Help-seeking among Muslim Arab Divorcees in Israel

The study investigated the help-seeking of Muslim Arab divorceesliving in Israel. Analysis of responses to Veroff et al.’sPatterns of Helpseeking Scale shows low rates of help-seekingby divorcees of both genders, yet higher rates among the femalethan among the male divorcees. They also show that the propensityto seek help increased with the experience of more stressfulevents around the divorce. The help-seeking patterns of themen and women were found to be quite similar. Both were moreinclined to seek emotional help and advice than instrumentalhelp. Both were more likely to seek help from informal thanformal sources. Both were more likely to seek help from theirfamily of origin than from any other source. Relatively fewdivorcees of either gender sought help from either their extendedfamily or from community or religious figures. The few who soughtformal help were more likely to turn to social workers thanpsychologists. These findings point to the continuing centralityof the family in the support system of Muslim Arabs in Israel,to the decline in the relevance of the community and religiousfigures who were once an integral part of the Arab support network,and to the fact that professional help has not yet filled inthe gaps left in the traditional support system.     

Processes of conservation and change in Arab society in Israel: Implications for the health and welfare of the Arab population

Azaiza F. Processes of conservation and change in Arab society in Israel: Implications for the health and welfare of the Arab population This article reports on a study that examined how modernisation processes affect the Arab citizens of Israel on various levels and how the processes are reconciled with traditional ideals. Modernisation affects formal and informal support systems, affects family lifestyles, has resulted in changes in the treatment of elderly people and has seen modern ideas of health and wellness incorporated with traditional values and ideals. For the Arab citizens of Israel, the conflict of tradition versus modernisation is evident throughout society. Studying the processes of both modernisation and preservation and their implications allows us to better understand and address the needs of the Arab population in Israel. Based on the research presented in this review, processes of modernisation and conservation are conceptualised as a continuum along four dimensions: perceptions of self, sources of social support, health roles and gender roles. The implications of these changes are explored as they relate to various phenomena.     

Hearing the Voices of Abused Older Women

Summary

This paper focuses on a qualitative research process that gathered responses from 64 older women aged fifty and older on their experience of violence and abuse. What older women said about abuse in their lives supports the use of a feminist framework as well as the age based analysis of the elder abuse field. Some respondents spoke of abuse from childhood into their later years. Some spoke of partners witnessing or experiencing abuse as children. Some women express concern about possible abuse by their adult children of their own children.

Abused older women like younger women need a safe environment, emotional support, advocacy, information, and peer support. While it is important to consider the perspectives and knowledge of service providers when developing policy and practice on abuse of older women, it is critical to ask the women survivors of abuse or neglect what they believe would benefit them, and others in similar situations.     

Contraceptive utilization: profile of the Muslim Arab women in rural Israel

The contraceptive habits of the Arab population in rural Israel was explored by means of a cohort ( n =429) of rural Muslim women, with the aim to compose a profile of the women who practice modern contraception. Self-reported information revealed that only one third of the women apply modern contraceptive devices. Multivariate analysis showed the following independent variables to bear a contributory and predictive value with respect to use or non-use of modern contraceptive means by Muslim village women in Israel: degree of religiosity of the woman, male offspring, extent of modernity within the nuclear family, number of children, occupation of the husband, and adherence to traditional norms by the woman.     

Perception of job satisfaction, service effectiveness and burnout among Arab social workers in Israel

Over the past three decades, the topics of job satisfaction and burnout have become a major focus of interest in research and professional training in the field of social work. However, there is a serious lack of studies focusing on these issues in the context of Arab social workers in Israel. This paper presents the results obtained from a subsample of Arab participants in a national study of Israeli social workers. It focuses on the correlations between several career outcomes and organizational conditions such as role characteristics, work conditions, job mastery, and power. Challenge at work and job mastery were found to be the most significant and consistent predictors of the outcome results. The implications of the results are also discussed.     

The Day-to-Day Reality of Delivering Shelter Services to Women Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence in the Context of System and Policy Demands

ABSTRACT

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most common form of gender-based violence affecting Canadian women. Women often seek help from shelters to deal with IPV and its consequences. These shelters function within a broader context that shapes how services are delivered. This study was undertaken to better understand how structural factors including policies shape shelter service delivery and reveal systemic and structural complexities that influence those services and women's ability to rebuild their lives. This feminist qualitative study combined in-depth interviews and focus groups with 37 staff and 4 executive directors from 4 shelters in Ontario, Canada, and included critical discourse analysis of salient policy texts. The findings illuminate the complexity of the structural challenges faced by abused women and the shelters that support them. Systemic impediments were shown to determine how shelters support abused women, the obstacles women face moving forward, and the extent and availability of their options. Future research should include policy evaluation of policy written and enacted, cost analysis examining the actual costs of delivering shelter services and supporting women after leaving, examination of potential alternatives to the identified structural challenges, and investigation of system coordination of services and support for abused women.     

