Appropriate Theorizing about African Women and the Internet

The WomenAction 2000 case data illustrate that the Internet situation among women's organizations in Africa is highly problematic. The women have specific computer network needs - and even among this 'group' the needs vary. They further represent grassroots women who have no access to computer networks. The survey data illustrate that appropriate theorizing on Internet working by women in Africa must address both technological and social issues. It must also integrate gender, North-South, context and other aspects. For this purpose, available approaches are neither complete nor entirely adequate. Together however, they offer enough building blocks to study African women and Internet introduction appropriately. Constructivist technology studies (including gender and technology approaches) offer good starting points for an appropriate model. Nevertheless, constructivism needs additions to support gender empowerment in the South. Critical development studies and the integrative view on global communications offer useful additions to this end.     

"Calling a state a state": feminist politics and the policing of violence against women in Brazil

This document reports on a 1990 case study of one of Brazil's 80 police stations established for the protection of women in response to feminist pressure to address excessively high levels of violence against women. These police stations, staffed by women to respond exclusively to complaints lodged by women, are an unusual institutional response to such violence. The study examines the station established in Salvador in 1986 to reveal which interests were served by the creation of the specialized stations. The first section of the article addresses the fact that Salvador's policewomen have gained little from the creation of the specialized stations and continue to suffer job-related sexual discrimination. Next, conceptions of gender identity among policewomen are analyzed, and the ideologies of "femininity" and "feminism" in the Brazilian context are discussed. The final section compares views on the abuse of women with views on police brutality and relays incidences when the policewomen beat male prisoners. It is argued that certain forms of violence are actually considered necessary to maintain social order and enact justice. It is concluded that all of the involved parties, the state, the feminists, the female citizenry, and Salvador's female police, benefit in part from the existence of the specialized police stations but that there are serious problems also, especially the fact that the policewomen involved are given little or no special training and no career incentives.     

The "real" marriage squeeze: mate selection,mortality, and the mating gradient

The nature and magnitude of the marriage squeeze in Canada is examined using vital statistics and census data. "Age differentials of brides and grooms in all marriages registered in 1981 are used to create 'availability indices' that estimate the number of unmarried persons of the opposite sex that are potentially available for every 100 unmarried persons. For men, availability indices are low in the 20s, and they increase with advancing age to about one-to-one in the 50s. For women, access to potential grooms is highest in the 20s and decreases with advancing age until, in the 50s, there are only 50 potential grooms per 100 unmarried women." The implications of unbalanced sex ratios are discussed with reference to changes in marriage and the family.     

Sexual needs, control, and refusal: how "doing" class and gender influences sexual risk taking

The poor are disproportionately affected by unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). We know relatively little, however, about the sexual processes behind these disparities. Despite studies of gender enactment's influence on sexual behaviors, few analyses examine the sexual "doing" of social class. We conducted sexual history interviews with 36 women and men, half middle class and half poor and working class. Most respondents reported that men have greater sexual appetites than women, but the middle class were more likely to cite social influences while the poor and working-class respondents primarily ascribed biological origins. The social construction of sexual controllability among the middle class contributed to perceptions that sex was a containable force. Poor and working-class women described men's sexual needs as physiologically irrepressible, which shaped sexual refusal. Our findings move beyond socioeconomic status (SES) as a "risk factor" and explore two examples of how gender and social class mediate people's sexual selves and health.     

