History of the National Women's Congress

The First National Women's Congress Meeting dates: March 24-April 3, 1949 Location: Beiping (now Beijing) Number of attendees: 474 The opening speech, given by Cai Chang, was followed by a working report read by Deng Yingchao, entitled The Present Strategies and Tasks of the Chinese Women's     

共创美好明天——记中国妇女第十次全国代表大会(英文)

金秋十月,来自全国各族各界、各行各业的千余名妇女代表齐聚北京,共同庆祝新世纪的又一次盛会——中国妇女第十次全国代表大会。     

The First Chinese World Champion of Women's Floor Exercises

IN April of 1996, Kui Yuanyuan, a core member of the Chinese Gymnastics Team, won the only gold medal for the Chinese team at the World Gymnastics Championships in Puerto Rico. It was also the first gold medal for China in international women's floor exercises. Pretty and lively Kui Yuanyuan delivered another outstanding performance on behalf of the Beijing Team at the Eighth China National Games in 1997. Gauging from the enthusiastic response of the audience, she has     

On Movement Frames and Negotiated Identities: The Case of Poland's First Solidarity Congress

How do participants in a social movement come to agree on goals and strategies? Recent scholarship has moved in two theoretical directions. Some writers focus on movement leaders and their efforts to excite and attract potential supporters by formulating a vision that conveys optimism and moral outrage, yet is congruent with long-standing popular beliefs. Other writers focus far less on leaders and their frames and insist, instead, that movements are organizationally decentralized and typically lack consensus on goals and strategies. From this second perspective, programs are best seen as the byproducts of ongoing clashes and messy negotiations between a myriad of local activists with different beliefs, diverse values, and frequently divergent interests. Using the First Solidarity Congress as a historical case study, this article argues for the utility of combining both approaches – one that focuses on leaders’ ongoing efforts to build consensus around a seemingly effective frame, and the other that stresses the extent of intra-movement discord and the decentralized nature of movement organizations.     

A PATH TOWARD INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE: Women's First Partners and Husbands across Racial Lines

We examine interracial marriage as a culminating event in a sequence of intimate relationships across the life course. Using data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, we analyze the background characteristics associated with selecting a first sex partner and first husband who differ in race/ethnicity from the respondent as well as the continuity across both outcomes. Our results show that respondents' race/ethnicity, parents' education, and region of birth are significant predictors of both choices. Selecting partners across racial lines for first sex is significantly associated with the selection of a first husband across race; the association between both outcomes is particularly strong for non-Hispanic black women, implying that social integration across race may be a life course phenomenon.     

The UK National Telephone Gambling Helpline-Results on the First Year of Operation

This study outlines the results of the UK's national gambling helpline run by GamCare. The results outlined here cover the period of the first 12 months of operation (November 1997 to October 1998). The helpline received a total of 1729 calls. Of these, 51% were from problem gamblers themselves (90% male; 10% female) and a further 26% of calls were from relatives of problem gamblers. The remaining calls came from other professionals handling problem gambling cases (13%), attempted calls, e.g., people calling and then putting the phone down due to being scared of talking (4%), information requests (3%) and the media (3%). Fruit machine gambling appeared to be most problematic for the callers as a whole and for particular sub-groups such as adolescents (82%) and women (52%).     

Congress and the National Labor Relations Board: A review of the recent past

Concusion The evidence indicates that Congress has beem very active in monitoring and attempting to influence the NLRB. Although this has always been the case, the political environment of the Board has become even more unsettled since the late 1970s. The confirmation and appropriations processes havebecome at times extremely difficult with earlier regimes, memebers of Congress also seen quite willing to express their views directly to the Board, even on cases under review.     

Contextualizing the Education Effect on Women's Employment: A Cross‐National Comparative Analysis

The authors examine how and why the effect of education on women's employment varies cross‐nationally. First, they present a theoretical model that (a) outlines the micro‐level mechanisms underlying education effects on women's employment in the couple context and (b) proposes contextual moderators at the country level. Second, they test the theoretical model against survey data from the United Nations' Generations and Gender Programme for 5 European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, and Norway). The data comprise 10,048 educationally homogamous heterosexual couples involving a woman age 20–45. The results indicate that more highly educated couples are more likely to have dual‐earner arrangements in each country, yet the strength of education effects varied substantially between countries and across the family life cycle. In contrast to prior work, the authors find that education effects are not generally smaller in countries that are supportive of women's employment. This relation holds only for later child‐rearing phases.     

