Loneliness and Belongingness in Older Lesbians: The Role of Social Groups as “Community”

This article explores loneliness and isolation in older lesbians, looking at the benefits offered by an over-55 fortnightly social group in Yorkshire. I argue that the women interviewed were more vulnerable to loneliness than their heterosexual counterparts as a direct consequence of many years of privacy and self-concealment and because they were more likely to be single, childless, and have fractured relationships with birth families; all significant losses viewed by the women as the “price you paid” for being a lesbian. Although the group did not completely alleviate loneliness, it provided a place of safety and offered a sanctuary where participants could be themselves and where friendships and other groups were formed. For many women, the group's exclusivity to older lesbians and bisexual women was deeply significant and influenced their decision to attend. I suggest that such groups have a vital role to play in promoting older lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender well-being and offering protection against loneliness and isolation in older age.     

The Critical Role of Love in Educating for Non‐violence: the messenger is the message

There is growing concern in the Caribbean about the escalating levels of youth crime and violence. My thesis is that we must stop adopting simplistic or palliative solutions which relate merely to the symptoms of the problem and instead devise solutions which are relevant to root causes. The analysis is based on the reality that every young person has a basic need for a nurturing loving environment which will foster emotional security, self‐confidence and feelings of self‐worth. It is also based on the premise that every young human being is inherently quite lovable, intelligent and well‐disposed to every other human being, but the experience of early emotional hurt and distress which remains unresolved leaves a residue of emotional pain which often manifests itself as anti‐social and violent behaviour. Both the home and the school are pivotal in the socialization of every child. Unfortunately many parents and teachers are themselves carrying around much emotional baggage based on their own unresolved issues of early emotional distress. In the more dysfunctional homes the young child, subject to constant invalidation and other emotional battering, becomes seriously at risk if his school environment is also non‐nurturing. This intervention, initiated by the author, which is being implemented in the Caribbean under the aegis of UNESCO, aims at changing the culture of the classroom by having teachers experientially examine some of their unresolved emotional issues to enable them to function in a validating, nurturing role in the classroom.

     

The Last Bastion of Sexual and Gender Prejudice? Sexualities,Race, Gender,Religiosity, and Spirituality in the Examination of Prejudice Toward Sexual and Gender Minorities

Prior research has reported that many Americans hold prejudicial attitudes toward sexual and gender minorities. Most of this research analyzed attitudes toward target categories in isolation and not in relation to attitudes toward heterosexuals. In addition, most previous research has not examined attitudes of members of sexual and gender minority categories toward other categories. While some research has examined the influence of religiosity on attitudes toward sexual and gender minorities, none of these studies has examined religiosity while also examining the influence of spirituality. In this article we drew on insights from queer theory to examine attitudes toward heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals, as well as individuals who practice polygamy, among college students. Three samples gathered over a four-year period (2009, 2011, 2013) at a private, nonsectarian, midsized urban university in the Southeastern United States were used. We found that heterosexuals had the most positive rating, followed in order of rating by gay/lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals, and then those who practice polygamy. Regression analyses revealed gender and race were significant predictors of attitudes toward various sexual and gender categories. Holding a literalistic view of the Bible and self-identifying as more religious were related to more negative views toward sexual minorities, while self-identifying as more spiritual was related to more positive views.     

The Making of “La Gran Familia Mexicana”: Eugenics,Gender, and Sexuality in Mexico

This article examines the impact of Mexican eugenics on different programs relating to the family throughout the post-Revolutionary period. It deals with how Mexican elites thought about the family and how these discussions delimited who should be part of or exist under the banner of “la gran familia mexicana”. I discuss how eugenicists' debates regarding motherhood, puericulture, class, and different preventive health measures were intended to keep “undesirables”—or the people who, in their view, should not be part of “la gran familia mexicana”—at bay. I argue that science was used as a tool for implementing different eugenic plans that would make ideas of mestizaje and “rational mixing” into the modern Mexican nation. I argue that according to the Mexican Society of Eugenics (MSE), it was through the regulation of individual families and the acceptance of eugenic precept of self-management and rational reproduction that the creation of the national family was to be crafted. Thus, the “gran familia mexicana” would become the organizing principle for both the individual and broader national dynamics in Mexico.     

