Volume 51, No. 1 | Gender in research

Ann-Dorte Christensen | Masculinity, power and intersectionality

Studies on men and masculinity focus on men’s identities and values, and on the normative, accepted cultural practice of being a man in a specific context. This research field has contributed significantly to gender studies and has produced new knowledge, which is useful for the social sciences in general, for instance in terms of understanding processes of social differentiation and political values. Theoretically, studies on men and masculinities have been dominated by the theory of hegemonic masculinity and a focus on patriarchal power structures. The article introduces an intersectional approach as a fruitful alternative in studies of the complexities and ambiguities of gendered identities, inequalities and power structures. The intersectional argument is illustrated by two empirical examples: 1) men as the extreme gender at the top and bottom of society, and 2) new masculinity ideals. 

Yvonne Mørck and Bente Rosenbeck | Intimate citizenship in the 21st century

T.H. Marshall’s understanding of citizenship from 1950 continues to be reworked and expanded, for example with the concept of intimate citizenship. In general, the term refers to having or not having control over one’s body, feelings, relationships and identities. Intertwining the concepts of intersectionality (i.e., identifying interlocking systems of power/social stratification) and intimate citizenship offers a strong analytical approach to key challenges facing late-modern Danish society in relation to citizens’ personal and intimate lives. This applies to, e.g., violence against women in ethnic minority families, the living conditions of minority ethnic LGBT people and the rights of intersexed people. Thus, the claim to full citizenship also includes equality and sexual rights. Moreover, as the intersectional analytical approach is under continuous development, we wish to emphasize the need for more intersectionality-inspired analyses of everyday lives and practices. 

Arnfinn H. Midtbøen and Mari Teigen Value polarization in a Norwegian context? Distance between the elite and the population in attitudes toward immigration and gender equality

To what extent do the Norwegian elite and the population at large differ in their views on immigration and gender equality? The article analyzes data from the Norwegian Leadership Survey 2015, conducted among the holders of top positions in ten sectors in Norwegian society, and compares elite attitudes to attitudes in the Norwegian population. We find a considerable distance between elite and population, but immigration is more polarizing than gender equality. The findings are discussed in light of recent comparative research on populism and the growing resistance to liberal and post-material values, as well as literature on gender equality as a “Nordic value”. 

Hanne Marlene Dahl | A changing landscape of elderly care

Elderly care is at the top of the political agenda nationally and globally due to changing demography, declining fertility rates, increasing labor market participation rates of women and the financial crisis. Elderly care has been theorized successfully within feminist care theory. However, changing societal and political conditions in the Nordic welfare regime such as professionalizing, late modernizing, degendering and neoliberalizing indicate the inadequacy of this theoretical framework. In critical dialogue with – and extension of – the feminist theory of care, I argue in favor of introducing new analytical concepts from philosophy and political science such as assemblage, relatedness, logics, multilevel governance and transnational discourses. These concepts are elaborated in view of the contemporary (human) condition.  

Anne Skorkjær Binderkrantz | Are women inferior to men as teachers ... according to students?

International studies have found a gender difference in student evaluations where female teachers are evaluated lower than their male colleagues. This article investigates whether this is also the case in the Danish context. The article draws on evaluations from Aarhus BSS where a common procedure is in place for evaluating all teaching across study programs with varying gender composition of students and teachers. The material includes almost 30,000 student evaluations of more than 1,000 different teachers. Rather than a general gender bias, the analysis finds a relation between the composition of teachers, student gender and the evaluation of teachers of different gender. 


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