Toward a reconceptualization of "choice": challenges by women at the margins

It has been suggested that recent first world and third world feminist movements have gained impetus from a shared emphasis on "body politics" (abortion, rape, and domestic violence). It has been made clear by other writers, however, that first and third world women (including women of color in the first world) have very different conceptions of which policies and practices should be pursued to change their reproduction experiences (because the overriding experiences of their entire lives are so very different). Likewise, the concept of "the right to choose" has been challenged on the grounds that it ignores the external conditions (such as economics) which, in fact, dictate "choice." Eugenics also influences which "choices" are promoted among populations considered "undesirable." The dilemmas associated with reproductive choices are further highlighted by debate about the use of amniocentesis in India for sex determination and female feticide. At the center of this debate is whether calling for a ban on this practice would support or violate a woman's choice. The rhetoric of choice arose in the first place because women who wanted to end a pregnancy had "no choice" but to seek illegal abortions. However, working class women and Black women in the US object to the narrowness in the abortion rights agenda dictated by the use of this term. To assert women's "choice" absolves all others of the responsibility for a pregnancy. The "choice" concept is also vulnerable to political manipulation. "Choice" also evades ethical problems such as sex selection. Disabled feminists have also pointed out that it is as important to create conditions which include "the choice to have a disabled child" as it is to choose not to be a mother. Can feminists oppose the selective abortion of female fetuses while leaving the choice to abort a defective or unwanted fetus of either sex up to the mother? Objection to sex determination can be categorized as consequentialist (based on various predicted social and psychological consequences, such as more men would lead to more violence in the world) or nonconsequentialist (based on the inherent immorality of selective abortion). The benefits of sex selection would possibly include a reduction in sex-linked diseases and a reduction in the overall birth rate. Most US feminists support the moral, but not the legal, condemnation of sex selection. In India, where sex selection is openly practiced, feminists have tried to achieve legal prohibition of the use of tests for this purpose. This difference from the US position may be due to the difference in the abortion context in the 2 countries. Whether feminists support legal and/or moral prohibition of sex selection, however, almost all call for the longterm structural changes which must be made in the context of imperialism, racism, and poverty which would allow true "choices" to prevail.     

Gender relations,development practice and "culture"

Most development practitioners have the following preconceived notions about gender and culture: 1) that gender relations are equated with the most intimate aspects of society; 2) that culture and tradition are immutable; 3) that there is no independent resistance to subordination within the culture; and 4) that religion is culture. These notions interfere with work on developing equitable gender relations and complicate efforts to allocate resources in ways that redress the imbalance of power between men and women. The validity of these notions can be tested by analyzing an experience the author had in 1984 when she published a book on women and development in India. On a publicity tour in Liverpool, England, she addressed an audience composed largely of men from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. This audience attacked her book and defended an idealized version of the position of women in the culture of South Asia. They accused the author of being a traitor to her own culture and of being Westernized. A Pakistani woman member of the audience, however, thanked the author for her presentation and reported that she was working with Asian women facing domestic violence. The men understood the cultural identity of South Asia as being composed of identical families dedicated to mutual interest, love, and cooperation. However, this family unit requires the subsuming of women's interests. This myth of the family ignores real life experiences of women who suffer abuse and ignores the fact that the notion of "family" is constantly undergoing change. Development practitioners should use culture as a way of opening up intractable areas of gender relations rather than regarding it as a dead-end which prevents work towards equitable gender relations. A new definition of "cultural sensitivity" would be to acknowledge that contests surround the significance attached by a society to different aspects of social constraints and that these contests often represent challenges to hierarchical social relations.     

Breaking the Silence: Lesbian Fans, the Internet, and the Sexual Politics of Women's Sport

Women who play sports are often conflated as lesbian. Thus, athletes, coaches, and administrators in women's sport are constrained to never speak of the lesbians who play and work in sport. The injunction against speech keeps lesbians in the closet and controls all women in sport who must constantly monitor their appearance, behavior, and speech to ensure that they project an appropriately heterosexual image. The code of silence is, typically, justified by the assertion that fans and sponsors would abandon women's sport if lesbian participants were vocal and/or visible. Traditional media support the injunction to silence. They rarely speak of lesbians, and when they do, they typically marginalize and sensationalize lesbian participants. The authors analyze two threads of discussion on an Internet newsgroup devoted to women's basketball. The results indicate that the Internet offers fans a chance to challenge the code of silence and that contributors to this newsgroup are supportive of lesbians in sport.     

