Several studies conducted by the European Union (e.g., Eurostat 2004, Implementation of "education & training 2010" work programme) demonstrate that women and girls are consistently significantly underrepresented in technological education, areas, and jobs. This is highlighted in the Joint Interim Report "Education and Training…

This paper focuses on the ways in which a selected group of early childhood teachers in grades one and two, located in a predominantly white middle-class context in Durban, South Africa ascribe meaning to young boys they teach. The study finds that early childhood teachers are bearers of masculinity and incorporate taken-for-granted assumptions of…

Using a social constructionist perspective, we investigated the flexibility of early adolescents' (N = 80, 40 boys, 40 girls; M age = 13.14; SD = 0.65) masculinity and femininity as a function of the interpersonal context (same- or other-sex partner) and situational demands (co-operation or competition). Participants played a block-building game…

In this article the author explores the controversial thesis that African American Collegiate Fraternities and Sororities, also known as Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs), are "educated gangs". First, the author examines this polemic as a "truth claim" and compares BGLOs and gangs through: (1) hazing; (2) rape and substance abuse; (3)…

This paper is based on an investigation into the dynamics of masculinity in two male elementary school teachers' lives. It draws on a poststructuralist approach to empirical analysis that is informed by Sondergaard who argues for the need to attend to the "constitution of social practices and cultural patterns" through which subjects…

To operationalize a feminist poststructuralist approach necessitates research of a close-up nature in order to track shifting subject positions through a range of social contexts and to explore the interpersonal and intrapersonal power relations that operate within them. Adopting this theoretical perspective, together with Connell's concept of…

Male privilege is one aspect of social inequality that underlies much of the oppression and violence that occurs on college campuses. Mad Skills, a program addressing power and privilege with college men, is described along with general recommendations about how to engage men in difficult dialogues. The PIE Model is used to describe defensive…

This paper investigates the Australian literature relating to female under-representation in the information technology (IT) sphere of careers and education. This summary of the current body of literature presented through the lens of the nature of the discipline includes emerging theories that explore the masculinization of the discipline,…

The article uses an episode from the television series "The Sopranos" to illustrate how embodied experiences of sporting practices such as high-school football involve both conscious and unconscious dynamics. It outlines how cultural practices such as masculinist sport are psychically incorporated into the body through the process of…

Drawing on a larger ethnographic study of four high school young men, this paper foregrounds high school male-male friendships as a context for examining how heterosexism and homophobia operate to limit and delimit the ways masculinities are constructed. I begin this article by first highlighting an inconsistency between recent school initiatives…

Gender-role conflict theory has suggested that women athletes will experience role conflict because they are attempting to enact both feminine and masculine gender roles, yet research findings have shown mixed support for this notion. The purpose of this study was to explore how women rugby players negotiate gender-role expectations and conflict…

This study examines the structural validity of scores from the Bem Sex Role Inventory using a maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Six hundred and sixty-five graduate and undergraduate students participate in the study. A seven first-order factor model almost identical to the model reported in a previous CFA study is used as the…

The phrase, "Boys will be Boys" is often given as a tongue-in-cheek response to aggressive or "boyish" behavior; the kind of roughhousing or bullying more often tolerated--or even encouraged--among boys than girls. Such a strict and outmoded definition of masculinity serves as one major barrier to boys and young men who seek the opportunity to…

The questions in this survey were designed to solicit concrete data as well as more speculative information from men who work in an art therapy capacity. The results presented in this brief report provide a picture of how these men perceive the field of art therapy as a minority group within it. A variety of factors addressed included, but were…

This study focuses upon the social experiences of bereaved young men, with particular emphasis on the social costs of bereavement-related personal disclosure. Their experiences of regulating their social behaviour were suggestive of the persistence of "traditional" notions of masculine identity (e.g. hegemonic masculinity). While this…