Current Sex-Role Attitudes of Male and Female Students

Abstract

Sex-role attitudes of both male and female university students were considered in relation to two current issues: 1) Changing female roles and 2) The Women's Liberation Movement. While uncertainty characterized many responses, the majority of students were accepting of role change. Respondents differed little according to gender, but demonstrated considerable variation upon analysis of age and martial status. Approval of role change was primarily associated with experiential factors, rather than those associated with basic socialization. Women's Liberation was also accepted, although to a lesser degree than was normative change.     

The Complete Guide to Women's Health

Abstract

The Complete Guide to Women's Health, Bruce Shephard and Carol Shephard. Tampa, Florida, Mariner Publishers, 1982, 421 pp.     

Undergraduate Activists in the Woman's Movement and Their Public: Attitudes towards Marriage and the Family

Abstract

This paper compares the attitudes towards women's home and famiy roles of two groups of undergraduate women: undergraduate activists in the Women's Liberation Movement and a random sample of non-activist undergraduates. Data from both of these groups pertaining to career aspirations, marital and fertility expectations, communal living arrangements, and possible strains between future family and work roles are examined. While the desire to combine family and career roles is typical of undergraduate women in both groups, there are important differences between activists and non-activists in their plans for integrating the two role constellations. Activist women's responses are also compared with positions on women's family roles indicated by spokeswomen of the wider radical Women's Movement, and some important differences are suggested by the data. The paper concludes by briefly exploring the implications of the findings for future social change in the family and in the society of which it is a part.     

Book reviews: Nobody wants to talk about it

Abstract

Refugee Women's Mental Health Edited by Barbara Ferguson & Eileen Piitaway (1999) Transcultural Mental Health Centre Monograph Series, Culture and Mental Health Soft Cover, $25 RRP     

Women's Status and Social Capital in the United States

SUMMARY

Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone found that social capital is closely associated with a variety of important indicators of community health, and women benefit from many of these resources as members of their communities. But is there anything distinct about how women experience social capital? Is there a relationship between social capital and women's status overall? Using data on social capital from Bowling Alone and data collected by the Institute for Women's Policy Research for its Status of Women in the States project, we assess trends across the states on both dimensions. Overall, the findings suggest that there is a strong relationship between the two.     

Introduction

SUMMARY

This introduction to Lesbian and Bisexual Women's Mental Health reviews the need for research specific to lesbian and bisexual women's mental health. We also emphasize the need to provide research sensitive to the multidimensional nature of lesbian and bisexual women's lives. We provide a human ecological perspective consistent with lifespan developmental psychology and compatible with Clinical Social Work and Counseling Psychology as well as other interdisciplinary disciplines. With a strong emphasis on empirical research, this volume introduces readers to research that explores and reexamines the interactions between lesbian and bisexual women's mental health and the diverse social contexts in which they (we) live.     

Southeastern Women's Involvement in Sustainable Development Efforts: Their Roles and Concerns

Summary

Sustainable development takes into account the social and economic needs of people in communities, as well as the urgent concerns for environmental protection. Women's roles in sustainable development are of particular interest in light of the numerous environmentally related grassroots development initiatives taken by women throughout the world. In preparation for a participatory forum addressing women's roles in sustainable development, we conducted a survey among representatives from Southeastern grassroots organizations working on community development projects. The results indicate a sustainable development focus in grassroots women's development efforts, as well as a need for networking, skills training, and opportunities to share project experience.     

Gay Dads: Transitions to Adoptive Fatherhood by Abbie E. Goldberg

Abstract

PATTY'S JOURNEY FROM ORPHANAGE TO ADOPTION AND REUNION. Norling, Donna Scott. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996, 208pp., Hardcover ISBN 0-8166-2866-1, $17.95 cloth. Reviewed by Karen Schmid.

KINSHIP WITH STRANGERS: ADOPTION AND INTERPRETATIONS OF KINSHIP IN AMERICAN CULTURE. Modell, Judith S. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994, 286 pp., Hardcover ISBN 0-520-08118-8, $35.00 cloth. Reviewed by Karen Schmid.     

The Women's Suffrage Movement

ABSTRACT

The women's suffrage movement is explored as a social movement and an argument is made that analysis of the outcomes of social movements is central to those engaged in effecting social change. A set of five factors that influenced the movement's success is explored. These factors are: (1) The framing processes of the Women's Suffrage Movement (WSM) enhanced collective and individual identity, while fueling participants' emotions and actions; (2) A movement community developed that supported the goals of the WSM and held a radical flank effect; (3) External resources were constant; (4) The WSM experienced an infusion of new ideas as a result of cross-national interaction; and (5) The WSM benefited from committed and innovative leaders throughout the movement. These factors are not viewed as exhaustive; rather they are components that were critical to success.     

