Please Click HERE to Access the 2019 Article in Gender & Society.
March 21, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Barret Katuna, Sociologists for Women in Society, (860) 989-5651, swseo.barretkatuna@outlook.com
Research: New research reveals Black mothers discuss police brutality with their sons in order to keep them safe. But their daughters? Not so much.
New article from Gender & Society that highlights the need to recognize and combat police violence against Black women and girls
Shannon Malone Gonzalez, a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at The University of Texas, interviewed 30 Black mothers to investigate how they address their children’s vulnerability due to race and gender in “police talk.”
Her findings show that during this talk, mothers focus on “making it home,” which ignores girls’ experiences and the very real threat of police violence against Black women and girls, while focusing on Black boys as the main targets of police.
These and other observations are published in her upcoming article, “Making It Home: An Intersectional Analysis of the Police Talk.” Shannon Malone Gonzalez “investigate(s) how Black families conceive of children’s gendered racial vulnerability to police violence, paying specific attention to girls.”
Why This Research Matters to The Public:
During the past few years, police violence, specifically towards Black men and boys, has been given more attention. With the use of social media, videos and knowledge of such violence often goes viral very fast. Although police violence is not a new issue, recent events have led families to work on teaching Black men how to reduce their risks of getting any sort of attention from police which could potentially lead to events of police violence.
However, girls are overlooked during conversations about police violence that are often focused on Black men and boys. That means women and girls receive far less attention in media and even research. Black women and girls are often subjected to sexual assault, physical assault, verbal harassment and sexual violence from police officers.
This lack of attention given to the police violence that Black women and girls face led way to a new campaign: “#SayHerName, a campaign that calls for an end to the silence surrounding the victimization of Black women and girls by police.”
Explaining the “Making it Home Conversation” and Why It Leaves Girls Out
When Black mothers decide that it is time to have the talk regarding “making it home,” it goes beyond the regular conversation that parents tend to have with their children about “do not talk to strangers” or “do not get into anyone’s car.” But rather the “making it home” conversation is how Black mothers teach Black youth strategies on how to behave to ensure that they stay alive should they ever encounter the police. It is important to note that such strategies are not developed the same for Black boys versus Black girls. Patricia, a mother with one daughter, reflected on the police talk she received on the margins of her brother’s talk:
Shannon: Did [your parents] have the same conversation with you as they did with your brother?
Patricia: I mean I was around for the conversation. But it was always much more [short pause] all of those conversations, were just much stronger when directed towards him than they were towards me.”
The focus of the “police talk” and the “making it home framework” is often Black boys. Mothers teach Black boys to go against the stereotypes of their race and gender. During this talk, mothers will construct Black boys as the primary targets of police violence and Black girls as the collateral targets of police officers.
Malone Gonzalez’s article will appear in the June 2019 issue of Gender & Society.
Further information
Gender & Society is a peer-reviewed journal, focused on the study of gender. It is the official journal of Sociologists for Women in Society, and was founded in 1987 as an outlet for feminist social science. Currently, it is a top-ranked journal in both sociology and gender studies. Gender & Society, a journal of SAGE Publications, publishes less than seven percent of all papers submitted to it. For additional commentary, you can also read the Gender & Societyblog and follow the journal on Twitter: @Gend_Soc.
Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) was founded in 1971 to improve women’s lives through advancing and supporting feminist sociological research, activism and scholars. SWS is a nonprofit, scientific and educational organization with more than 700 members worldwide. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook: @socwomen and facebook.com/SocWomen.eye-for-ebony-415489-unsplash
Please see the Call for Expressions of Interest – Gender Praxis to serve as Journal Editor for the Second SWS Journal – Gender Praxis.
Deadline is May 1, 2019.
Call for Expressions of Interest
Journal Editor
Second SWS Journal—Gender Praxis
IMPORTANT NOTE: This is NOT a call for applications to edit this journal.
Sociologists for Women in Society has been preparing to launch a second (online only) journal for some time. The SWS Publications Committee has collected information from SWS members (e.g. survey, townhall, business meeting discussions), and SWS members have communicated they are interested in an outlet offering space for the following types of scholarship: research reports, white papers, original research articles, community action research, innovative data visualizations, feminist scholarship that supports social policy innovation, and more. In general, there is a desire for a journal that includes feminist sociological practice-based scholarship, or scholarship that informs practice. This should be a journal of interest to scholars, practitioners (broadly defined), and that has a global audience and author pool.
