Culture and Women's Sexualities

Anthropological studies of women's same-sex relations in non-Western societies provide an important source for theorizing women's sexuality because they allow us to go beyond a narrow focus on Western cultures and concepts. Looking at studies from groups other than the dominant societies of Europe and America, I explore the diversity of women's sexualities and the sociocultural factors that produce sexual beliefs and practices. This article argues that sexual practices take their meaning from particular cultures and their beliefs about the self and the world. Cultural systems of gender, in particular, construct different sexual beliefs and practices for men and women. I conclude the article by suggesting some broad patterns at work in the production of women's sexualities across cultures.     

Queering Data Collection: Using the Life History Calendar Method With Sexual-Minority Youth

ABSTRACT

A challenge for research with sexual-minority youth is to capture their unique stories in a way that heightens understanding of lived experience and promotes the development of culturally relevant programs and policies tailored for this population. One data collection approach that may be particularly useful for research with sexual-minority youth is the life history calendar (LHC) method. The LHC provides a visual, calendar-based assessment of life events and behaviors anchored by contextual cues to enhance retrospective recall. The purpose of this article is to examine the utility of the LHC method with sexual-minority youth and its potential to address three methodological and conceptual challenges: developmental complexity, shifting and evolving identities, and timing. The LHC method is illustrated using three studies conducted by the author as case examples. Findings suggest that the LHC offers several potential benefits for research with sexual-minority youth including its adaptable and flexible structure, capacity to assess event timing and sequence, mixed-methods capability, and its ability to engage and empower youth to co-create the interview process. Strengths and limitations of the LHC method and implications for research and practice with sexual-minority youth in a range of social service settings are discussed.     

Rural African women and development

70-90% of Africans still live in rural areas, and 25-30% of rural households are headed by women. Standards of living in rural areas are lower than in urban areas. Rural African women's involvement in development is in its initial stages, and social development for women is likely to be slow. Increasing women's opportunities for education is a means of promoting social justice and fairness. Schools should offer courses of practical value for those not planning on higher education and special programs and career counseling for gifted girls. Women's organizations, African leaders, and other influential parties should aggressively create awareness about the oppressive aspects of traditional attitudes, beliefs, and views about women. Laws on ownership of property, inheritance, access to credit, and employment must be equitable and enforced. Consciousness-raising among rural women is an effective means of encouraging rural women to seek and assume new roles and for questioning unreasonable expectations and norms. Women's professional associations serve important functions and fulfill the need for role models. The quality of rural women's life is effectively improved through formulation of policies relevant to women's needs and problems and improve rural conditions. Women should have fair representation at local and national levels of government. Women's role in agriculture is likely to be enhanced through improved transportation systems, electricity supply, and introduction of intermediate technology. This assessment of rural African women's contributions to economic growth emphasizes women's involvement in farming and the informal sector and their lack of equal remuneration or low wages. Illiteracy places women in a disadvantaged position when competing for employment in the formal sector. Lack of access to credit and limits on credit are other obstacles in the informal sector. The reduced participation of rural women in the formal and informal sector is due to lack of economic power, limited educational opportunities, and policies that place industry in urban areas. Social development that reduces illiteracy and poverty should be encouraged.     

Women's abuse of their children in the context on domestic violence: reflection from women's accounts

This paper draws upon the findings of a study that looked at women's experiences of mothering in the context of co-occurrence of domestic violence and child abuse, and considers the issue of women's violence towards children – while acknowledging the fact that men are the main perpetrators of violence towards women and children in these families. The paper first explores the relationship between women's victimization and women's violence, and suggests that women's abuse of their children can be seen as a consequence of their own experiences of domestic violence. The findings nonetheless suggest that abused women have agency, and therefore have responsibilities when they chose to use violence towards their children. The paper also considers the feelings of guilt and blame that tend to arise in these circumstances. Implications for research, policy and practice are identified.     

