Journal of Marketing Management Special Issue Call for Papers

Gender Impacts: Consumption, Markets, Marketing, and Marketing Organisations

Deadline for submissions: 7 January 2019.

Guest Editors: Susan Dobscha, Bentley University, USA and Jacob Östberg, Stockholm University, Sweden.

This call is running in parallel with the 14th ACR Gender, Marketing and Consumer Behavior Conference in Dallas in October 2018. Participation in the conference is not a prerequisite for submission to JMM, and this is an open call for submissions.

There are many ways in which gender is woven into marketing, markets, and consumption. There are also many ways in which gender has been given scholarly attention within the field of marketing, from the early work of Costa (1994) to more recent work from e.g., Otnes and Zayer (2012), Catterall, Maclaran, and Stevens (2013); Arsel, Eräranta, and Moisander (2015) and Dobscha (forthcoming 2019). While marketing scholars have acknowledged the importance of gender as a cultural, political, as well as biological phenomenon (Bettany, et al., 2010), other fields, such as sociology, anthropology, media studies, women’s/gender studies, and business disciplines such as management and human resources have embraced the more nuanced, culturally-embedded, politically-charged role that gender plays across the globe. Scholars within the field of marketing have frequently pointed out that despite the growing amount of scholarship dealing with gender related issues, there are still conceptual blind spots. A case in point is Hearn and Hein (2015) who suggest that marketing scholars’ tendency to frame gender in limited ways have led to several “missing feminisms”, such as queer theory, critical race, intersectional and transnational feminisms, material-discursive feminism, and critical studies on men and masculinities. Fischer (2015) adds to this list of “missing feminisms” by suggesting that too little attention has been directed at “market level gender inequality research” which focuses on practices that are enacted within particular markets that differentially benefit men versus women in ways that sustain typical gender inequalities. In yet another paper pointing towards overlooked issues Maclaran (2015) suggests that the recent wave of feminist thinking flags up several areas that marketing scholars need to pay closer attention to including i) intersectionality and identity, ii) the pornification of culture, and iii) austerity and the feminisation of poverty. Dobscha (2012) has suggested that are particular points of resistance with regard to gender and marketing scholarship that have prevented previous work from sufficiently dealing with various issues, and Maclaren, Miller, Parsons and Surman (2010) has shown how certain embodied elements of the dominant research traditions, or “the process of truth making” (p. 714) tend to invisibly prioritise masculine performances and practices embedded in university culture.

In this special issue we specifically request papers that focus on the relationships between consumers, markets, and marketing and are open to foci on individual consumers, families, social groups, communities, and on gender impacts in marketing departments in organisations, companies, and universities. While gender is relevant to a myriad of consumer and marketing phenomena, our aim is to propel gender research forward by offering a platform for a range of voices, multi-disciplinary perspectives, and original thinking. We particularly encourage manuscripts which focus on areas of gender scholarship that we believe warrant further attention, such the various “missing feminisms” pointed to above (Fischer, 2015; Hearn & Hein, 2015; Maclaran, 2015; Maclaran, et al., 2010). We also want to encourage attention to non-Western contexts (where e.g., Joy, Belk and Bhardwaj’s (2015) discussion of sexual assault in India shows the potential of such perspectives) as well as LGBTQI perspectives. Furthermore, we enthusiastically encourage authors to employ any appropriate methods, including qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, and conceptual papers. We also delineate this CFP from others that are taking a more macro-perspective, by encouraging scholars to explore the impacts that gender has on consumers’ everyday lives within the cultural and social environments in which they are embedded.

Examples of Possible Questions for Exploration (Not Exhaustive):

• How has the shift of gender as a biological factor to a more cultural or political one impacted consumer behavior and marketing?
• How do changing gender roles influence consumption patterns?
• How does viewing gender as a cultural or political phenomenon change the basic beliefs used by marketing managers to make strategic decisions?
• How has marginalisation of “others” in marketing departments impacted the progress of gender and feminist theory in the discipline?
• What are the impacts of the #metoo movement and other gender equity initiatives on consumers, markets, and marketing departments, organisations, or institutions?
• What specific market actions or consumer experiences that have been labeled as “gendered” would be viewed differently through an intersectional lens?
• What new insights would emerge if traditional gender theories/practices were held up to different social, national, sexual, and religious contexts?
• How can current theories about gender be altered to reflect the necessary intersectional impacts of social class, socioeconomic status, race, and nationality?
• What is the relationship between gender and the body in a marketing and consumption context?
• How can feminist theory find a voice in the marketing discipline?
• What key areas of our field would benefit from a Queer Theory perspective?
• How is “female empowerment” used/abused in mainstream marketing and how do consumers respond to it?
• How does gender intersect/interact with stigma and vulnerability?
• How has representation in advertising campaigns shifted over time?
• Has representation at top ad agencies prompted better or worse depictions of gender?
• What can be learned at the intersections of gender, politics, markets and consumption?

In case of questions about possible topic fit with the issue, please contact one of the editors.

Authors should submit manuscripts of between 8,000–12,000 words (excluding references). All submissions must strictly follow the guidelines for JMM, & Manuscripts should be submitted online using the JMM ScholarOne Manuscripts site. For the full Call for Papers including References, and detailed information on how to submit your manuscript, please visit:

https://www.jmmnews.com/gender-impacts/

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