A Passion for Prevention: An Interview with Anne Sved‐Williams

Anne Sved Williams is a perinatal and infant psychiatrist, who was trained in family therapy at the Ackerman Family Institute in New York, in 1976–77. In 1979, she was one of two women (the late Eleanor Wertheim being the other) invited to join the original Editorial Board of this journal. She is Director of Helen Mayo House and Psychiatric Services to the Women's and Babies Division, Women's and Children's Hospital Adelaide. She is a Clinical Senior Lecturer, University of Adelaide. In speaking with Colin MacKenzie, she recalls her introduction to family therapy, her training, her decision to move away from repair work with parents needing help in parenting adolescent children, in order to start ‘at the beginning’ with the parents of infants. She speaks of her pride in the ANZJFT's continuing tradition of Education Update, originally Anne's own initiative.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Abstract

HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE INTERNET. Steven Hick, Edwin F. Halpin and Eric Hoskins. 2000, New York: St. Martin's Press, 257 pages. Reviewed by Janet Olson.

THE SOCIAL WORKER'S GUIDE TO THE INTERNET. R. C. Martinez and C. L. Clark. 2001, Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 180 pages. ISBN: 0-205-29735-8. Reviewed by Art Biagianti.     

Battered Immigrant Mexican Women's Perspectives Regarding Abuse and Help-Seeking

SUMMARY

A qualitative, pilot study employing in-depth ethno-graphic interviews was conducted to examine perceptions and attitudes towards abuse and the help-seeking behaviors of a sample of ten battered immigrant Mexican women. Findings indicated that participants' attitudes about seeking help were influenced more by cultural factors (e.g., gender-role expectations, famialism) than by psycho-social stres-sors (e.g., immigrant status, financial dependency). Children's welfare played a salient role in women's decisions about seeking help, both as a deterrent and a motivating factor. Women's attitudes about their own abuse were more tolerant than their attitudes about hypothetical situations involving others. Changes in women's attitudes about abuse reflected changes only after some type of intervention had taken place. The majority of the women in the sample had misconceptions or were uninformed about shelters. Suggestions for further research and intervention with this population and a model of internal and external determinants of help-seeking behavior are presented.     

The Diversity Functions of Organizations That Confront Oppression

ABSTRACT

The twentieth century history of three identity movements is reviewed with reference to their approach toward their oppressors. The African American movement, the Women's Movement, and the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual Movement appear to follow similar paths from accommodation-assimilation, to normative confrontation, disruptive confrontation, separatism, introspective self-help, and pluralistic integration. It is hypothesized and demonstrated that these paths are evolutionary, as each stance appears to encourage conditions for the next stage. The paths are not linear, however, and it is the movement as a whole, not any one organization that is evolutionary. Social workers have distinct roles to play in each stage.     

Socio-Demographic Characteristics of Contraceptive Users in Ghana

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the social and demographic characteristics of contraceptive users in Ghana, using the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) data (1993). Analysis has revealed that contraceptive use among women is quite low. Women's age, marital status, educational level, and place of residence are some of the factors that relate significantly to contraceptive use. The reasons most frequently cited for non-use of a modern birth control method are the desire to have children, lack of knowledge, and health concerns. The data show little motivation among women to practice family planning. Suggestions for effective family planning are provided.     

Gender Ideology and Women's Labor Market Transitions Within Couples in the Netherlands

Objective

This study examines the role of women's and their partners' gender ideology in shaping women's labor market entries, exits, and changes in hours of employment.

Background

Recent research argues that women's gender ideology is crucial for understanding women's contemporary labor market participation. However, the role of male partners' gender ideology for partnered women's labor market participation has received less attention.

Method

The analysis uses three waves of a large‐scale household panel survey based on a random sample of individuals within Dutch households. Random‐effect models are applied to study whether women's and their partners' gender ideology are associated with women's labor market transitions and whether relevant household characteristics' associations with women's labor market transitions are conditional on both partners' gender ideology.

Results

Women's gender ideology is associated with the probability of women's labor market entries and exits, but not with changes in women's hours worked, whereas their male partners' ideology is related only to the probability of women's labor market exits. Furthermore, the negative association of having children with changes in women's hours worked is stronger for traditional compared to egalitarian women. There is no clear evidence that gender ideology moderates the association of the male partner's labor market resources with women's labor market transitions.

Conclusion

Women's labor market transitions are not only reactions to economic pressure and institutional constraints but also women's and marginally their partners' gender attitudes.     

