Women's Work? The Relationship between Farmwork and Gender Self‐Perception

Women have long been involved in agricultural production, yet farming and ranching have been associated with masculinity and men. In recent years women have become more involved and more likely to take active and equal roles on farms and ranches and thus increasingly are doing tasks that have been associated with masculinity. Prior work indicates that women are perceived by others as more masculine when they do these tasks, but less work has focused on the association between women's involvement in farming and women's own perceptions of their gender (i.e., how masculine or feminine they feel). Using 2006 survey data from a random sample of women in livestock and grain operations in Washington State, we find that women's involvement in farm and ranch tasks is associated with their gender self‐perception, with more involvement being associated with a more masculine self‐perception. Women who view their primary role as independent agricultural producers or full partners also perceive themselves as more masculine than women who view their primary role as homemaker. We discuss the implications of these findings for women's experiences in agriculture.     

Coverage of Women's Issues in Social Work Journals: Are We Building an Adequate Knowledge Base?

Abstract

The authors of this article conducted a review of selected social work journals published between 1982 and 1991 to determine the coverage given to women's issues during this period. Because this study was similar to one conducted for the previous decade, the authors were able to analyze trends over time as well as differences among various journals. The findings indicate that articles focusing on women's issues comprised less than 10% of all articles published in the sampled journals during the decade. The study also found that women authored over 75% of the articles and books on women's content, but that only about 15% of the articles women write are on women's issues.     

Continental transnational activism and women workers' networks within NAFTA

In this article, I present some experiences of transnational networking among women workers, women's groups, and feminist organizations at both the transcontinental and transborder level in the FTAA and NAFTA areas. These transnational efforts are analyzed as forms of resistance to the encroachments of global capital. The record of these networks is both encouraging and problematic. Encouraging because certain issues have received greater attention from both the state and multinational companies, and Mexican organizations have received strategic support to empower themselves and even, in some cases, develop a feminist workers' perspective. The record is also problematic as cooperation is not always free from conflict, or asymmetric relations, among the organizations. Asymmetries often reflect unequal access to power and financial resources. In spite of this, it seems undeniable that transnational networks among women's organizations are modeling new forms of resistance to the processes of global restructuring.     

“That's What Makes a Woman”: Infertility and Coping with a Failed Life Course Transition

Becoming a parent remains a key marker for the transition into adulthood, especially for many women. Infertility thwarts this transition. In this research, we investigate one aspect of the gendered nature of adult development within the life course. Specifically, this study examines interview data from 40 infertile women in order to explore how this group of women cope with what they perceive to be a failed life course transition and how it affects their sense of self. We find that this failed life course transition altered these women's relationships with others. Further, this change had a corresponding effect on their self. These women's inability to do gender by being mothers challenges their sense of themselves as normal adult women. Using West and Zimmerman's concept of doing gender, we argue that infertility can be experienced as a failed life course transition among women who desire children. We also demonstrate how this failed transition has a distinctly gendered component.     

GENDER AND THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF EDUCATION

Does education improve health more for one sex than the other? We develop a theory of resource substitution which implies that education improves health more for women than men. Data from a 1995 survey of U.S. adults with follow‐ups in 1998 and 2001 support the hypothesis. Physical impairment decreases more for women than for men as the level of education increases. The gender gap in impairment essentially disappears among people with a college degree. Latent growth SEM vectors also show that among the college educated, men's and women's life course patterns of physical impairment do not differ significantly.     

Women's employment patterns during early parenthood: A group‐based trajectory analysis

Research on women's employment and parenthood frequently focuses on the correlates and consequences of decisions at a particular time, such as a birth. This article applies a group‐based trajectory method to examine women's employment trajectories across the period of early parenthood using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (N= 2,093). We find that throughout early parenthood, women exhibit significant movement into and out of the labor force. Factors that typically predict women's employment status, such as age at first birth and education, are also good predictors of women's employment patterns. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research, particularly on the use of a static measure of women's or couples’ employment status.     