Caught between different worlds: how transgendered women may be "forced" into risky sex

We qualitatively explored reasons why transgendered women may engage in sexual risk that could lead to HIV infection. Specifically, we conducted this investigation with transgendered women identifying as Black/African American. Interviews from 17 participants were audio taped and analyzed. Four themes emerged. Women commonly reported they had a strong need/desire to be loved by men. Many stated they had and would engage in unprotected sex to obtain and preserve such a relationship. Nearly all were currently using female hormones. Nine obtained their hormones through non-medical means including the Internet, transgendered friends, and street vendors. For these women hormone injections often involved sharing needles/syringes. Selling sex was a common practice and many women did so without the benefit of condom use. Finally, women experienced multiple forms of societal discrimination. By being caught between worlds (straight, gay, male, and female) transgendered women may be placed into situations where avoiding HIV risk is extremely difficult.     

Migrant-nonmigrant differentials in socioeconomic status,fertility and family planning in Nepal

This study identifies the socioeconomic characterisitics of immigrants in Nepal, their fertility, and the incidence of family planning. These characterisitics are contrasted with the receiving or nonmigrant population and inferences drawn regarding the probable social and demographic impact immigrants may have on the "receiving" population. Demographic surveys were conducted annually from 1975 through 1978 in the Hills and Terai by the research and evaluation unit of the Family Planning/Maternal Child Health (FR/MCH) Project. In each of these geographic areas, all districts were matched on a set of social and demographic characteristics. 2 districts were then selected from each area on the basis of their similarity to each other. The sample design for all districts involved selection of panchayats (a political unit roughly equivalent to a country) and their wards (villages) on the basis of a procedure which refers to a selection of units based upon probabilities proportional to size of the population of the units. Currently married women aged 15-44 in all households of the secondary sampling units, i.e., wards, were interviewed. Both migrant women and their husbands had a higher level of educational attainment than nonmigrant women and their husbands. Indian migrants had higher proportions in the largest landholding groups than nonmigrant and lower proportions who are landless. The differential was maintained among Indians who had lived in the Terai for 10 years or less as well as 11 years or more. This finding was particularly striking since Indian migrants make up 25% of the sample. Current marital fertility (as measured by age specific and total fertility rates) was highest among Indian migrants, but cumulative fertility or past reproductive performance (as measured by the mean number of children ever-born) was highest among migrants from "other districts." With the exception of the youngest age group, migrants from "other districts" have higher proportion of "ever users" and "current users" of family planning than nonmigrants or migrants from India throughout the age structure. The highest proportion for both "ever users" and "current users" was reached at ages 35-39 years. Indian migrants in contrast had the lowest proportions of "ever users" and "current users" throughout the age structure (with the exception of the age group 35-39).     

THE AURA OF "HIGH TECH" IN A WORLD OF MESSY PRACTICE

This study employs interlocking analytical devices from the perspectives of several disciplines to explore members' meanings through definitions of "high technology" given by workers in design engineering. The comparative analysis employs concepts from art history, sociology of culture, anthropology and science studies to explore the appeal of "high technology" in comparison with the aura of original artworks and the status accrued by symbolic tools. Additionally, the role standardization has played in the development of engineering as a profession is explored in historical context as are the recurring themes of speed and "the new." The findings reveal that how engineers use new technologies in the world of messy practice and their conceptual framework regarding so-called "high technology" do not map well onto one another. The study illustrates the perspective of science and technology studies that views all technology as socially shaped and society shaping, its construction accomplished through messy patched-up practices rather than clean, linear paths or perfect techniques.     

Theorizing the lesbian hashtag: Identity,community, and the technological imperative to name the sexual self

This analysis integrates poststructuralist and symbolic interactionist approaches to the self by incorporating the insights of science and technology studies regarding categorization processes. While the advent of the Internet has freed many individuals from geographical constraints on community formation, the architectures of online platforms produce a technological imperative to name aspects of the self with words. Using sexual identity hashtags on Instagram (e.g., #lesbian) thus performs paradoxical functions: the hashtag both enables the construction of a sexual identity within an affirming community and also reinforces the power relations that compel individuals to name and account for their sexual selves. By illustrating one way sexual identities function in the online lives of young women, this research complicates other scholars' findings that the salience of sexual identity categories is decreasing.     

