Evangelical Women and Feminism:

Although a number of studies have demonstrated that evangelical women are more likely than other women to take anti-feminist positions, recent research suggests that there might be substantial support among evangelicals for certain feminist positions. Using data from the 1984 American National Election study, we find that evangelical women are indeed more antifeminist than other women, but that a sizable minority take feminist positions on a number of issues. Approximately one in six can be classified as having a politicized feminist consciousness, while an additional quarter are potential converts to the feminist cause. These potential feminists are fairly negative toward the feminist movement, however. This is due in part to the association by many evangelical women between the women's movement, lesbian rights, and abortion.     

Reading the Other Women,Feminism, and Islam

This essay focuses on the complex gendered particularities of the Arab region (including Iran). The debate between Islamic feminists and secular feminists is explored. Islamic feminists claim that liberation for men and women lies in following the Islamic faith and it is Islam that provides the best protection for women. Secular feminists argue for the separation of religion from civil society and the State. The essay explores the inextricable link between masculinity and the nation, and the impact of postcolonial relations on subjectivity.     

Women,Employment and Feminism in the Czech Republic

Following the collapse of state socialism in Eastern Europe, one feature of the newly emerging ‘post-communist’ societies which disturbed many feminists was the apparent antipathy to western feminist thinking which characterized men and women alike. In attempting to explain this situation, commentators in Eastern Europe have argued that in Eastern Europe, women’s experiences have been shaped by ‘state paternalism’, rather than specifically masculine exclusionary practices. Drawing upon material from a cross-national study, this paper examines the employment and domestic life experiences of women bankers and doctors in the Czech Republic. This evidence suggests that women in these occupations are fully conscious of, and resent, both masculine exlusionary practices within employment as well as inequalities in the domestic division of labour. These findings are supported by evidence from a national attitudinal survey which reveals that Czech women are more progressive in their attitudes to gender roles than Czech men. A number of parallels can be drawn between the contemporary experiences and attitudes of Czech women and those of British women of twenty years ago (i.e. before the impact of ‘second-wave’ feminism). This suggests that if and when feminism develops in Eastern Europe, it will engage with these direct masculine exclusionary practices, and not just ‘state paternalism’.     

Feminism and the New Women in Public Office

This paper addresses the question of why the ever-increasing numbers of women elected to state and local office give such low priority to issues related to the status of women. The paper surveys the sociology and political science literature to identify key variables which might account for so little change in the demographic characteristics and political priorities of women public officals. This review suggests that an increasing minority of women elected officials are feminist in the broadest sense and will support feminist policies as their numbers increase. These women are characterized by a newly legitimated ambition but dicriminated against by the political opportunity structure. The combination of ambition and thwarted opportunities considerably increases the probability of support for feminist policies.     

Sciences,politics, and associative democracy: democratizing science and expertizing democracy

Relations between science and politics are under pressure because urgent problems create an increasing external demand on sciences while inside sciences the old idea that “science speaks truth to politics” is increasingly seen as unfeasible and undesirable. We are not forced to choose between such an objectivist and a skepticist model. Associative democracy provides more fruitful interactions between sciences and politics in order to “democratize science/expertise” and to “expertize democracy” compared with the outworn institutional alternative of parliamentary democracy – incapable of solving risk-decisions because of limited and misguided information, lack of qualification and practical knowledge – and neo-corporatist “shifts from government to governance” – suffering from rigidity, exclusion of legitimate stakeholders, intransparency and lack of democratic legitimacy. It introduces contest where it matters most and where it is most productive: in the framing of issues, in the deliberation/negotiation on alternatives, and in the implementation and control of the chosen problem solving strategy.     

Ministers,Feminism, and Abortion:

The attitudes of male ministers in an Eastern state are examined with respect to attitudes toward the proper roles of women, legalized abortion, and the proposed Human Life Amendment to the Constitution. Doctrinal orthodoxy is found to be the strongest predictor of attitudes toward abortion and the Human Life Amendment. However, having an employed wife has borth direct and indirect effects on these attitudes, affecting abortion attitudes in a "pro-choice" direction. Importantly, the wife's employment status is exogenous to the model, as such employment outside the home is not predicted by any religious variable.     