A Tale of Two Contexts: U.S. Migration and the Labor Force Trajectories of Mexican Women

Even though women have long participated in Mexico–U.S. migration studies assessing the labor market implications of international mobility for women are rare. Especially lacking are studies that follow a life‐course approach and compare employment trajectories across contexts and in connection with other transitions. Using life‐history data collected in Mexico and the U.S., we explore the impact of migration on women's employment, focusing on how the determinants of employment vary across contexts. We show that U.S. residence eliminates or even reverses the employment returns to education found in Mexico and that the constraints imposed on women's work by marriage are actually stronger in the U.S. context. We also explicitly connect migration to other life‐course events, documenting how the impact of context varies not only by marital status but also by where women's unions were formed.     

Do values explain the low employment levels of Muslim women around the world? A within‐ and between‐country analysis

Using worldwide data from the World Values Survey (WVS) gathered in 2010–2014, we examine two distinct ways in which Islam may be associated with women's employment. We show that, within their countries, Muslim women are less likely to be employed than women of other religions. We also examine between‐country differences and find that, net of education and family statuses, the employment levels of women living in countries that are 90–100 per cent Muslim are not significantly different than those living in countries that are only 0–20 per cent Muslim. Then we test a prevailing view: that Islam discourages gender egalitarian values, and that these values – held by women themselves or people around them – explain why Muslim women are less likely to be employed than women of other religions within their own countries. Despite the rich measures of values in the WVS and a large sample, we find no evidence that values explain any of the lower employment of Muslim women, mainly because values have little or no effect on women's employment. Thus, we conclude that most of the world's gap in employment between Muslim women and other women is within‐country and is not explained by gender ideology. Future research should examine alternative hypotheses, including ethno‐religious discrimination.     

Repositioning culture for development: women and development in a Nigerian rural community

Most studies on women have ignored women's view of themselves in relation to their roles in community development. This study uses interview and ethnographic data from Nigeria to investigate women's narratives of themselves concerning their position in a rural cultural space in relation to community development. It explores ways of repositioning patriarchal or gender unresponsive cultures for eliciting women's potentials in community development. It emphasises how women's cultural constrains in a patriarchal community have led to a rare survival strategy – that is, the evolution of an invisible matriarchy. As a recommendation, it presents a framework for culture repositioning and a map of actors' responsibilities for its achievement. It contributes to ongoing debates on women in rural community development. It raises conceptual questions about customary practices that affect women's values in communities in Nigeria's rural areas. Finally, it presents three main lessons that can be drawn by women (and men) in traditional communities in non-Western societies.     

Analyzing Politics and Change in Women's Organizations

Research on women's political action too often passes over women's organizations that do not officially adopt a feminist ideology and do not explicitly set out to change gender power relations. Based on implicit notions that such women's organizations are nonpolitical (or less interesting), the research often supports a false dichotomy between feminist and nonfeminist organizations rather than illuminates women's common political ground. This study addresses women's collective action, politics and change by focusing on the case of Nicaraguan Mothers of Heroes and Martyrs - women who lost a son or daughter in the revolution or Contra War. Although some members in Matagalpa critiqued male domination, the organization itself did not set out to challenge the gendered division of labor; indeed, their collective demands relied upon and in many ways reinforced traditional gender identities. I argue that such movements are important to feminist political analysis. As I demonstrate in this article, an organization's lack of an official feminist ideology does not mean that individual members do not express interests, identities and ideals that challenge the gendered status quo. Such research, however, requires a nuanced approach, recognizing women as both accommodating and resisting gendered social structures. Thus, this study challenges the dominant feminist-feminine dichotomy by demonstrating that women's collective action is not only per se political (and politically important) but may also challenge as well as reinforce gendered power structures.     

