Tom Langford

The affective bases for the gendering of traits: Comparing the United States and Canada

In this study we reconsider the relationships between gender stereotypes and the three universal dimensions of affective meaning: Evaluation (E), Potency (P), and Activity (A). Multiple regression analyses of comparable data sets for the United States and Canada are aimed at the most contentious question found in the literature: To what extent are male and female stereotypes differentiated along the E dimension? We find that, net of P and A, higher levels of goodness are consistent with the perception that a trait is associated with females. This suggests that two status hierarchies operate in the gendering of traits: a primary hierarchy, which overlaps with the power hierarchy favoring men, and, a secondary status hierarchy favoring women. We note that womens status advantage on this secondary hierarchy might be understood as benevolent sexism or, alternatively, as social recognition of the importance of womens caring labor.

Legalized, regulated, but unfunded: midwifery's laborious professionalization in Alberta, Canada, 1975-99

In 1992, Alberta became the second Canadian province to legalize midwifery. This happened even though there were only approximately 20 midwives in practice at the time, and despite strong opposition from the medical and nursing professions. Between 1992 and 1999. Alberta established a regulatory framework for midwifery as a profession but. unlike Ontario and British Columbia, failed to pay midwives out of the provincial health care budget. This sent midwifery in Alberta into a crisis as many midwives closed their practices. This article first considers why midwifery was legalized and then professionalized in Alberta. Our answer emphasizes the leading role of state health bureaucrats in promoting midwifery as part of the states challenge to medical dominance. Second. the article addresses why midwifery received so little governmental support at the same time that it attained professional status. This analysis includes a comparison with how midwifery developed in Ontario and British Columbia. Our conclusion is that midwifery in Alberta became a victim in the post-1993 period when a new Right government set aside bureaucratic initiatives in health care and committed itself to major cuts in government spending.

Involvement with unions, union belief perspectives, and desires for union membership

This article addresses two theoretical problems associated with models of desires for union membership. First, does union involvement influence desires for membership by (1) locating unions in the routines of everyday life and thus engendering habitual desires for membership or (2) by shaping general beliefs about unions and, thus, creating ideological desires for membership? This study of the working class in Hamilton, Ontario supports both explanations, although the path of influence through beliefs is stronger. Second, why do a number of general union beliefs have net effects on desires for membership? This study finds that different types of beliefs are salient for different groups of workers. Therefore, a wide range of general beliefs must be considered if the desires for union membership of a diverse population are to be adequately predicted.

The Limitations of Global Social Movement Unionism as an Emancipatory Labour Strategy in Majority World Countries

This study assesses the applicability of Peter Waterman’s model of global social movement unionism as an emancipatory labour strategy in Bangladesh, an important site for the manufacture of ready-made garments in the neo-liberal era. Our main conclusions are that Waterman’s North Atlanticist model fails to comprehend the present-day necessities and struggles of the Bangladesh working class; ignores the impacts of colonialism, militarism and imperialism on Bangladesh’s socio-economic development and labour movement; and privileges democratic dialogue as a means of action when militant collective mobilization has been shown to be the only effective way to get action on workers’ issues in countries like Bangladesh. Our recommendation is for Waterman and others to abandon the quest for a universal model of progressive labour unionism and instead come up with a variety of models that apply to different typical patterns of socio-economic and labour movement development in the globalized world. Cette etude evalue l’applicabilite du modele global de syndicalisme de mouvement social de Peter Waterman en tant que strategie liberatrice au Bangladesh, un site important pour la fabrication de textiles dans l’ere neoliberale. Nos conclusions principales sont que le modele nord-atlantiste de Waterman echoue a comprendre les besoins et souffrances de la classe ouvriere au Bangladesh aujourd’hui; qu’il ignore l’impact du colonialisme, du militarisme et de l’imperialisme sur le developpement socio-economique et sur le mouvement ouvrier ; et qu’il privilegie le dialogue democratique comme seul moyen d’agir alors que la mobilisation collective militante s’est montree comme la seule maniere efficace d’attirer l’attention sur les questions ouvrieres dans les pays comme le Bangladesh. Notre recommandation, pour Waterman et d’autres, est d’abandonner la quete d’un modele universel du syndicalisme progressiste et au lieu de cela de creer une variete de modeles qui s’appliquent aux differentes realites du developpement socio-economique et du mouvement ouvrier dans un monde globalise.