Drawing on Connell's notion of gender projects, the authors assess the degree to which contemporary evangelical ideals of men's headship challenge, as well as reinforce, a hegemonic masculinity. Based on 265 in-depth interviews in 23 states across the country, they find that rather than espousing a traditional gender hierarchy in which women are simply subordinate to men, the majority of contemporary evangelicals hold to symbolic traditionalism and pragmatic egalitarianism. Symbolic male headship provides an ideological tool with which individual evangelicals may (...) maintain a sense of distinctiveness from the broader culture of which they are a part. At the same time, symbolic headship blunts some of the harsher effects of living in a materially rich, but time poor, culture, by defusing an area of potential conflict, creating a safe space within which men can negotiate, and strengthening men's material and emotional ties to their families. (shrink)

This article extends recent scholarship on masculinity by analyzing the effects of social structure, social relations, and gendered caregiving ideology on the care men give to kin and friends. To be sure, men spend significantly less time giving care than do women. However, much variation is contingent on the women in men's lives: It is primarily the characteristics of men's families more than employment or gendered caregiving ideology that shape the amount and kind of caregiving men provide. Our findings suggest (...) that although men's caregiving is variable and socially patterned, it is contingent on women: Wives and daughters pull men into caregiving, while adult sisters substitute for them. (shrink)

Based on data from a national survey and personal interviews with more than 300 religiously committed Protestants, this analysis assesses the range and location of attitudes toward feminism among conservative Protestants. Findings suggest that evangelicals are not uniformly antifeminist. Rather, the majority are both supportive and appreciative of the gains of liberal feminism as well as concerned that feminism has gotten off track by promoting an excessive individualism that undermines stable, meaningful, and caring relationships. For most evangelicals, feminism is neither (...) a significant subcultural religious boundary nor a focus of political mobilization or action. Political conservatism, embeddedness in conservative local religious subcultures, belief in husbands’ headship and authority, and affiliation with particular subgroups and denominations help to locate and specify the sources that create, reinforce, and sustain more negative attitudes toward feminism within this diverse religious subculture. (shrink)

Drawing on theories of structure and agency, this article assesses how women in lower-income households in Damascus use existing gender schemas to avoid unattractive employment and improve their access to income and employment. It highlights the overlapping effects of economic policy and gender dependency schemas on both the need for additional income and women's employment opportunities. While providing greater access to resources, women's accommodation to gender dependency schemas also helps to maintain domesticity and dependence on men. Agency for these women (...) draws on and reinforces a collectively gendered sense of self that is central to the process of both obtaining resources and doing gender. (shrink)