Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies - Volume 23, Issue 1, 2020

The hijab has been considered a notable factor in increasing women’s tendency to practise beauty in Iran. Experiences of beauty practices by Iranian women in diaspora can shed light on the extent of the influence that the practice of (un)veiling might have on beauty regimes. This study uses semi-structured interviews amongst a group of Iranian women in Belgium to investigate the development of beauty practices after migration. The study draws on feminist studies on beauty practices and ethnic/racial identities to explore whether beauty practices create a sense of normalcy or are forms of self-governance in compliance with the dominant discourses of female embodiment. The findings point to the complex intertwinement of racialisation with gendered embodiment and illustrate the strategies that women develop either to embrace their difference or to eliminate the perceived embodied differences and counter racialised othering. The analysis draws on feminist theory to examine participants’ perceptions of the social construction of women’s imagery as migrants and their self-perceptions as racialised minorities in the Belgian society.

Building on a discourse analysis of both policy documents and media statements by government and political representatives on the entangled topics of marriage migration and integration, this article starts by exploring the factual details and context of emergence of the 2011 renewed Belgian marriage migration policy. It will argue that these restrictive marriage migration policies are informed by the rise of a specific gendered and culturalised political discourse: the growing need to protect and save women – especially when they are Muslim or come from a Muslim background (Ghorashi, 2010; Moors & Vroon-Najem, 2020) – and to determine the purposes for marriage migration in order to combat sham and forced marriage practices. The paper thus moves beyond the written marriage migration policy – and its dominant narrative – and seeks to theoretically contribute to a critical perspective concerning the construction of a colonial feminist discourse in marriage migration policy. The methodological contribution of this paper consists of the work with expert informants or ‘mediators’ (Lutz, 1993, p. 486) in order to challenge this dominant colonial narrative. Therefore, the main focus of this article is a grounded and intersectional analysis of in-depth interviews conducted with mediators working in the Flemish socio-political field of migration and integration. Building on their expertise and positionalities, the analytical part looks at their narratives and arguments of critique concerning tensions and ambivalent characteristics of the policy’s regulations and conditions, and how they affect migrant couples in general and migrant women in particular.

Research into the construction of individuals’ gender role attitudes (GRA) has primarily focused on the effects of socio-demographic characteristics and primary socialisation. Despite the school environment being recognised as a critical context of socialisation for adolescents’ GRA, quantitative research focusing on the dynamics of gender attitudes during adolescence remains conspicuously understudied. This study investigates the interplay between individual characteristics, the family context, and school peer gender culture on adolescents’ GRA in Flanders (Belgium). A longitudinal survey was administered (Npupil = 4063; Nschool = 57) and multilevel regression analysis confirms that pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds as well as boys express traditional GRA. It also indicates the importance of religion, rather than religious affiliation, in the construction of traditional GRA. Furthermore, primary socialisation via parental GRA remains an important predictor, although GRA socialisation also takes place within schools through the prevailing school peer gender culture.

This essay addresses two issues concerning gender dynamics in the workplace. First, why does the ‘leaky pipeline’ – for women and people of colour – still leaks, resulting in increasing gaps with every step on the career ladder? Second, why did sexual harassment in the workplace recently receive renewed media attention? This essay is based on the farewell address of the author after 40 years in academia in gender studies. She reflects on the research she did with her research teams and PhDs over the decades at different universities and abroad: what changed, what did not, and what lessons can we draw?