Speaking the unspeakable: an autoethnography exploring unintended sexism in important personal relationships

Charles, Bronwyn, and Johns, Lise (2023) Speaking the unspeakable: an autoethnography exploring unintended sexism in important personal relationships. Qualitative Social Work, 22 (4). pp. 720-734.

[img]
Preview
PDF (Author Accepted Version) - Accepted Version
Download (384kB) | Preview
View at Publisher Website: https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325022110533...
 
799


Abstract

This research explores how feminist women respond to male allies’ unintended sexism. I use a feminist autoethnographic method to document and analyze vignettes that explore interpersonal conflicts about unintended sexism. Autoethnography provides the methodology that allows me to link the personal challenges of responding to sexism in caring relationships within the broader cultural context. Three case vignettes demonstrate the processes I undertook. As a social worker, I draw upon process-oriented psychology and feminism to examine the vignettes and analyze key concepts in the experience of responding to unintended sexism. I discuss the importance of communication between social workers who are feminist and male allies when unintended sexism occurs. Finally, I examine the issue of feminists doing the majority of the work challenging sexism. In sharing my personal experiences of responding to male allies’ unintended sexism, I anticipate these stories and explorations can be helpful for social workers who are feminist or male allies concerned with communicating about unintended sexism in caring relationships.

Item ID: 74869
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1741-3117
Keywords: unintended sexism, process-oriented psychology, feminism, autoethnography, deep democracy, male allies
Copyright Information: © The Author(s) 2022. Under SAGE's Green Open Access policy, the Accepted Version of the article may be posted in the author's institutional repository and reuse is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses. Users who receive access to an article through a repository are reminded that the article is protected by copyright and reuse is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses. Users may also download and save a local copy of an article accessed in an institutional repository for the user's personal reference.
Date Deposited: 14 Jun 2022 06:19
FoR Codes: 44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4409 Social work > 440999 Social work not elsewhere classified @ 100%
SEO Codes: 23 LAW, POLITICS AND COMMUNITY SERVICES > 2301 Community services > 230108 Gender and sexualities @ 100%
Downloads: Total: 799
Last 12 Months: 19
More Statistics

Actions (Repository Staff Only)

Item Control Page Item Control Page