Sikh ethnonationalism and militancy: manifestation and prognosis

ABSTRACT

The study primarily answers the question that whether the movement of Sikh ethnonationalism had been defeated permanently during 1990s or whether it still persists? The study perceives that the movement of Sikh ethnonationalism cannot end till the core pivotal ethnic issues, the moving force of the movement are prevailing. The study eventually predicts that the movement will sooner or later rejuvenate from its previous stage, i.e. militancy, as the sociopolitical circumstances of Punjab have been nourishing microclimate for resurgence of the same. In typical political scenario, the moderate outfit of Sikhs is eager to stimulate the ethnic-regional issues of the Sikhs while the radical factions are also observant to ignite the clinkering Sikh ethnic issues once again. Contrarily, the political aspirations of the BJP controlled by the RSS are opposite to the ethno-political demands of the Sikhs. This contradiction, if aroused systematically, has the potential to rekindle the old spark of militant movement.     

Feminism and Military Gender Practices: Israeli Women Soldiers in "Masculine" Roles

Women's military service is the focus of an ongoing controversy because of its implications for the gendered nature of citizenship. While liberal feminists endorse equal service as a venue for equal citizenship, radical feminists see women's service as a rei•cation of martial citizenship and cooperation with a hierarchical and sexist institution. These debates, however, tend to ignore the perspective of the women soldiers themselves.
This paper seeks to add to the contemporary debate on women's military service the subjective dimension of gender and national identities of women soldiers serving in "masculine" roles. I use a theory of identity practices in order to analyze the interaction between state institutions and identity construction. Based on in-depth interviews, I argue that Israeli women soldiers in "masculine" roles shape their gender identities according to the hegemonic masculinity of the combat soldier through three interrelated practices: (1) mimicry of combat soldiers' bodily and discursive practices; (2) distancing from "traditional femininity"; and (3) trivialization of sexual harassment.
These practices signify both resistance and compliance with the military dichotomized gender order. While these transgender performances subvert the hegemonic norms of masculinity and femininity, they also collaborate with the military androcentric norms. Thus, although these women soldiers individually transgress gender boundaries, they internalize the military's masculine ideology and values and learn to identify with the patriarchal order of the army and the state. This accounts for a pattern of "limited inclusion" that reaf•rms their marginalization, thus prohibiting them from developing a collective consciousness that would challenge the gendered structure of citizenship.     

Feminism and the Grass Roots: Women and Environmentalism in Nova Scotia, 1980–1983*

L'exemple de l'engagement des femmes dans le mouvement contre l'extraction de l'uranium en Nouvelle-Écosse au milieu des années quatre-vingt fait exception dans les études récentes sur l'appui des femmes dans l'activisme environnemental. Le taux de participation des femmes était éléve dans ce mouvement, comparativement à la collaboration apportée a d'autres formes d'action politique. Les hypothèses couramment invoquées pour expliquer cet engagement - disponibilité structurelle et préoccupations des femmes à l'égard des dangers immédiats et locaux qui menacent la santé et le bien être des enfants—ne s'appliquent pas vraiment ici. Les femmes de Nouvelle-Écosse ont ete plûtot recrutées grâce au réseau que constituent les associations féminines a l'échelle de la province (groupes environnementaux, pacifistes et feministes en particulier). The pattern of women's involvement in the anti-uranium mining movement in Nova Scotia in the early 1980s is an exception to what has been reported in the recent literature on women's involvement in environmental activism. The rate of women's participation was high in this, relative to other forms of political action. But hypotheses commonly used to explain this involvement—“structural availability” and gendered concerns for immediate and local threats to the health and well-being of children—do not fit the case well. Nova Scotia women were more likely to be drawn in through network links to province-wide women's organizations (in particular, environmental, peace and feminist organizations).     

Real Men,Real Women,Real Lives? Gender issues in learning disabilities and challenging behaviour

This article seeks to define gender issues and explores the significance of these issues for challenging behaviour in the field of learning disability. It is argued that lack of awareness about these issues contributes to the development of challenging behaviour and to difficulties in identifying the needs expressed through these behaviours, whatever their origin. Specific areas examined include models of residential provision for adults, prioritisation of service activities, attribution processes (needs identification), and the sexuality of people with learning disabilities. In each area issues are raised and the implications for service practice defined.     