The strengths of close ties: Taiwanese online entrepreneurship,gender and intersectionality

This article examines entrepreneurs who have started innovative Internet and mobile technology companies in Taiwan because they are at the forefront of industrial changes in the country. Similar to findings in Europe and the USA, education and careers in technology in Taiwan remain dominated by men. However, I argue that the gender inequality of the sector is partly the result of the fact that small new enterprises rely on family support and close social networks. Few women are able to join the sector with male friends and colleagues due to the close social ties of the founding teams (homophily). Among my female interviewees, half have started their nascent companies with their husbands and male partners (husband and wife teams). However, gender, family backgrounds and childcare responsibilities affect both men and women, and the interviewees in my study were open in discussing these personal factors in relation to being entrepreneurs. This article argues that starting an Internet company is a family decision, discussed within the household. Intersectionality, not only gender, explains the founders’ decision to start a company, and their choice of co-founders.     

Love and Hooking Up in the New Millennium: Communication Technology and Relationships among Urban African American and Puerto Rican Young Adults

Communication technology is a central feature of young people's lives, but its role in romantic and sexual relationships has not been thoroughly examined. This article describes how young adults use communication technology for partnering across relationship stages (formation, maintenance, and dissolution) and types (serious/casual), and proposes implications of usage in relationships. This study analyzed qualitative data from a five-week, prospective, coital diary method with related debriefing interviews (N = 70) of African American and Puerto Rican men and women aged 18 to 25 years in Hartford and Philadelphia. Cell phones, including calls, text messaging, and mobile Internet, were the most common forms of communication technology used for partnering goals. Participants reported using cell phones to pursue partnering goals across all relationship stages, including formation (meeting, screening, and getting to know new partners), maintaining existing relationships, and breaking up. Cell phone uses depended on the type of relationship (serious/casual) and the participants' intentions and desires. Results indicated that cell phones are an important element of communication among young adults in romantic and sexual relationships. Specific features of cell phone communication shape the process and context of partnering. Future research should explore emerging communication technologies and implications for psychosocial development, dating violence, and sexual behavior.     

Mapping the two levels of digital divide: Internet access and social network site adoption among older adults in the USA

Older adults have increasingly adopted Internet and social network sites (SNSs), but little communication scholarship has explored systematic differences in access within this population. Using a nationally representative sample of Americans over the age of 50 years from the 2012 Health and Retirement Study, we examine Internet access (N?=?18,851) and SNS adoption patterns (N?=?869) among this sample and explore how these patterns vary by age. Regarding Internet access, results suggest that while the gender divide has reversed in favor of women, older adults who are economically, socioculturally, or physically disadvantaged are less likely to have reliable Internet access. In addition, the view that the various divides in Internet access are less of a concern for those who are younger is only partially supported, as some access-related divides do not vary by age or even decrease with age. For SNS adoption, we found that access to technological resources (diversity of online activities) positively predicts SNS use. Moreover, SNS users are more likely to be younger, female, widowed, and homemakers, perhaps because these individuals are more motivated to use SNSs to complement or compensate for their existing social status. These findings reveal unique challenges and motivations in relation to Internet access and SNS adoption patterns across the later life span.     

Leaving Chicago for Iowa's "Fields of Opportunity": Community Dispossession, Rootlessness, and the Quest for Somewhere to "Be OK"

In recent years, urban development and public housing demolition have posed challenges to the social and geographic rootedness of low-income African Americans in urban areas. In particular, in Chicago, widespread public housing demolition, occurring in the context of rapid gentrification, has contributed to increasing shortages of affordable low-income housing. This study uses in-depth interviews and participant observation to examine the migration experiences of men and women who have left urban neighborhoods and public housing developments in Chicago searching for affordable housing and economic opportunity in eastern Iowa. This particular analysis focuses on experiences of social and geographic "rootlessness" that emerged as a major theme in these interviews. Participants describe community dispossession in Chicago that has threatened not only the ties between individuals and their social support networks, but also connections and claims to the places in which these ties are rooted. Narratives that describe leaving Chicago in this context and then trying to get by as a stigmatized outsider in "someone else's city" speak to a process of dislocation that may disrupt critical social-support resources that are known to mitigate the consequences of structural disadvantage.     

