Higher Education and the Negotiated Process of Hegemony

Abstract

This article examines how 20 female college students who identified as members of the Church of JesusChrist of Latter-day Saints (LDS) negotiated its gender ideology to legitimate their educational goals. The young LDS women creatively employed equality, professionalism, and essentialist discourses to craft a coherent identity as a "good LDS woman" that incorporated their pursuit of higher education. Beyond providing an in-depth look at how college-age LDS women "do gender," the analysis informs our understanding of the persistence of women's participation in patriarchal religious institutions, the process of women's resistance, and women's role in the negotiated process of hegemony. The authors argue that while women embrace the LDS gender ideology of womanhood, their pursuit of higher education is a form of resistance-embedded resistance-often neglected by scholars. The findings suggest the importance of nomos and meaning in understanding women's participation in and manipulation of patriarchal religious institutions.As individuals "do" and "accomplish" gender (West and Zimmerman 1987), they are assisted, directed, and constrained by the ideology and practice of gendered institutions (Acker 1990) that define forms of behavior as gender appropriate or inappropriate, a process Zuckerman (1997) referred to as gender regulation. Women's resistance to gender regulation was often invisible to researchers when an androcentric conception of resistance, consisting of activities occurring in the public sphere, was used. However, feminist scholars have challenged this narrow 404 AUTHORS' NOTE: We are most appreciative of the young Latter-day Saints women who shared their perceptions, experiences, and beliefs with us. We wish to thank our research assistants, Emily Sly and Holly Riedelbach, for their help with interviewing and Karen Hallgren, Christine Bose, and several anonymous reviewers for their keen editorial eyes and helpful comments on this article.

Doing Family, Doing Gender, Doing Religion: Structured Ambivalence and the Religion-Family Connection

“…There is variation in the specific familial behavior or ideology on which different religious groups focus, such as evangelical Protestants' emphasis on the idea of male headship and female submission in marriage (Bartkowski, 2001; Bryant, 2009; Manning, 1999); adherence to the laws of family purity in Orthodox Judaism (Avishai, 2008b; Guterman, 2006); Catholicism's focus on the primacy of the mothering role for women and its prohibition of abortion and birth control (Christiano, 2000; Manning, 1999; Wallace, 1997); and veiling among conservative Muslim women (Bartkowski & Read, 2003; Read & Bartkowski, 2000). The commonality of all these conservative religious traditions, though, is the emphasis on domesticity for women—the belief that a woman's role is to care for children, her husband, and the home—and the ascribing of men's roles to the public sphere and women's roles to the private (Charmé, 2005; Longman, 2008; Manning, 1999; Mihelich & Storrs, 2003; Predelli, 2004; Read & Bartkowski, 2000; Sered, 1991; Wallace, 1997). Unfortunately, family researchers have often included religion only as a control variable in statistical analysis or have implicitly assumed a rather simplistic theoretical model of religion and family: specifically, that individuals in conservative religious traditions will merely adopt the belief and behavior their religion prescribes, and thus religion (be it affiliation, belief, or participation) will produce more conservative family behavior, either directly or indirectly by influencing more conservative gender ideology.…”

“…Conservative religious beliefs are, on average, associated with more traditional gender attitudes (e.g., Bryant, 2009; Gallagher, 2004; Gay, Ellison, & Powers, 1996; Harville & Rienzi, 2000; Manning, 1999; Peek, Lowe, & Williams, 1991; Petersen & Donnenwerth, 1998; Read, 2003). Mormon and conservative Catholic women are especially likely to embrace conservative ideology about the centrality of motherhood, child care, and child rearing for women (Bahr, 1982; Christiano, 2000; Manning, 1999; Mihelich & Storrs, 2003; Rose, 1987). Compared to those in more liberal religious traditions or those who are not religious, conservative Protestants are more likely to profess belief in innate gender differences and to embrace the ideas of separate gendered spheres (Bartkowski, 2001; Bryant, 2009; Gallagher, 2004; Manning, 1999; Stacey, 1990).…”

Parrotheads in Margaritaville: Fan Practice, Oppositional Culture, and Embedded Cultural Resistance in Buffett Fandom

“…Beyond this internal critique commonly espoused among “purist” fans, fandom offers numerous other modes of opposition. Parrothead practice serves as “embedded cultural resistance,” whereby fans' agency—intentional or not—puts oppositional pressure on hegemonic cultural patterns (Mihelich and Storrs). Embedded resistance is the process whereby people fully engaged in dominant cultural patterns nonetheless embrace and maintain oppositional cultural forms—all the while they may intend no cultural struggle.…”

“…Thus, our broader cultural analysis of how fan practice shapes culture is directly related to and follows from how fans conceptualize meaning rather than being an abstract theoretical maneuver on our part. Although largely unintended, Parrothead practice serves as “embedded cultural resistance” whereby fans' agency largely unintentionally injects oppositional pressure on hegemonic cultural patterns (Mihelich and Storrs). As Butsch claims, “Un‐self‐conscious acts, if done by many people together, can produce change, even though the change may be unintended” (293).…”

Good jobs – but places for women?

“…Others' perceptions can be complicated by stereotypes: 'As individuals 'do' and 'accomplish' gender…they are assisted, directed and constrained by the ideology and practice of gendered institutions…that define forms of behaviour as gender appropriate or inappropriate' (Mihelich and Storrs, 2003:404; see also Deutsch, 2007;Ridgeway, 2011;Fitzgerald, 2014;Coleman, 2011). Whether gender as an ascriptive characteristic is visible and/or valued provides an indication of its differential significance in the interactional context of senior management.…”