As such, this new journal is unique from Gender & Society, which has become the go-to outlet for conversations about and interventions to gender theory. Much vital feminist scholarship on gender and gender inequality does not make an original theoretical intervention and is not appropriate for Gender & Society. We lack a place to publish a wide range of feminist work that can enhance theoretical, empirical, and practical conversations, and contribute to policy-making and praxis. Gender Praxis (working title) hopes to fill this gap.
The SWS Publications Committee is working on a more substantial proposal in order to be well positioned to negotiate financial support with a publisher. Such a proposal will require a more detailed description of the journal and its likely content, as well as an estimate of the kinds of financial support a founding editor may need. Thus, we are searching for scholars who might be interested in serving as the first Editor of this exciting new journal and would like to think carefully about just what this journal might look like. This is NOT a call for Editor applications. Expressing interest and sharing ideas is NOT an application to serve as Editor.
If you think you (perhaps with a colleague) may want to think more carefully about this editorship, please share your vision for this new journal, your thoughts about the resources you will require and how you may develop and obtain them (please, no need for conversations at your institution at this point), and the kinds of people you might include on your team. Three to five pages should be more than sufficient at this stage.
The SWS Publications Committee will carefully consider these submissions, use them to develop a more robust proposal to a publisher, and eventually work with strong candidates to develop formal applications for Editor. If you have ideas for people who might be interested in participating in this process and would like the Publications Committee to reach out to them, we strongly encourage you to share those names.
Contact Sharon Bird (sharon.bird@okstate.edu) and Bandana Purkayastha (bandana.purkayastha@uconn.edu) from the SWS Publications Committee by May 1, 2019, if you are interested and would like to play a role in building the proposal and potentially submitting a formal application at a future date to serve as the first Editor of this exciting endeavor.
January 28, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Contact: Sheila B. Lalwani
Sociologists for Women in Society
(574) 310-9163
Sheila.b.lalwani@gmail.com
Gender & Society Names Its Next Editor
Noted Sociologist and University of Illinois at Chicago College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor Barbara J. Risman Tapped to Lead Prestigious Journal
South Glastonbury, Conn., — A leading publication focused on feminist research, gender and society has named its next editor.
Noted sociologist and University of Illinois at Chicago College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor Barbara J. Rismanhas been selected editor of Gender & Society, the official journal of Sociologists for Women in Society. She assumes the editorship effective August 2019 and succeeds current editor, Prof. Jo Reger, Chair of Sociology at Oakland University.
“This editorship feels as though I am coming full circle,” Risman said. “My first article published in a sociology journal was the first article in the first issue of Gender & Society. I am excited to lead this journal, and I am deeply humbled as well.”
Prof. Risman began teaching at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2006 and has had a long and distinguished career researching gender. She is the former President of the Southern Sociological Society and former Vice-President of the American Sociological Association and winner of the 2011 American Sociological Association’s Award for the Public Understanding of Sociology and the 2005 Katherine Jocher Belle Boone Award from the Southern Sociological Society for lifetime contributions to the study of gender.
Through her appointment with Gender & Society, she joins a talented team of deputy editors as the journal continues to publish leading quantitative and qualitative research on gender. Through her appointment with Gender & Society, she joins a talented team of deputy editors as the journal continues to publish leading quantitative and qualitative research on gender. Her deputy editors include Yeshivan University Professor of Sociology Prof. Silke Aisenbrey, Associate Professor and Chair of Sociology at Barnard College Mignon Moore, Presidential Teaching Professor Kristen Myers, Associate Professor of Sociologyat Wellesley CollegeSmitha Radhakrishnan and University of Texas-Dallas Professor of Sociology Sheryl Skaggs.
The journal will continue to emphasize research that supports the development of feminist theory. Among her chief priorities for Gender & Society will be to further build upon the international effort to create opportunities for colleagues all over the world to publish social science research focused on gender and feminism. She is also committed to scholarship that supports the creation and implementation of effective feminist social policy and informs movement efforts.
Risman noted that engaging with the public is crucial. She plans to build on current efforts to translate articles for a public audience to include press releases, online symposia on topics of interest to the public.
“We want to have a conversation with the world,” Risman said. “I can think of no better place to discuss the facts than Gender & Society.”
Further information
Gender & Society is a peer-reviewed journal, focused on the study of gender. It is the official journal of Sociologists for Women in Society, and was founded in 1987 as an outlet for feminist social science. Gender & Society is a top-ranked journal in both sociology and gender studies and publishes articles on gender and gendered processes in interactions, organizations, societies, and global and transnational spaces. For additional commentary, you can also read the Gender & Society blog and follow the journal on Twitter: @Gend_Soc.
Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) is dedicated to improving women’s lives through advancing and supporting feminist sociological research, activism and scholars. SWS is a nonprofit, scientific and educational organization with just under 600 members in the United States and overseas. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook: @socwomen and facebook.com/SocWomen.
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January 25, 2019
President Cheryl Schrader and Members of the Board of Trustees of Wright State University:
Dear Colleagues at Wright State University,
We write in support of our faculty colleagues at Wright State University on behalf of Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS), an international organization of over 600 sociologists and publisher of the highly respected academic journal Gender & Society. We are contacting you regarding the contract negotiations impasse that led faculty to go on strike. We wish to express our sincere hope that the University will work to achieve a fair and expeditious resolution to this troubling situation.
SWS was formed in 1971 to promote activism, scholarship, and education that improves the lives of women in all walks of life. We have been especially active in supporting the professional and academic careers of women and of gender scholarship in colleges and universities. Current scholarship in the social sciences and education consistently shows that women and members of minority groups face unique challenges to their professional success in academia. We also know that unions work hard to decrease inequalities among faculty. The Board of Trustees’ decision might impact women and people of color disproportionately for economic reasons such as fewer assets and safety net savings.
We strongly support human rights, democracy, and scientific research, and we believe that colleges and universities should assume prominent roles in civil political discourses and policy decisions that are vital to the welfare of the nation—especially when it comes to promoting social justice. On a daily basis, however, faculty educate and enrich the lives of students. Faculty and students are certainly the heart of every university.
For these reasons, we hope that this contract negotiation impasse is resolved promptly and amicably, in a way that demonstrates the crucial role faculty play in fulfilling the University’s mission and guaranteeing academic excellence. Furthermore, we urge Wright State University to work with faculty to clarify any misunderstandings or prejudgments that recent events may have caused and to guarantee a fair and respectful work environment for the future.
Sincerely,
SWS President, Adia Harvey Wingfield, Ph.D.
SWS President, Tiffany Taylor, Ph.D.
SWS Past President, Abby Ferber, Ph.D.
Click Here to Go Directly to the Article
Harvard Business Review
For more information on the story, visit: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-46874977
January 17, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Contact: Sheila B. Lalwani
Sociologists for Women in Society
574-310-9163
b.lalwani@gmail.com
Research: Living Spaces and Lifestyles Impact Chores More For Men Than Women
New article from Gender & Society Indicates that Women, Regardless of Location, Perform Significant Household Chores
Want more help at home? New data from leading researchers indicate that you may not be alone.
Dr. Natasha Quadlin, Assistant Professor at Ohio State University, and University of Maryland Assistant Professor Long Doan examined the dynamics of place – city, urban and rural settings – among heterosexual married individuals from the American Time Use Survey and the Current Population Survey to assess the role of place in the gendered division of household chores.
Their findings show that “urban men spend relatively little time on male-typed chores, but they spend the same amount of time on female-typed chores as their suburban and rural counterparts. This pattern suggests that urban men do not “step up” their involvement in female-typed tasks even though they contribute little in the way of other housework. In contrast, urbanicity rarely predicts women’s time use, implying that women spend considerable time on household chores regardless of where they live.”
These and other observations are published in their upcoming article, “Sex-Typed Chores and the City: Gender, Urbanicity and Housework.” The researchers show that lifestyles differ across urban, suburban and rural areas when it comes to time spent on household chores.
Why This Research Matters To The Public: Households in America
One of the most persistent findings in the housework literature is that chores are sex-typed. In other words, in heterosexual married couples, women take primary responsibility for some chores while men take primary responsibility for other chores. Although the exact tasks men and women do vary across couples, most studies consider “female-typed” chores to include cooking, doing dishes, cleaning, laundry, and grocery shopping, and “male-typed” chores to include auto maintenance, making repairs, and outdoor. Previous research acknowledges that female- and male-typed chores are attached to different schedules that dictate people’s time spent on these tasks. Studies show, for example, that female-typed chores are more routine than male-typed chores. Most female-typed chores must be performed daily or weekly, while male-typed chores are more irregular, thus contributing to gender differences in time spent on housework.
Despite this acknowledgement, until this study, virtually no research has considered how place is related to time spent on certain tasks. Urbanicity is an important factor because it structures people’s lifestyles and places special constraints on housework.
The article suggests that urban men’s and women’s time use indicates how partners contribute to household chores when there is less structural demand for the types of tasks they typically do. It has been long been held that people’s living spaces and lifestyles differ dramatically across urban, suburban and rural areas, which would mean that time spent on household chores also varies. The study finds that urban male and female time use provides insight into how partners contribute to household chores.
