Masculinity in American Television from Carter to Clinton

This dissertation examines American television during a period I call the long 1980s. I argue that during this period, television became invested in new and provocative images of masculinity on screen and in networks’ attempts to court audiences of men. I have demarcated the beginning and ending of the long 1980s with the declaration of Jimmy Carter as Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1977 and Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. This also correlates with important shifts in the television industry, such as the formation of ESP-TV (later ESPN) in 1979 and the end of Johnny Carson’s tenure as host of The Tonight Show on NBC in 1992. During this period, seemingly dichotomous images of masculinity were present in American politics and culture: the “new man” embodied by Jimmy Carter, who is sympathetic and supportive of the women’s movement, and the cowboy ethos embodied by Ronald Reagan, which favors a more traditionally patriarchal social order. On television, these dueling masculinities were depicted in sitcoms, dramas, late-night comedy shows, and sports programming. Although much of 1980s television scholarship has unearthed network and programming strategies that favored women as audiences, I demonstrate how the formation of niche cable networks and changes to traditional television genres like the action series aggressively targeted male audiences. Masculinity on television in the long 1980s was therefore not limited to changes in representations on screen but extended to technological and industrial concerns as well. By the end of the long 1980s, these developments had the effect of increasing possibilities for queer viewing practices. As television is an intrinsically domestic medium, this also meant a challenge to expectations for American masculinities. The connection between domesticity and masculinity encouraged more flexible identities at time when gender roles in American culture were swiftly changing. Through industrial practices, representations of “new men” on screen, genre shifts, and home viewing technologies, television in the 1980s became masculinized, but that masculinization was a move away from an aggressive patriarchy and toward a queer domesticity

Cracking the Glass Ceiling: Women on Corporate Boards in Germany and China

Internationally women are still largely underrepresented on publicly listed corporate boards. The literature frequently uses the metaphor of a glass ceiling to highlight barriers that may block the rise of women to high-level corporate positions. In this study I analyse barriers for female board access in Germany and China, by asking, “Cracking the Glass Ceiling: Which barriers do women in China and Germany face when trying to reach a board position?” For this study I conducted 31 interviews in both countries with female board members, CEOs, entrepreneurs and experts. The transcribed interviews were then addressed in an inductive manner by using qualitative content analysis and doing a cross-case analysis of female board underrepresentation in Germany and China. The most frequently mentioned and emphasised factors by both German and Chinese interviewees were summarised and resulted in the following five thematic categories: Policies & Laws, Compatibility: Family & Career, Personal Initiative, Individual Support & Networks, Societal Structures: Gender Roles & Societal Expectations. All five categories include both limiting barriers and promoting factors. In this study, I primarily focused upon barriers for female board access. All five categories were emphasised to a different extent by German and Chinese interviewees. My findings, based on the conducted interviews in both countries, suggest a five-fold result. First of all, I find that policies aimed at promoting and safeguarding women can have the opposite effect. German interviewees criticise the “Herdprämie” and “Ehegattensplitting” while Chinese interviewees mention the “early retirement scheme” and “two-child policy” as reinforcing traditional gender stereotypes and not being conducive when trying to increase the number of women on boards. Secondly, I find that measures encouraging alternative working models, as part-time work, are not necessarily always career enhancing. This is particularly the case when a person is penalised in his or her career development after taking advantage of alternative working models. Thirdly, I find that a lack of confidence in one´s own abilities in addition to stereotypes assuming women to not have any interest in a board or management position to be a barrier in Germany and China. Fourthly, limited access to powerful often “old boys´ networks” and a lack of networking skills are barriers. Fifthly, societal expectations assuming women to naturally embody stereotypical feminine characteristics are a barrier for women´s career development. I find that societal expectations, as assuming women to be the primary caretaker, can lead to an underestimation of women´s abilities in the professional world

Reinforcing citizens’ participation by reforming European commission public consultations

In this chapter, I draw some lessons from the failed attempts of democratization of the EU by proposing some guidelines that should be followed in order to envision a realistic deliberative and inclusive transformation of the EU-decision making process. By following their spirits, I will propose an ambitious renovation of the public consultation regime of the EU Commission, the only institutionalized system of public consultation enshrined in the EU Treaties that however most of the citizens are not aware of. This is an idea that I first presented in at the conference at the World Bank (Kies 2016) and that has since then been discussed and presented in the report commissioned by the European Economic and Social Committee (Lironi and Peta 2017), the European Parliament (Korthagen et al. 2018) and the European Court of Auditors

Towards a better EFL learners’ management of their independent English language learning at University level

This paper reports the results of a research work that has sought to investigate the characteristics of students’ management of their English language learning and has attempted to correlate it with effective, independent, autonomous learning. It stresses the importance of improving students ‘learning how to learn skills’ through implementing an instructional programme based on autonomy fostering. It is undeniable that the ultimate objective of Education is targeting quality assurance and enhancement for facing twenty first century education challenges. Therefore, the primary goal of higher education is to prepare learners to function independently and appropriately into this world in constant motion. It is our role as teachers to equip them with the necessary tools and skills so that they manage both content and the way to learn it and use it for future employability objectives. Major researches in the area of learner autonomy in language learning will be reviewed drawing the characteristics of the autonomous learning behaviour as well as the main variables influencing its practice. The research adhered to a descriptive interpretative type of research, where we have attempted to investigate whether students were able to manage, monitor and self-regulate their learning and make it more self-directed and more successful. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected thanks to a triangulation of research tools used before and after the instruction in learning skills and competencies. Some of the results revealed that while for the majority of learners, autonomy fostering was welcomed and gave significant results, not all students were ready to function independently from a teacher for their language learning