“Burka Avengers” and Pakistan’s Gender Structures

Photo credit: AFP/ Getty images

by Fauzia Husain

The BBC’s Facebook page recently featured a story from its radio service. The story depicts the sounds of women training to join an elite force of police commandos who will take on the Taliban in Pakistan. We hear the reporter ask the women trainees’ men colleagues how many of them support the induction of women into their unit, and we hear that all of them raise their hands. Meanwhile, in the background, the men say in Urdu and in English that “there is a need for this.” The reporter understands the men’s response and indeed, this training of women commandos, as signaling a shift in the gender system of this war torn country.

Researching Magical Lesbians

by Penelope Dane

In mythology, a succubus is a woman demon who seduces men and sucks away their vitality. On Lost Girl, a Canadian supernatural drama, shown on Syfy and Netflix in the US, the heroine Bo is a succubus who belongs to a magical race called the Fae who often exploit humans. However, Bo uses her powers to protect other women from rapists, to fight for the rights of humans, and to restore life.

Caregiving Policies and Gender Equality: A Global Perspective

by Jessica Looze, Aleta Sprague, and Jody Heymann

Over the past half century, the number of women in the workforce and their earnings rose markedly—not just in the United States, but worldwide. Yet in recent years, this progress has stagnated, and we’re still far short of gender parity in the economy. This is in large part because many workplaces continue to operate as if employees have no caregiving responsibilities. The global increase in women in the labor market hasn’t coincided with an equivalent rise in men’s share of caregiving. And in too many countries, laws and policies aren’t helping.

#Occupotty and the Gender Politics of Bathrooms

by Tristan Bridges

Originally posted at Feminist Reflections.

The floor plan of the White House recently made headlines because of a subtle change that’s caused a bit of a stir: it now features a gender-neutral restroom. Just one. But one was enough to make headlines. Many people don’t think twice about which restroom to use in public. Some people’s choice, however, is more of a dilemma than you might assume. Many transgender individuals struggle with the restroom issue in public settings. And this is an issue that forces cis-gender folks to confront deeply held beliefs about a gender-segregated setting—beliefs some may not fully realize they hold and many may be ill-equipped to discuss.

Lactation Consultants, Doulas, and the Negotiation of Paid Caring

by Jennifer Torres

Lactation consultants, who provide breastfeeding support, and doulas, who provide labor support, are two relatively new and rapidly growing groups working in maternity care. The work they do builds upon traditional forms of care that have existed for centuries – supporting women through the process of childbirth and the early days of caring for a new baby. However, these two groups perform this work as an occupation, where they are paid to provide these very intimate forms of care.

7 Facts About the Gender Pay Gap, for #EqualPayDay

by Philip N. Cohen

Posted with permission from the Family Inequality blog. To view the original piece, click here.

Well, actually, 7 fact-filled posts culled from the many I’ve written on gender inequality, so just call it lots of facts.

1. The gender gap is just one number.

But when you break it out into hundreds of numbers, it’s variations on a theme. This post shows the gender gap by education, kids, marital status, and hours worked. And then by college major. And then I show the distribution of women across 484 occupations, according to the gender gap within each:

2. Occupations matter.

Malala Yousufzai & Women’s Education: Ethnography of Contested Muslim Womanhood and Gender Empowerment in Pakistan

by Ayesha Khurshid

“Taliban never attacked you (Malala Yusufzai) because of going to school or because you were an education lover, also please mind that Taliban or Mujahideen are not against the education of any men or women or girl….” stated Adnan Rashid, a senior Taliban commander, in a public letter written to Malala Yusufzai days after she addressed the UN about the rights of children to go to school. Malala, a young activist from Pakistan and a recent Noble Laureate, was shot in the head for supporting girls’ education in Pakistan. The intended audience for this letter were the Pakistani public, and not Malala per se. It aimed to shift the discourse of a “cowardly attack on a schoolgirl” by presenting the Taliban as an anti-imperialist and anti-Western movement rather than being against women’s education. The letter further states “you and the UNO (United Nations) are pretending that as you were shot due to education, although this is not the reason, be honest, not the education but your propaganda was the issue and what you are doing now, you are using your tongue on the behest of the others…..” Rashid tries to persuade the Pakistani nation to view Malala as a Western agent rather than a young “education lover.”

The Glass Runway

by Allyson Stokes

Fashion design is an occupation where women far outnumber men, yet there is a widespread perception that gay men are the most successful. Scholars, journalists, and industry insiders have all commented on how gay men (e.g. Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs) are “media darlings,” win more awards, and have more prestigious jobs. Why is this the case?

One Nation Under (Women’s) Soccer?

by Rachel Allison

At the end of February, Fox Sports released a new set of advertisements for the 2015 Women’s World Cup. Marking the 100-day countdown to the summer tournament, the new video commercial consoles fans of last year’s men’s World Cup with the prospect of renewed American sports victory.

Feeling the Gendered Labor of Fortunetelling

by Zeynep K. Korkman

Have you ever had your fortune told? Many of us are intrigued by fortunetelling, yet most of us consider it empty entertainment at best and charlatanry at worst. Intrigued myself, I sought to understand divination by conducting research to observe and listen to fortunetellers and their clients. My main research site was fortunetelling cafés in Turkey where fortunetellers read the residues left at the bottom of a cup of Turkish coffee, which is served unfiltered, with the grounds.