The study found that women are more likely to carry the burden of responsibility for household chores than one might think. The study found that women are still held responsible for the lion’s share of household responsibilities.
“We tend to think that men and women in urban areas are more likely to share household responsibilities,” said Dr. Natasha Quadlin, Assistant Professor at Ohio State University. “The research suggests that is not the case and that women are still largely responsible for household chores.”
Explaining Why Women Still Do More At Home
The most likely explanation for this pattern is that urban men resist female-typed housework because it is inherently intertwined with femininity. Authors note that since tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and laundry are considered “women’s work,” men do not spend additional time on these tasks even when they have great incentives to do so. Further, because female-typed chores account for most of partners’ time spent on housework, the researchers found that overall housework time does not significantly differ by place. Even when men are perhaps most willing and able to step up in female-typed chores, these findings suggest they do not.
Given the extent to which men resist female-typed chores, these findings help clarify the mechanisms underlying gender inequality in housework. Research points to many possible reasons women spend more time on chores than men, including the notion that wives generally earn less money than their husbands.
The article notes an alternative perspective—the “doing gender” perspective—resonates with feminist scholars because it characterizes housework as both cultivating and reinforcing models of gender. By doing sex-typed chores, men and women enact socially defined roles associated with masculinity and femininity. This study goes one step further and places a special emphasis on the role of abstention.
“Men, in other words, do gender not just by doing male-typed chores, but also by declining to do female-typed chores even when male-typed chores are structurally constrained,” the study notes.
The article will be published in the February edition of Gender & Society.
Further information
Gender & Society is a peer-reviewed journal, focused on the study of gender. It is the official journal of Sociologists for Women in Society, and was founded in 1987 as an outlet for feminist social science. Currently, it is a top-ranked journal in both sociology and gender studies. Gender & Society, a journal of Sage Publications, publishes less than seven percent of all papers submitted to it. For additional commentary, you can also read the Gender & Society blog and follow the journal on Twitter: @Gend_Soc.
Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) to improve women’s lives through advancing and supporting feminist sociological research, activism and scholars. SWS is a nonprofit, scientific and educational organization with more than 1,000 members in the United States and overseas. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook: @socwomen and facebook.com/SocWomen.
#END RELEASE#
Click Here to Go Directly to the Article on the Gender & Society Page
Mary Johnson Osirim, Bryn Mawr College, USA
January 17, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Contact: Sheila B. Lalwani
Sociologists for Women in Society
(574) 310-9163 Sheila.b.lalwani@gmail.com
Migrant Women Are Active Economic Participants: New Study
African migrant women face considerable obstacles to economic participation, but they remain very active participants, new research indicates.
In her upcoming article, “Feminist Political Economy In a Globalized World: African Women Migrants in South Africa and the United States,” noted Africanist Dr. Mary Johnson Osirim, Professor of Sociology at Bryn Mawr College conducted research that spanned more than two decades on the economic experiences of migrant women. Her research considered the populations of African women in Zimbabwe and South Africa and African women in the northeastern U.S., particularly Boston and Philadelphia.
She followed the lives of migrants and found that African women – whether in Africa or the U.S. – represent a facet of globalization that is under-acknowledged. In considering the lives of women in Africa and the U.S., Osirim found that the challenges, while different, were met with creativity and resilience.
“What is most striking about these women,” she said, “is that they approached challenge with creativity and resilience. These are women who actively return to community and have played formidable roles in community development.”
The article will be published in the upcoming February edition of Gender & Society.
Further information
Gender & Society is a peer-reviewed journal, focused on the study of gender. It is the official journal of Sociologists for Women in Society, and was founded in 1987 as an outlet for feminist social science. Currently, it is a top-ranked journal in both sociology and gender studies. Gender
& Society, a journal of Sage Publications, publishes less than seven percent of all papers submitted to it. For additional commentary, you can also read the Gender & Society blog and follow the journal on Twitter: @Gend_Soc.
Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) to improve women’s lives through advancing and supporting feminist sociological research, activism and scholars. SWS is a nonprofit, scientific and educational organization with more than 1,000 members in the United States and overseas. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook: @socwomen and facebook.com/SocWomen.
#END RELEASE#
Click Here to Go Directly to the Article on the Gender & Society Website.
University of California Santa Cruz
The application for this award was submitted by SWS Member, Sylvanna Falcón, Associate Professor of Latin American and Latino/a Studies, Director of the Research Center of Americas at the University of California Santa Cruz.
Please Click Here to Access the Article