Job Satisfaction in the Workplace

This study examines the relative importance of background, perception, and organizational variables in explaining differences in job satisfaction levels of black female managers in human-service agencies. Correlational analysis revealed that nine out of twenty independent variables were significantly related to the level of job satisfaction. Multiple regression analysis revealed a six variable predictive model for job satisfaction. Implications of the findings for organizational policies and programs are discussed.     

Arab and Jewish Youth in Israel: Voicing National Injustice on Campus

Haifa University (HU) is the stage for a prolonged social drama between Arabs (20%) and Jews. 86 students (38 Arabs and 48 Jews) were interviewed on their experiences of injustice. Three major differences emerged. For the Arabs, 92% of injustice took place on campus compared to 40% for the Jews. Arabs attributed injustice to discrimination (60%), Jews to the actors' personal characteristics (58%); the Arabs transformed injustice events into a political struggle for national recognition, identity, and narratives. The analysis intimates that Arabs' "social being" is developing through the staging of negative expressive acts, namely, respect/contempt and power/weakness. Thus actors at HU can stage social processes, and change sites of surveillance and injustice into places of reconciliation and coexistence.     

纳赛尔时代埃及对中东阿拉伯国家的外交政策

纳赛尔时代的埃及大约指1953年埃及共和国成立至1970年纳赛尔逝世这一阶段的埃及。埃及在纳赛尔领导时期国力比较强大,并以阿拉伯世界的核心和领导者自居,展开了与中东地区各阿拉伯国家的一系列交往。在这一时期与埃及有较密切交往的国家主要有叙利亚、伊拉克、沙特阿拉伯和也门四国,交往的过程既有合作,也包含了冲突。从总体上说,埃及在纳赛尔时代对阿拉伯国家的外交虽然也有一些成果,但挫折和失败更加突出,造成这些挫折与失败的原因是多方面的,既有埃及自身外交指导思想不切实际与政策失当的原因,也有当时的国际环境给埃及造成的局限。     

New avenues to be opened for social protection in the Arab world: the case of Egypt*

This article looks at social protection in the Arab world. Giving the example of Egypt, it asks why poverty is so widespread and why – despite the country's numerous social protection systems – social risks are a major contributing factor to it. It concludes that reforms are due. The existing systems are well funded but inefficient and more to the benefit of the better‐off than the poor. A reform approach is proposed which builds on both conventional and more innovative strategies: campaigns should be launched to raise public awareness of social risks; social assistance spending should be increased; and the operating public pension schemes should be reformed. At the same time, new avenues have to be opened to meet the specific needs of informal sector workers who have extreme difficulty in being covered by social insurance or social assistance. To this purpose, micro‐insurance is a promising approach for the Arab‐world region.     

Factors Associated with Suicidal Ideation Among Women Abused in Intimate Partner Relationships

This study examines factors associated with suicidal ideation among women abused in intimate partner relationships. Data were collected from the case records of 95 women screened upon in‐person contact with admissions workers in a domestic violence shelter in one Midwestern state. Forty‐three percent of the women reported suicidal ideation as significantly associated with childhood sexual abuse, childhood physical abuse, and adulthood intimate partner abuse lasting fewer than 12 months in duration. The results have policy and practice implications for those interested in the mental health needs of women abused in childhood and adulthood. Implications for research are presented that more precisely identify how the effects of past and current traumatic experiences intersect and contribute to suicidal ideation among women abused in intimate relationships.     

Parent–child relationships as perceived by Arab adolescents living in Israel

This article concerns how Arab adolescents living in Israel perceive their relationships with their parents by examining six domains of the adolescents' worldviews: caring and trust, family support, control and supervision, general attitudes towards parents, and parent–child communication, both instru-mental and intimate. The sample consists of 662 twelfth-grade Arab adolescents from seven high schools. Findings show significant differences in various domains of Arab adole-scents' worldviews according to gender, form of residence and level of religiosity.     