"A whole stadium full": lesbian community at Women's National Basketball Association Games

Using qualitative interviews with lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual female Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) fans, I argue that the (perceived) large lesbian attendance at WNBA games enables the construction of a lesbian community by lesbian and bisexual fans in a site qualitatively different from traditional locations of lesbian community. Because the WNBA is not an explicitly lesbian or queer space, the process of speculating about which players, coaches, and fans are lesbians is a meaningful part of being a WNBA fan for many lesbian and bisexual fans. Fantasizing a large lesbian presence enables lesbian and bisexual fans to actively and interpretively create lesbian community at the games. The women socialize and connect with lesbian and bisexual women, construct lesbian ownership of WNBA games, and define WNBA games as a unique space that is different from lesbian bars and other traditional "gay-only" spaces.     

Women's Place:

Feminism has had an uneasy alliance with Hannah Arendt. Indeed, it is difficult to find any recent theorist whose thought has received quite the same vigorous treatment as Arendt's. Perhaps the widest fault-line in this ongoing consideration lies in the tension that exists between feminist constructs of the public and private and Arendt's own starkly unusual reconstructions. However, Arendt's commentary on the modern age, even her insisted separation of the public and private, sheds great light on the historically situated condition of sexism. Through careful reading, we can see that an Arendtian sense of place, far from relegating women to the home, may be the only hope for reviving the spaces of action for both women and men.     

In transition: The Women's House Saving Action

Ce compte-rendu de la campagne pour la préservation de l'une des grandes institutions féministes à Vancouver est centré sur la relation entre l'État et les mouvements sociaux. Loin de se limiter au simple récit des événements présentés comme une lutte entre les féministes et l'État, il met au jour les complexités d'un mouvement dont les ramifications s'étendent à l'État, à la société civile et à d'autres mouvements sociaux. L'image centrale du changement est tirée des expériences de femmes en transition dont le mouvement doit ětre compris comme une ouverture sur le monde et une réflexion critique sur les relations existantes. C'est ce processus qu'on voit à l'oeuvre dans la campagne de défense de la Maison des femmes de Vancouver. This account of the campaign to save a major feminist institution in Vancouver focuses on the relation between the state and social movements. It goes beyond a simplistic rendering of the story as a struggle between feminists and the state, to reveal the complexities of a movement that overlaps the state, civil society, and other social movements. The central image of change is drawn from the experiences of women in transition, whose movement is best understood as an opening toward the world and a critical rethinking of existing relationships. This is the process we see in the Women's House Saving Action.     

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.     

Elder Abuse in Portugal: Findings From the First National Prevalence Study

In this study, we present findings of the Portuguese national prevalence study, “Aging and Violence,” the purpose of which was to estimate the prevalence of abuse and neglect of older people in family settings over a 12-month period and examine the relationship between abuse and sociodemographic and health characteristics. Through a telephone survey of a representative probability sample (N = 1,123), we evaluated 12 abusive behaviors and demographic data. Overall, 12.3% of older adults experienced elder abuse in family settings. The prevalence rates of specific types were as follows: psychological, 6.3%; financial, 6.3%; physical, 2.3%; neglect, 0.4%; and sexual, 0.2%. Logistic regression was employed to determine the relationship between abuse and covariates. The study suggests that education level, age, and functional status are significantly associated with abuse. Accurate estimates of the prevalence of elder abuse and understanding of victim and perpetrator characteristics are fundamental to designing effective strategies for prevention and intervention.     

The second sex: Women's place in polling language

Recent research suggests that gender nouns such as man, and pronouns such as he,· are not generic forms referring to humanity, but often refer exclusively to males. The use of male terms in a variety of role contexts serves to deny females identification with these contexts, and thereby stereotypes the roles of men and women. Public opinion polling, through its use of the questionnaire, represents an important social context where gender-biased phrasing can have an adverse impact on a large segment of society. A content analysis of polling questions from 1936–1973 was undertaken to ascertain their gender representation. Those questions containing gender referrants constituted ten percent of the sample. Questions were analyzed for their gender content in the areas of social, political, and economic life. The findings show a differential use of male and female terms, with the use of female gender most apparent in contexts traditionally defined as female: home and family. When females are mentioned in non-traditional contexts, they appear most often in competition with men. Male pronouns appear exclusively in contexts traditionally defined as male: work and politics. The methodological and social implications of these findings for survey research are discussed.     

At Women's Expense:

Analyses of so-called maternal-fetal conflict typically take fetal rights as given. In contrast, this paper argues that rights are socially created and do not come free. It analyzes how courts participate in the social construction of fetal rights in the areas of pregnant women's medical treatment and drug and alcohol use. Women are forced to bear the costs of making fetal rights real, burdening them without demonstrating any clear patterns of benefit to fetuses. It concludes that social policy that cares about women and empowers them will serve fetuses as well.