构建陕西省精品旅游景区策略研究

“十二五”期间,随着陕甘宁革命老区振兴、关天经济区发展与西安国际化大都市建设等政策的拉动,陕西旅游业步人转型和升级攻坚阶段,面临着前所未有的机遇与挑战。对此,应转变旅游开发理念、调整省内精品景区旅游业发展定位,对潜力景区提升与改造,扩大旅游资源范围,提升旅游产品品位,落实陕西省“168”旅游发展战略,分层次、分重点地建设一批精品旅游景区,通过精品旅游景区的建设,形成主题突出、功能齐全、层次丰富的具有震撼力的国际、国内冶内多条精品旅游线路,以点带面,延伸旅游产业链,最终促进陕西旅游业结构调整、转型升级。     

The 20-Year Trajectory of Marital Quality in Enduring Marriages: Does Equity Matter?

I examine the trajectory of marital quality as a function of relationship equity with data from a six-wave panel study of 704 married respondents between 1980 and 2000. Reporting that one "gives more" to the marriage (subjective underbenefit) is more likely for women than men at any given marital duration. Respondent's relative contribution to income, paid labor, housework, and health (objective underbenefit) raises this probability for women of average religiosity. For the more religious, objective underbenefit has no effect on women's sense of underbenefit, but reduces men's sense of underbenefit. Objective underbenefit lowers women's, but raises men's, marital quality, at any marital duration. The relevance of equity was not diluted by the passage of time in marriage.     

Intimate Partner Violence as an Obstacle to Employment Among Mothers Affected by Welfare Reform

Welfare policies in the United States now make benefits contingent on employment outside the home. Yet violence from intimate partners and aspects of the mothering role may impede low-income women's ability to sustain employment. This article presents results of a longitudinal study conducted over a three-year period of 965 Illinois mothers who had received public assistance. Results suggest that recent (but not past) intimate partner violence is associated with women working fewer months. Associations over time between obstacles to employment and women's ability to maintain work highlight the need for longitudinal studies of employment among low-income women.     

Making Leadership Work More Effectively for Women

This article explores strategies for enhancing women's effectiveness as leaders by first recognizing that leadership itself is gendered and is enacted within a gendered context, two themes that recur throughout this issue. These contexts exist along a continuum ranging from male-dominated, hierarchical, performance-oriented, power-expressive and thus masculinized contexts at one extreme to transformational contexts that stress the empowerment of followers at the other pole. Each context suggests different strategies for making women leaders effective, emphasizing women-specific recommendations in masculinized contexts that focus on status enhancement and the legitimation of women leaders in contrast to innovative contexts with broader task goals that prove more congenial for women, as well as men, leaders.     

Biological Research on Women's Sexual Orientations: Evaluating the Scientific Evidence

The importance of biological influences on sexual orientation is hotly debated. This article summarizes public opinions about the causes of sexual orientations and documents shifts over time toward greater endorsement of biological rather than environmental explanations. Next, empirical evidence concerning neuroendocrine and genetic explanations of women's sexual orientation is reviewed. Currently, there is no convincing evidence that biological factors are a determining influence on women's sexual orientations. In some research areas, the data on women are incomplete. In areas where adequate research is available, studies on women do not conclusively support biological hypotheses. Implications of these findings are considered.     

20世纪50年代的妇女解放和男女义务平等：中国城市夫妻的经历与感受

毛泽东时代的妇女解放和男女平等实践在中外学术界引起很大争 议。一方面人们看到共产党运用法律、行政和舆论手段以确保妇女与 男子享有平等的权利和机会,大大缩小了妇女在婚姻、就业和受教育程 度等方面与男子的差距;另一方面也指出上述方面持续存在的种种不 平等以及平等措施后面隐藏的事实上的不平等。1令学者困惑的是,20 世纪50年代,男女在婚姻、就业和受教育程度等差距最大,但是中国妇 女,尤其是城市妇女对妇女解放的认同感却最强(Croll,1995;Rofel,     

性别排挤与农村女性土地承包权益的救济

基于男尊女卑的性别歧视与社会排挤,农村女性的土地承包权益往往遭到剥夺与侵害.这不仅严重影响了男女平等原则的实施进程,而且严重制约了女性的生存权和发展权的充分实现.探究女性土地承包权益弱化的现状、后果及原因,有助于摸索、建构救济女性土地承包权益的宏观路径与制度模式,进而为维护女性土地承包权益提供程序法、实体法和伦理观的救济基础.     