Knowledge and attitudes towards AIDS: a comparison between Arab and Jewish professionals living in Israel

This paper investigates similarities and differences between Arab and Jewish professionals living in Israel regarding their knowledge and attitudes about AIDS. Although AIDS in Israel is not considered to be a pressing crisis, the aim of the research is to document and analyse what professionals in the helping professions – Arabs and Jews alike – know and how they feel about AIDS. The study also explores thoughts and feelings concerning AIDS–related education and training. This is the first scholarly attempt to compare Israeli and Arab professionals' attitudes and knowledge about such a stigmatised topic as the AIDS epidemic. The study sample consists of 350 professionals, including 218 Jews and 132 Arabs, working in various social and health–care agencies providing services to the Arab population. Professionals include social workers, nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists, and special education teachers and counsellors. Results indicate that Jewish professionals scored significantly higher on both knowledge and attitude scales than did their Arab counterparts. Two regression models predicting both knowledge and attitudes are presented, and their implications are discussed using several frameworks: the status of the disease, including perception of the threat; perception of adequacy of training; educational environment; and the socialisation process of Arab professionals in Israel     

明清时代江南才女文化的繁荣与弹词体小说

明清两代才女文化与我国南方女性文化的发展有密切的关联。明清时期尤其清代以后,女性文学的主体发生重大改变,才女由名妓传统转向闺秀传统,呈现多元化和群体性的特点。才女作家的弹词体小说从书面文学、写作手法、读者及其主旨等四个方面建立了女性文学叙事传统,并影响深远。     

颠覆与建构1990年代以来英文学界中国女性群体形象研究

在当今中国女性研究领域,女性群体形象一直是东西方学界共同关注的主题之一,特别是20 世纪90年代以来西方出现了一批较有分量的研究专著和期刊论文。本文试图对20 世纪90年代以来有关中国女性群体形象的英文研究成果加以评介,并与大陆女性研究进行比较,以期从女性群体形象的角度探讨西方中国女性研究的特点及其与大陆女性研究在理论立足点、学者性别构成、选题等方面的异同。这些女性群体包括：新女性传统女性、才女、家庭妇女职业妇女、贞妇烈女、妓女、农村妇女、女勇士、女尼等。     

Muslim Women as Citizens in Australia: Diverse Notions and Practices

The paper explores the nature of Muslim women's activism before and after the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001. Drawing on the information gathered since the early 1990s, it argues that the focus on Muslim militancy has prompted Muslim women living in Western Australia to become more active citizens. The emerging activism is following two diverse directions: some Muslim women favour orthodox interpretations of Islam as guides to citizenship, whereas others favour a more liberal/moderate approach to being a Muslim and a citizen in Australia. Governmental agencies, it suggests, need to appreciate and take into account this diversity of views and approaches among Muslim women when designing their strategies for engaging Muslims living under their jurisdiction.     

对农村文化贫困女性的社会学考究

农村女性文化贫困体现在文化素质低、思想观念陈旧、生活方式落后、心理健康堪忧等方面。农村女性应以进城务工女性和都市现代女性作为参照群体,以她们的价值和规范作为评价自身和她人的基准,从自身主观意识的觉醒、自立意识的增强、文化水平的提高、文化生活品位提升等方面来解决其文化贫困问题,以积极状态面对生活,在社会主义新农村建设和农村文化建设中发挥积极作用。     

妇女问题:历史、现状与未来

妇女观是指社会对妇女的看法.人类的妇女观经历了从"文化人"、"经济人"、"政治人"到普遍人权及可持续发展观的演变;考察妇女问题有三个维度,即分别以男人、人和妇女自身作为参照系,并对应于平等、博爱、自由三层面内涵;从总体上看,妇女问题的症结在于生理基础-分工选择-环境强化综合因素的作用,其解决需从生产力、生产关系与社会文明三个层次着手.妇女问题的实质是社会分工所导致的人类异化生产的结果,其解决在于社会文明的全面进步与社会总异化的彻底消除.     

Athena's Legacy: Preparing Women for a Mentoring Program

ABSTRACT

A community-based research study conducted in 2004 identified a number of women from disadvantaged communities who sought mentoring in personal, educational, and vocational aspects of their lives. Informed by this earlier research, a program titled Map Your Future was developed, and a pilot mentoring program commenced in 2005. This article describes the group program that was developed to prepare the women for a mentoring relationship, and the research methodology underpinning its development. It concludes with an exploration of the women's experiences of the program.