The Emergence of a Specific Kind of Individualization Habitus Among Divorced Women

Previous research has consistently found that divorce is associated with psychological distress. This study expands existing research by considering age, education, employment, income, length of divorce, number of children, and economic hardship as predictors of postdivorce psychological distress among divorced women in Iran. This study examines 800 divorced women in Iran 30 to 48 years old who had been divorced for no more than 2 years. Results demonstrated that education, number of children, and economic hardship together predict 63.6% of the variance in psychological distress among divorced women. Economic hardship was found to be the strongest contributor. Recommendations for researchers and implications for clinicians are discussed.     

SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS, JOB CONDITIONS, AND WELL-BEING: Self-Concept Explanations for Gender-Contingent Effects

Using data from a representative sample of adults age eighteen to fifty‐five who reside in Toronto, Canada, and are employed in the paid labor force, this study asks: Are the health benefits of education, income, job autonomy, and nonroutinized work different for women and men? If so, do mastery and self‐esteem contribute to those differences? Results show that women and men derive different personal benefits from socioeconomic status and job qualities: (1) education, job autonomy, and nonroutinized work are associated more positively with the sense of mastery among women, (2) job autonomy is associated more positively with self‐esteem among women, (3) education, job autonomy, and nonroutinized work are associated more negatively with depressive symptoms among women, and (4) job autonomy and nonroutinized work are associated more positively with global health among women. Moreover, the patterns in (1) and (2) explain the gender‐contingent effects in (3) and (4). In addition, unexpected suppression effects reveal that, among men, education is associated negatively with mastery and self‐esteem—but only after adjustment for job conditions. I interpret the findings in the context of the disadvantaged status thesis and speculate about status‐related social comparison processes.     

Examining the Structural Relationships Among Gambling Motivation,Passion, and Consequences of Internet Sports Betting

The rise in popularity of Internet gambling has led to new gambling controversies among researchers and policymakers alike. Opponents frequently point to the negative impacts of problem gambling, while advocates tend to view this form of gambling as relatively harmless and convenient entertainment for the vast majority of participants. Interestingly, in making their points, both sides cite empirical arguments about passion for the gambling act—with opponents arguing that Internet gambling enables unhealthy obsessions, and advocates pointing to the apparent intensive interest of large numbers of Internet players. As it turns out, both sides may have a point. In this paper, we examine whether types of passion were related to types of motivation and consequences. The data were collected through a sample from an online gambling website in South Korea. We rely upon Rousseau et al.’s (J Gambl Stud 18(1):45–66, 2002) seminal work on positive and negative aspects of passion, and in the process we develop a framework for understanding positive and negative consequences of this form of gambling. The results reveal that intrinsic gambling motivations (e.g., gambling for excitement) is related to harmonious passion, which in turn results in positive consequences. Meanwhile, extrinsic gambling motivations (e.g., money) is related to obsessive passion, which in turn results in negative consequences.     

Working for Men-at the Intersection of Power, Gender, and Sexuality

This article examines the dynamics of Bazooms. a "restaurant" in which power, gender, and sexuality come together to color relations between the three major "players" involved: waitresses, managers, and customers. Job-based power relations and inequities, gender roles, implicit and explicit sexual roles, and sexual harassment are all "at work" in such a workplace. But definitions of power, gender roles, sexual identities. and harassment are in constant flux with each interaction among the players inside the Bazooms world. The women who work at Bazooms–the "Bazooms girls"—are disadvantaged in these interactions, but they are not helpless. Dynamics within the restaurant are constantly being negotiated and altered (within constraints) as these women exercise agency in the workplace.