Gender Differences in Alcohol Use and Alcohol-Related Problems: Do They Hold for Lesbians and Gay Men?

ABSTRACT

Research regarding gender differences in alcohol use and alcohol-related problems finds that men drink more and suffer higher rates of alcohol-related problems compared with women. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether these differences also exist between lesbians and gay men. A sample of 335 lesbians and gay men were recruited through lesbian and gay events, Listservs, and friendship networks. Items from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2000 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 2000. National household survey on drug abuse: Main findings 1998, Rockville, MD: Author.  [Google Scholar]) measured alcohol consumption. The Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (Selzer, 1971 Selzer, M. L. 1971. The Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test: The quest for a new diagnostic instrument. American Journal of Psychiatry, 127: 89–94. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and the Drinker Inventory of Consequences (Miller, Tonigan, & Longabaugh, 1995 Miller, W. R., Tonigan, J. S. and Longabaugh, R. 1995. “The drinker inventory of consequences (DrInC): An instrument for assessing adverse consequences of alcohol abuse test manual”. In National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Project Match, Monograph Series, 4, Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  [Google Scholar]) measured alcohol-related problems. Gay men tended to drink more often than lesbians, but there were no significant gender differences regarding alcohol-related problems. Research, theoretical, and clinical implications are discussed.     

Understanding the Link: “Homosexuality,” Gender Identity,and the DSM

This article reviews the historical and present notions of identity, in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity within counseling. It also discusses the link between the historical pathologizing of homosexuality and gender identity, as well as summarizes the implications of the diagnosis of gender dysphoria (GD) as outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (5th ed.; DSM-5). The ethics of maintaining GD in the DSM-5 and future diagnostic manuals is discussed. Finally, a brief explanation of the role of the counselor in working with transgender individuals is given.     

The Rhetoric of the State: Dependency and Control in a Malaysian–Indonesian Borderland Key Words:

This article examines dependency on cross-border labor and marriage along the international frontier in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo) and some local efforts to restrict outsiders. The international border in this remote region of Borneo is highly permeable, and border-crossing activities, including seasonal migrant wage labor and cross-border marriage, are crucial both to the local political economy and to the reproduction of the Kelabit family and farm. This article explores the unique position of the Kelabit as they attempt to appropriate aspects of state power or use the rhetoric of state power in their efforts to maintain a status quo with regard to neighboring, and closely related, migrant workers from across the border.     

The Outsider’s Edge: Geography,Gender, and Sexuality in the Local Color Movement

Outsider status, especially multiple social marginalities, usually constitutes a burden. Certain combinations can be advantageous for cultural producers, however, especially when geographic marginality is part of the mix. The Local Color movement demonstrates the outsider’s edge. In mid-nineteenth century in America, print technology, reduced postal rates, and mass literacy led to the golden age of magazines. Their readers sought stories about the regional cultures that were disappearing in an industrializing nation. Local Color—fiction about places outside the northeast cultural heartland—met this demand. Local Color authors shared outsider identities – geography, gender, and sexuality—that characterized and shaped the movement. Comparison with authors in the adjacent genres of Bestselling, Sentimental, and The Atlantic Monthly fiction reveals that multiple outsiderness (1) was not typical for authors of the period, and (2) advantaged women from the geographic periphery, especially those with unconventional sexual careers.     

Gender in Political Sex Scandals in Contemporary Turkey: Women’s Agency and the Public Sphere

Sex scandals in politics lead to intense public debates about fundamental issues, such as morality, publicity, and privacy, rendering gender inequalities more visible than ever. This article aims to reveal the complex gendered dynamics of the political culture by looking at sex scandals in contemporary Turkey. The ways in which these scandals have been narrated, negotiated, and resolved among the public and political actors provide grounds for analysis about the nature of patriarchal dynamics regarding women’s agency and public credibility communicated through their sexuality in contemporary Turkey.     