Understanding Women's Sexualities and Sexual Orientations: An Introduction

Researchers and theorists who attempt to generalize about sexuality and sexual orientation in both men and women simultaneously often take male experiences as the norm and ignore unique aspects of women's lives. The purpose of this issue is to focus attention on scientific research and theory about aspects of women's sexualities, with special emphasis on sexual orientation. A new paradigm is presented that recognizes the great diversity of women's erotic experiences and the many sociocultural factors that shape women's sexuality and sexual orientation across the lifespan. This introductory article highlights major themes and provides a brief summary of the articles in the issue. Four central topics are discussed: (1) the complexnature of women's sexualities and sexual orientations; (2) the importance of historical, social, and cultural contexts for adequately understanding women's sexualities; (3) the development of sexual orientation in women; and (4) implications for research and policy.     

Deconstructing 'gender and development' for 'identities of women'

In this article, the gender and development paradigm is critically reviewed and an alternative framework of research – identities of women – is proposed. This article contends that the gender and development paradigm is primarily guided by the tenets of Western feminisms and economic development. The article also highlights other limitations of the paradigm, including its preoccupation with male–female inequalities, macro generalisations and symbolic representation of women and a limited inclusion of local contexts. The identities of women framework proposes to address the limitations of the gender and development paradigm by studying women's conception of their environment and women's understanding of their relationship with these environments. The identities of women framework is informed by poststructuralist critique of feminism, cultural anthropology and a socio-psychological approach to identity.     

Sex, Age, and the Implementation of the Motor Voter Act: The 1996 Presidential Election

Objective . Among the existing studies of political participation, few discuss differences between men and women. Of those published, most have focused upon substantive policy preferences, perhaps noting women's newly dominant electoral presence but not probing its characteristics or limits. In this analysis we build on the work of Schlozman, Burns, and Verba (1994) by examining the compound effects of closing dates, state National Voter Registration Act implementation delay, and age upon women and men. Methods . Using the 1996 Current Population Survey Voter Supplement we compare the impact of legal obstacles among different age groups of men and women in the 1996 presidential election. Results . We find that legal restrictions do have a different impact on men and women, especially the youngest and oldest members of the latter group. Conclusions . The most significant implication of our work is that policy efforts aimed at further reducing legal barriers to political participation may facilitate women's growing electoral dominance.     

16至18世纪中国社会下层女性宗教活动探析

16至18世纪中国社会下层女性宗教活动极为活跃。她们参与宗教活动的形式多种多样,并且从中展现了比男性更为突出的实用取向。这与女性的性别角色、社会地位特点,以及中国民间宗教信仰的多样性、综合性特征等多重因素密切相关。女性宗教活动的活跃表明这一时期中国下层女性社会活动空间极大拓展。这既在某种程度上构成了对同一时期宋明理学对女性实行禁锢的冲击,也反映出女性的自我角色认同和社会定位处于调整之中。但女性宗教活动具有浓厚的迷信和蒙昧色彩。     

Rebellion and revenge: the meaning of suicide of women in rural China

The current literature on suicide in China shows that the female suicide rate is extraordinarily higher than the rate for males. Many studies have been conducted on the prevalence and perpetrating factors for suicidal incidents. Few have attempted to understand women's suicide acts. In this article, the ethnographic data are used to explore the special meaning of the suicide act in a Chinese family and its impact on the other family members. Research has shown that suicide may have a different meaning in the Chinese context, especially for women with an inferior status within the family. Suicide is taken as an act of revenge in a moral and spiritual sense. The act of suicide is very powerful; it grants the woman so much power that she may achieve what she could not during her lifetime. The suicide event remains in the collective memory of the relatives and other people who knew the person. Its powerful meaning is related to the memory of the transgressive event of taking one's own life as well as to the collective and personal guilt connected with the event.     