Trade unions,corporatism, and inflation

This paper examines the argument that the exchange of powers and responsibilities between government and producer group interests (and, in particular, trade unions) under a bargained form of corporatism confers industrial relations benefits in the form of reduced strikes and economic benefits via lessened inflationary pressures. Focusing largely on the inflation question, an alternative argument is entered to the effect that corporatist experimentation threatens directly to exacerbate the problem in part correctly diagnosed by certain corporatist analysts in their discussion of the fundamental determinants of inflation. Empirical evidence with a bearing on these issues is evaluated. Helpful comments from Joe Reid Jr., Ken Mayhew, Stan Siebert, and the participants in the labor workshop at Hannover are gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimers attach.     

Politics,Feminism and Women's Professional Orientations:

The purpose of this study was to construct a typology of professional orientation of women lawyers based on their political identity, professional interests and patterns of institutional participation. Using factor and cluster analysis, four orientations were identified. Variations on instrumental-market and feminist themes are at the core of the orientations, and each is related to the broader political identities of the women and to the types of action they recommend as effective means of correcting sex-based inequities in the profession. Whereas the majority of lawyers adopt one of these perspectives in relatively undiluted form, the orientations of two small leadership groups are more complex. Although scholars believe that the entry of women will have important effects on legal practice and discourse, the results of this study, indicating diversity of orientation among women, suggest that the realization of this expectation is contingent on a variety of factors.     

Environmentalism, Feminism, and Gender

Although social scientists have written much recently about environmentalism, feminism, and gender, insufficient systematic examination of their interrelations has been done. The lack of adequate research on links among these three concepts limits their usefulness for both grassroots mobilization efforts and general theory development. The present exploratory study surveys a college student sample ( N = 393) clarifying the relationships between liberal environmentalism, gender, and feminism. Relationship between feminism and attitudes toward human use of the environment and between gender and environmental regulation are found suppressed by a relationship between feminism and environmentalism. Although tentative, these findings suggest new directions for the study of ecofeminism.     

Feminism,Management and Self-Actualization

Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs has had an enduring influence on management theory, both in and of itself and in past and present theories of employee motivation and performance. However, management theorists have not been the only ones to embrace Maslow's hierarchy. Betty Friedan also accepted and used it in The Feminine Mystique. Friedan seems to have been attracted to Maslow's theory because of his earlier research on women's self-esteem and sexuality, research which was central to the development of the needs hierarchy. Thus, management theory and liberal feminist theory have a common base in Maslow's hierarchy and self-esteem research. This paper analyzes that common base, beginning with an examination of the masculine and hierarchical bias in the needs hierarchy. Then, after establishing the link between the needs hierarchy and the self-esteem research, the paper moves to an analysis of the latter, and demonstrates the ways in which it misinterpreted women's experience and sexuality and valued only those women with stereotypically masculine characteristics and behaviours. The paper concludes with a discussion of the effect of the acceptance of Maslow's ideas on the women in management literature.     

Constitutions, voting and democracy: A review

This review of William Riker's work suggests that his interest in rational choice theory was based on his desire to understand profound constitutional transformation in U.S. political history. Although he argued that “anything can happen in politics,” his use of the notion of heresthetic allowed him to focus on key contingent events. Indeed his later work added depth to his inductive generalizations on the nature of “federal bargains” and coalition formation.  Recent work by Austen-Smith and Banks, Merrill and Grofman, and Lijphart is also discussed in the light of Riker's earlier ideas on voting and democracy. Received: 25 February 2000/Accepted: 16 March 2000     

Employees,unions, and technological changes: A research agenda

Technological changes may disrupt labor-management relations. Understanding why some workers resist technological change, while others accept and facilitate it, can be crucial for the survival of many firms. Unfortunately, the industrial relations literature on employees and technological change suffers from a lack of common focus and the absence of a common theoretical framework. This article attempts to redress this problem by distilling the available knowledge into a model which describes the contexts in which employee reaction to techaological change would likely be supportive of the change, and those where it would not.