Career Patterns and Family Status of Women and Men Artists

These observations are often made about women's career outcomes: (a) women, as compared to men, do not experience career outcomes that are consistent with their training and abilities, and (b) interruptions in women's careers are linked to marriage and children. The current study examined whether these patterns applied to women in art who may have more flexible paid work schedules. Women (N = 109), who trained in art, were compared to their male classmates (N = 99) 18 years after art school. Career patterns, midlife occupations, marital status, and number of children were examined. No gender differences were noted in midlife occupations, however, women experienced significantly more career discontinuity than men, and women with discontinuous careers had significantly more children than women in continuous patterns.     

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.     

Women in Politics in Post-Transitional Democracies: the chilean case

This article looks at women's participation in formal political institutions in posttransition politics. Employing the case of post-dictatorship Chile, it outlines the barriers to women's participation in the formal political arena; discusses the various strategies that Chilean women are currently employing to overcome their exclusion; and finally, examines the challenges that political women confront in promoting 'women's interests' in political institutions. Throughout the article two main arguments are advanced. First, where women's movements do not demand institutional reforms during the transition period - a time when movements enjoy influence and parties are in flux - then the barriers to women in political institutions re-emerge. In Chile, the fact that women did not demand institutional reforms, such as quotas for women in decision-making positions, is linked tothe broader strategy of the movement tomake citizenship demands based on women's 'difference'. This strategy inhibited women from demanding power (i.e. access to institutions as individuals) because this conformed to a masculine-defined notion of politics inconsistent with women's 'different' style of practising politics. A second,related argument is that a strategy based on women's 'difference' hinders women in politics frompromoting feminist goals,especially in the climate ofsocial conservatism that characterizes post-transition Chilean politics. Despite these constraints and the many challenges Chilean women in politics confront, gains are being made, as women recognize the need for, and begin to demand, institutional reforms to expand their presence in formal politics.     

Women's self‐defense and sexual assault resistance: The state of the field

Public attention to sexual assault has increased dramatically over the last decade, spurring questions about how it can be prevented. One approach that has received scant attention is women's self‐defense training (sometimes known as sexual assault resistance training). This neglect is curious because empowerment‐based women's self‐defense (ESD) training is so far the only approach that has produced substantively significant decreases in victimization rates. In this article, I review the research evidence on women's self‐defense training. Does resisting a sexual assault affect the outcome of sexual violence? Does self‐defense training further reduce women's risk of violence? What are the other consequences of self‐defense training? How does self‐defense work for different groups of women—for example, those who have survived prior victimizations? Are the critiques of women's self‐defense training valid? Finally, what do we still need to learn about women's self‐defense? Overall, I argue that this evidence presents a compelling case that women's self‐defense training should be central to any efforts to prevent sexual violence.     

Segregation and Supply: Preferences and Plans among ‘Self-Made’ Women

Recently, Hakim (1991) has argued that women's choices and decisions are a key determinant of labour market behaviour and patterns of gender segregation. Drawing on a case study of women scientists and engineers, this paper examines the extent to which horizontal segregation is the product of preference and planning. The evidence suggests that the women's choices were a significant factor in entering the technical professions. However, from predominantly middle-class families, coming from single-sex schools, the women were able to specialize in technical subjects and to withstand pressure to change their decisions. Their subsequent occupational positions were the product of these educational choices rather than well-formulated career plans. Their involvement in their employers' schools/industry liaison policies highlighted that the majority of young women do not consider professional science and engineering as an appropriate job for them. The findings of the study illustrate that preferences and plans are made in ‘gendered’ social contexts in which women face different opportunities and constraints in exercising their decisions. While the study of women's attitudes and behaviour should not be neglected, sociologists should be wary of voluntaristic accounts of gender segregation which rely on rationalistic notions of labour market behaviour.     

Upsetting ‘Others’ in the Netherlands: Narratives of Muslim Turkish Migrant Businesswomen at the Crossroads of Ethnicity,Gender and Religion

In this paper we use insights from postcolonial feminism to explore the identity narratives of three Muslim businesswomen of Turkish descent in the Netherlands. We identify some of the ways in which contemporary political discourse in the Netherlands constructs Muslim ‘Others’ and discuss how this discursive positioning impacts on the multiple identities these women create for themselves in response. Postcolonial feminism challenges the discursive and material relations of both patriarchy and Eurocentric feminisms, which work together to obscure the rich diversity of women's lived experiences, their agency and identities. By exploring how Othering impacts on these women's multiple identities, we aim to enrich understandings of women's migrant entrepreneurship. These identity narratives, shared by women who each describe quite different ways of experiencing, interpreting and responding to marginalization, shed light on the West's relationship to the Other and reveal some of the underlying relations of power that shape identity.     

