg ikke fullt så positivt på befals- og offisersnivå. Dette kan først og fremst knyttes til en opplevelses av et gap mellom offisiell likestillingspolitikk i Forsvaret, og den faktiske opplevelsen av den militære kulturen. Vår analyse indikerer at dette kan gi seg utslag i at mange kvinner opplever: • mangel på respekt • mobbing, trakassering og sexisme, • at mannen alltid er normen og at de må tilpasse seg det maskuline normsystemet • at de ikke får samme muligheter som sine mannlige kollegaer. Det ser ut til at “å bli en av gutta” oppleves som en strategi for å unngå disse problemene og for å bli akseptert. En naturlig konsekvens av dette er at noen kvinner blir negative til likestilling, negative til kvotering, og adopterer mange menns stereotype syn på kvinners plass i Forsvaret, samtidig som de forsøker å bli så lik menn som mulig. I stedet for en endring av den rådende kulturen kan slike holdninger bidra til opprettholdelse av kulturen og slik sett fremmes ikke mangfold og likestilling

TV2 konstruerer en håndballkriger : kjønnede og symbolske medierepresentasjoner av herrehåndball

Hensikten med artikkelen er å rette fokus mot tv-kommentatorers diskursive fremstilling av herrehåndball og antyde hvilke maskuliniteter som konstrueres og manifesteres gjennom norsk TV 2s formidling av herrehåndball. Artikkelen er basert på empiri fra arbeidet med masteroppgaven Håndballkrigeren – et kjønnet perspektiv på fjernsynets formidling av herrehåndball (Broch 2008). Datamaterialet består av transkriberte kommentatorutsagn fra ti herrehåndballkamper på internasjonalt nivå. Diskursanalyse viser at det er én form for maskulinitet som kommer til syne under medieringen. Denne kontekstuelle håndballmaskuliniteten synes svært streng og uten særlig rom for alternativer. Artikkelen drøfter medieringen av denne hegemoniske formen for maskulinitet, definert som håndballkrigeren

‘It is passable, I suppose’ - Adult Norwegian men’s notions of their own bodies

The aim of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of how men aged 40-90 years with different educational and ethnic backgrounds talk about their own bodies, and how social dimensions, especially masculinity and age, are reflected in their talk. Eighteen men from a small rural town in Norway were interviewed. The findings indicate that the men have a complex relationship to their own bodies. Three main themes were found in the way they talked about their own bodies; functionality in relation to their everyday life and in relation to sport and physical activity; physical and mental health; appearance both in relation to how their bodies were perceived by others and in relation to their own perception of their body. The three themes were not mutually exclusive and were often interwoven in terms of how they were talked about. The results are discussed in relation to theories of masculinity with a focus on Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity. One of the conclusions that can be drawn from the project is that the men expressed their relationships with their bodies in conflicting and complex ways, including concerns which can be interpreted as gendered and age-related