Sustainability Assessment and Reporting for Nonprofit Organizations: Accountability “for the Public Good”

Nonprofit organizations serve the public good by offering services that benefit communities and the individuals who live in them. While many large for-profit companies and a few international nonprofits have begun voluntarily assessing and reporting their environmental, cultural, economic, and social sustainability performance in response to growing public awareness of sustainability issues, nonprofit organizations have generally been slow to adopt the practice. This paper makes the case that nonprofits have an obligation to assess and report sustainability performance to account for their positive and negative environmental, cultural, economic, and social impacts in the communities they serve precisely because of their promise to serve the public good; and that sustainability assessment and reporting are not only possible, but that they can actually offer several practical advantages for organizations that integrate the practice into their missions and models. Several sustainability reporting frameworks are reviewed. Two case examples are presented to illustrate the utility of sustainability assessments and reports for different types and sizes of nonprofit organizations. Challenges to the process of adoption and implementation of sustainability programs in the nonprofit sector are discussed.     

Restructuring for Whom? Race,Class, Gender,and the Ideology of Invisibility

This paper examines how changes resulting from economic restructuring affect views of racial inequality across different race, class, and gender groups. First reviewing some of the consequences of restructuring for different race, class, and gender groups, the paper also reviews research documenting the different views of racial inequality held by dominant and subordinate groups. The paper concludes by examining how race-blind ideologies affect discussions of race and multiculturalism and suggests that race-blind thinking has thwarted teaching about structural racism.     

The “creative confrontation” of Herbert Schmertz: Public relations sense making and the corporate persona

Beginning in the early 1970s, Mobil Oil's public relations, under the direction of Herbert Schmertz, attempted to demonstrate to Americans that the company acted like a person who worked to benefit society. With an approach he called “creative confrontation,” Schmertz offered an adversarial stance toward the news media, coupled with inventive methods of supporting the arts. Creative confrontation sought the public's support by revealing that the corporation was an entity that understood the needs of the public and worked to uphold American values like free expression and progress. This work, in examining a distinctive and sustained effort to communicate the corporate personality, offers lingering implications for how public relations, through the conveyance of the corporate persona, can more widely conceptualize and execute its sense-making role in society.     

Educating for social work in Poland—challenges of the transformation period

This article discusses the changing approach to social welfare staff education against a background of political and social transformation in Poland: new social processes, growth of social problems—especially crime and unemployment, a widening poverty sphere, but at the same time new possibilities created by the development of democratic structures, requiring new qualifications. The change in professional profile of social workers and an updated curriculum were natural consequences of that demand. Both internal reforms as well as an increase in international contacts have had a great impact on the curriculum, making it modern in regard to its content and the approach to the process of education. Important virtues of the curriculum are: due consideration for the international context of the material presented and teaching goals defined in such way that they meet the transformation period requirements without introducing only provisional solutions. Professional improvement training and post-diploma courses have also been mentioned as an important factor of successful welfare sector operations. This kind of education equips welfare staff with necessary qualifications and prevents burnout syndrome. The article briefly discusses new conditions for social education development and identifies the remaining stumbling blocks.     

“The Motherhood Wage Gap for Women in the United States: The Importance of College and Fertility Delay”

One of the stylized facts from the past 30 years has been the declining rate of first births before age 30 for all women and the increase rate of first births after age 30 among women with four-year college degrees (Steven P. Martin, Demography, 37(4), 523–533, 2000). What are some of the factors behind womens decision to postpone their childbearing? We hypothesize that the wage difference often observed between like-educated mothers and non-mothers (Jane Waldfogel, Journal of Labor Economics, 16, 505–545, 1998a; Journal of Economic Perspectives 12(1) 137–156, 1998b) may be affected by the postponement of childbearing until after careers are fully established. Hence, we focus on college-educated women because they are typically more career-oriented than their non-college educated counterparts and also the group most often observed postponing maternity. We use individual-level data on women from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) in order to control for individual-level unobserved heterogeneity as well as human capital characteristics, such as actual work experience, in our empirical analysis. We estimate wage equations, first producing base-line results to compare to the existing literature. Then, we expand the basic wage equation model to address fundamental econometric issues and the education/fertility issue at hand. Our empirical findings are two-fold. First, we find that college-educated mothers do not experience a motherhood wage penalty at all. In fact, they enjoy a wage boost when compared to college-educated childless women. Second, fertility delay enhances this wage boost even further. Our results provide an explanation for the observed postponement of maternity for educated women. We argue that the wage boost experienced by college-educated mothers may be the result of their search for family–friendly work environments, which, in turn, yields job matches with more female-friendly firms offering greater opportunities for advancement.JEL Codes: J13 and J3     

The Public Sphere and the End of American Abolitionism, 1833–1870

Real prejudice existed among white abolitionists and within the operations of interracial organisations like the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). Yet an understanding of these organisations that attributes their inevitable doom to fundamental racism shortchanges the accomplishments of the AASS and predicts the same result for such later interracial associations as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This article applies theoretical formulations of associational life in the public sphere to consider the birth and death of the AASS between 1833 and 1870, the final years of abolitionism in the United States, in terms of the fulfillment of the purposes established at its founding, concluding that its dissolution was less racist than logical.     