Entrepreneurial development for U.S. minority homeless and unstably housed youth: A qualitative inquiry on value,barriers, and impact on health

BackgroundHomeless and unstably housed youth in the U.S. have high rates of unemployment and often rely on survival strategies that negatively impact their economic, emotional, and physical health. While integrated health and entrepreneurial development initiatives targeting the poor have been successfully implemented in developing countries, little is known regarding interests in similar initiatives among vulnerable U.S. youth, particularly racial minorities who are disproportionately impacted by poverty and homelessness. This study examined African-American homeless and unstably housed youth's interests in entrepreneurial development programming to enhance economic self-sufficiency and health-related outcomes.MethodsQualitative methods using nine focus groups and one in-depth interview were conducted from December 2013 to March 2014 with 52 purposively-selected youth, aged 15 to 24, who had experienced homelessness within the prior 18 months in Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. An emergent, open-ended topic guide was used to examine reasons why youth may want to participate in entrepreneurial development initiatives, what barriers they anticipated in becoming an entrepreneur, and how engaging in entrepreneurial and other economic empowerment activities might impact their physical and emotional well-being. All focus groups and interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed.ResultsThe majority of youth were unemployed in the formal sector, but actively engaged in income generating activities in the informal sector. Four themes related to youth's interest in entrepreneurial development initiatives: the perceived inadequacy of traditional income and educational pathways, wanting to be one's own boss, desires for alternatives to joblessness and illicit income risks, and interests in building on current entrepreneurial activities. Commonly perceived barriers were lack of business mentors and opportunities, not knowing “what was possible”, difficulty in changing prior mindsets, and anticipated negative reactions from peers. Youth envisioned entrepreneurial development activities would inspire a range of health protective behaviors by minimizing poverty-related depression, hopelessness, and anxiety.ConclusionThis study underscores the need to address the intersection of poverty and health outcomes. Integrated health and entrepreneurial development programs should target low-income U.S. minority youth, particularly those with the greatest housing, health, and economic needs. More research is needed in understanding the behavioral dynamics between economic empowerment and health risk reduction among disadvantaged youth.     

Survivors of Woman Abuse

Abstract

The feminist social work and related literature on abused women has focused on women's processes of empowerment but has overlooked the question of women's movement from individual survival to collective resistance. In this feminist qualitative study, I explore the processes through which survivors of abuse by male partners become involved in collective action for social change. Using story telling as a research method, I interviewed 11 women about the processes, factors, insights, and events that prompted them to act collectively to address violence against women. I found that women's movement from individual survival to collective action entails significant changes in consciousness and subjectivity. Women's processes of conscientization are complex, contradictory and often painful because they involve political and psychic dimensions of subjectivity, protracted struggles with contradictions and conflict, and resistance to knowledge that threatens to unsettle relatively stable notions of identity. I suggest that feminist social work theory and practice must take into account three interrelated elements of women's transformative journeys: the discursive and material conditions that facilitate women's movement to collective action; the social, material and psychic costs of women's growth; and the multifaceted and difficult nature of women's journey in recognizing and naming abuse, making sense of their experiences, and acting on this knowledge to work for change. I recommend that feminist social work practice with survivors recognize that survivors can and do contribute to social change, and develop new, more inclusive liberatory models of working with survivors of abuse.     

International Women's Day: Art project for young women

Abstract

The primary aim of the project was to provide the opportunity for a marginalised group of young women to participate in International Women's Day with other women and members of the community and to have the opportunity to express themselves and aspects of their lives in art work on ceramic platters. The target group were ‘homeless, transient and at risk young women from 18 to 25 years of age, including Koori women’, engaged mainly through local homeless youth agencies in the Port Phillip area in Victoria. It was thought that many of this target group had been left out of formal support service provision. The project was evidently a success, both in terms of its modest aims and, most importantly, as evaluated by the participants themselves. Those interviewed expressed greater feelings of social connectedness - particularly with other women, raised self esteem and optimism and a new found enjoyment in the creative process.     

Interpersonal Helping Skills,by Eldon K. Marshall,P. David Kurtz,and Associates. Jossey-Bass Publishers,San Francisco, 1982. $35.00. 682 Pp.

Abstract

Courses in international or comparative social welfare have many benefits, but require a framework for systematic comparisons between countries. This article presents an institutional political process model for studying social welfare policy comparatively. The principal elements of the model include each country's societal values, government institutions (operationalized as the role of interest groups), policy goals, and system implementation (type of welfare system). The model is demonstrated through a comparison of the dissimilar social welfare systems of Sweden and the U.S.     

A Brief Reply to Dutton

ABSTRACT

This article is a brief reply to Dutton's rebuttal (Dutton, this issue) to the author's critique of Dutton's analysis of the role of gender in intimate partner violence.