Determinants of Women's Entry into Self–Employment

Objective . Building on recent studies that have shown how employment– and family–related characteristics are uniquely intertwined in facilitating women's decisions to work for themselves, I examine the process of transitions into self–employment among white, African–American, and Hispanic women. Methods . This study analyzes data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a national probability sample of those born between 1957 and 1964, which allows me to apply a dynamic model for studying women's employment transitions. Results . Regardless of race or ethnicity, factors such as work experience and the presence of a spouse encourage women to become self–employed. At the same time, the distributions of these characteristics for African–American women, and to a lesser extent Latinas as well, significantly account for their slower entry into self–employment. The effect of children on women's entry into self–employment, which earlier studies often found to be positive, especially among whites, is mixed. Conclusions . These findings reveal significant racial/ethnic differences in the process of female self–employment and also call into question the view that self–employment allows working mothers to better combine their careers with family responsibilities than does wage/salary sector employment.     

Reactions to the O. J. Simpson Verdict: "Mindless Tribalism" or Motivated Inference Processes?

The difference in opinion between White Americans and Black Americans as to whether O. J. Simpson is guilty of murder can be understood within the context of the literature on motivated inference. Both self-serving and group-serving motives can lead to bias in how people gather, interpret, and integrate evidence. The current study revealed that the relative salience of race and gender in women's self-concepts (measured by the Twenty Statements Test) was associated with different beliefs about Simpson's innocence or guilt. Although Black women were more likely than White women to believe that Simpson was not guilty, this was more true for Black women who spontaneously self-identified in terms of race. Similarly, when gender was an accessible aspect of identity, women were more likely to believe that Simpson was guilty. High need for cognition (i.e., the tendency to engage in effortful cognitive activity) actually magnified some of these differences.     

Peacebuilding as a Gendered Process

Peacebuilding is frequently viewed in terms of post-conflict societal reconstruction without consideration of cultural context and gender. Using a feminist participatory methodology, this study investigated South African women's understandings of peacebuilding and how these are mediated by gender and context. Sixteen women engaged in dialogue over 2 days. Thematic analysis of the recorded dialogue provided insight into how the 16 South African women leaders understand their efforts to build a more peaceful society. The findings pointed to gender- and context-specific aspects of peacebuilding. Most of participants' peacebuilding activities occurred outside of the aegis of national governmental institutions and their peacebuilding priorities focused less upon structural rebuilding and more on processes, people, and relationships. One of the important priorities was the prevention of violence toward women. Whether these findings are gender-specific and contextually unique are topics for future research.     

Trickle-down or Rising Tide? Lessons on Mainstreaming Gender Policy from Colombia and South Africa

As a result of the United Nations Decade for Women (1976–1985) many member states of the United Nations in the South put in place some form of national machinery for the advancement of women. This paper considers that process, identifying three main phases. The first was heavily overlaid by the agendas of international development agencies and coincided with efforts to advance a "women in development" or WID agenda within international development cooperation. The second, explored here in relation to Colombia, saw a shift towards attempts to institutionalize gender awareness in development policy, the so-called "gender and development" or GAD approach. Against this background, the later South African experience is evaluated. It is argued that this potentially represents a third and distinguishable phase in the establishment of national machineries. Here structures were set up in the context of less aid dependence than many other countries and as a result of a process that was largely internally driven. Nevertheless, South Africa enjoyed tremendous support from international women's networks and lessons were learnt from past experience elsewhere, both positive and negative. The South African approach to advancing gender equality is arguably the most progressive to be found anywhere. What remains to be seen is whether it will be possible to implement, given the persistence of poverty and inequality nationally and South Africa's increasing identification with international neo-liberal agendas.