When Sex is Hardly About Mutual Pleasure: Dominant and Resistant Discourses on Sexuality and its Consequences for Young People's Sexual Health

ABSTRACT

This study explores gendered discourses about sexuality in Ecuador, the consequences of these discourses for young people's sexual health, and the possibility of the emergence of resistance and challenge. We analyzed and compared individual interviews and focus-group discussions with: young women, youth service providers, ordinary young men, and activist young men. Five interpretative repertoires emerged: (1) becoming sexually respectable women, (2) policing young women's sexuality, (3) men threatening and protecting women, (4) sexual relations (abusing, fooling, or seducing?), and (5) emerging resistance. The repertoires constructed a hierarchy of sexualities in which heterosexual monogamous lifelong coupledom was normative and women's pleasure was absent, but resistance was emerging.     

Women and Top Leadership Positions: Towards an Institutional Analysis

Women remain under‐represented in top leadership positions in work organizations, a reality that reflects a variety of barriers that create a glass ceiling effect. However, some women do attain top leadership positions, leading scholars to probe under what conditions women are promoted despite seemingly intractable and well‐documented barriers. Previous scholarship tends to posit individual‐level explanations, suggesting either that women who attain top leadership positions are exceptional or that potential women leaders lack key qualities, such as assertiveness. Much less scholarship has explored institutional‐level mechanisms that may increase women's ascension to top positions. This analysis seeks to fill this gap by testing three institutional‐level theories that may shape women's access to and tenure in top positions: the glass cliff, decision‐maker diversity, and the saviour effect. To test these theories we rely on a dataset that includes all CEO transitions in Fortune 500 companies over a 20‐year period. Contrary to the predictions of the glass cliff, we find that diversity among decision makers — not firm performance — significantly increases women's likelihood of being promoted to top leadership positions. We also find, contrary to the predictions of the saviour effect, that diversity among decision makers increases women leaders' tenure as CEOs regardless of firm performance. By identifying contextual factors that increase women's mobility, the paper makes an important contribution to the processes that shape and reproduce gender inequality in work organizations.     

Remembering Our Foremother:

In this essay we examine the significance and meaning of novelist Toni Morrison's works in terms of American culture, literary originality, Black faminism and women's spirituality. Our essay also exemplifies and examines some differences between a white female's and a Black female's response to specific patterns in Morrison's novels. We especially examine portraits of old Black women and their spiritual/political significance as foremothers whose survival ensured ours, brought us into being, and gives us strategy. We examine the meaning of these portraits of old Black women to both white and Black women. We use several critical frameworks: biographical, sociological, mythological, archetypal and finally theories from Afro-American studies and from women's studies. We also reflect on how Morrison's women have stirred and awakened our own memories of older women in our lives.     

Women and Representation in Japan

Japan's high level of socio-economic advancement notwithstanding, the level of women's representation in Japan lags behind that in not only other advanced countries but also many developing countries. This article aims to elucidate the causes of the under-representation of women in Japan. Preceding studies suggest that multiple, intertwining factors have had a collective influence on the number of women representatives. Based on these studies, I highlight four factors which affect women's representation: the electoral system; socio-political culture; electoral quotas; and the activities and attitudes of women concerning their own representation. I discuss how these factors have influenced the under-representation of Japanese women, in effect demonstrating that all the above factors have had negative impacts. Among these, the most serious obstacle is women's lack of enthusiasm for a larger political presence, which is sustained by Japanese political culture and social customs. I argue that strong women's voices calling for more women representatives are the necessary basis for measures to improve the under-representation of women.