Gender,Race, and Perceived Environmental Risk: The “White Male” Effect in Cancer Alley,LA

Research on risk perceptions are replete with race- and gender-specific hypotheses attempting to account for attitudinal variation. However, race and gender differences may mask more notable patterns across subgroups, patterns that lie at the intersection of race and gender. Recent national studies suggest that being a White male leads to lower risk perceptions and greater willingness to accept risks. This article extends this research by examining the “White male” effect in a chronically polluted context, an area where industrial pollution is palpable and well-documented. Data are drawn from a survey of a population living in “Cancer Alley,” a stretch of the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. We find that women more than men and Blacks more than Whites perceive environmental risks as serious. Further, evidence suggests that these differences are mostly due to the relatively extreme perceptions of risk accepting White males and risk adverse Black females. After controlling for select variables in hierarchical multiple regression analyses, being a White male or Black female still has a statistically significant impact on risk perceptions.     

The Comparison of Grandparents’, Parents’, and Young People's Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men in Turkey

ABSTRACT

The present study aimed to compare attitudes toward lesbians and gay men across three generations in Turkey. Participants were 112 young people, 169 parents, and 125 grandparents. A total of 406 men and women were involved. The short form of Herek's (1998) the Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men Scale was used. MANOVAs and ANOVAs were used to analyze the data. Results showed the attitudinal differences toward gay and lesbian people across generations. Grandparents have the most negative attitudes, whereas parents have more negative attitudes than their children. When comparing attitudes of each generation across sex, we found that young women have more liberal attitudes toward gay men compared to all other groups. Discussion focuses on understanding the results within the unique cultural context of Turkey.     

Gender attitudes in the Arab region – The role of framing and priming effects

Most evidence on survey response effects is based in the Western world. We use data from two randomized experiments built into a nation-wide representative household survey in Tunisia to analyze the effects of framing and priming on responses to gender attitudes in the Arab context. Our first experiment shows that questions on attitudes towards decision-making power when framed in an equality frame reduce responses in favor of gender inequality. In our second experiment we find that responses to attitudes towards domestic violence are susceptible to an audio primer. Oral statistical information about the incidence of domestic violence in Tunisia increases disapproval of domestic violence among the male subsample further, but does not affect women. In terms of impact heterogeneity, we find mixed results for treatment interventions interacting with the gender of the interviewer and the interviewer’s perceived religiosity.     

The Needle and the Damage Done: Research, Action Research, and the Organizational and Social Construction of Health in the “Information Society”

This paper critically reviews the actionresearch paradigm that has evolved over the last 50years within and outside The Tavistock Insitute, withreference to radical shifts in the social construction of medicine and health that are occurring as aresult of the transition toward the informationsociety. The medical domain has been chosen as anappropriate space within which to review the actionresearch paradigm because it bridges both the past andfuture of the Institute. The paper firstly considers theoriginal conception of action research andsociotechnical systems, and the role of consultants, in relation to Foucualt's analysis of powerrelations, social control, and dividingpractices. It then describes and analyzes recentdevelopments in the field of medicine and healthcareservice provision that, on the one hand, offer opportunities forincreased self-management and control by consumers overphysical, social, and emotional self-hoodand on the other could lead to further socialsurveillance and the domination and subjectification of theindividual. Drawing on recent work using innovativemodels of action research in the field of HIV/AIDS, thepaper concludes by discussing ways in which action research could harness developments ininformation and communication technologies to maximizeindividual and collective engagement in new forms oforganizational and social relations.     

Gender Stereotypes and Perceptions of Men,Women, and ‘Persons’ in the Workforce

No abstract available for this article.