Heart disease and gender in mass print media

Heart disease is a major cause of death, disease and disability in the developed world for both men and women. Nevertheless, the evidence suggests that women are under-diagnosed both because they fail to visit the doctor with relevant symptoms and because doctors tend to dismiss the seriousness of women's symptoms of heart disease. This study examines the way that popular mass print media present the possible links between gender and heart disease. The findings suggest that the 'usual candidates' for heart disease are considered to be high achieving and active men for whom the 'heart attack' is sometimes seen as a 'badge of honour' and a symbol of their success. In contrast, women are less often seen as likely to succumb, but they are portrayed as if they are and ought to be worried about their husbands. Women's own bodies are described as so problematic as to be perhaps useless to diagnose, because they are so difficult to understand and treat.     

Women and War: Militarism, Bodies, and the Practice of Gender

Women around the world, in various geographic spaces, social and cultural contexts, as partners, wives, sisters, daughters, mothers, mourners, and victims experience war. Women's experience of war and their participation in it, either as actors or resistors, victims or perpetrators ( Moser and Clark 2001 ), cheerleaders or critics, are always influenced by the construction of gender operating in and around their lives. While constructions of masculinity and femininity are always circulating in and around militarism and war, women's bodies are sometimes primary considerations for military and state leaders; this creates a visibility/invisibility/hyper-visibility problem for women in wartime. In this essay, women's participation in war as soldiers, refugees, prisoners, jailers, activists, and suicide bombers and the accompanying shift in the practice of femininity and masculinity is explored.     

Women and Access to Political Office: a Comparison of Female and Male State Legislators

The status of women in state legislatures is examined in terms of representation across the United States. A sample of female state legislators and a sample of male state legislators are compared on social and political career characteristics, including marital status, education, occupation, age when one began serving, election mobility, party leadership, and tenure. Party leadership, education, age and, to a lesser extent, occupation were found to distinguish female from male legislators. But party leadership significantly differentiated only between female and male legislators with less than a college degree. Overall, access to state legislative office seems to depend on the same characteristics which define success in society as a whole; for certain groups of women, however, achievement within party ranks provides an alternative mechanism to this end.     

The question of women and environment in the Sudan: inquiries into eco-feminism and feminist environmentalism

This article discusses a theoretical framework suggested by Agarwal on eco-feminism in the context of Sudan and the Kordofam region of Sudan. The paper focuses specifically on one aspect of eco-feminism that is discussed by Shiva (1988). Eco-feminism is the link between the domination and suppression of women and the domination and exploitation of nature. Women are identified with nature, while men are closer to culture, which places women in an inferior position. Because of the link of women with nature, women have a vested interest in restructuring the domination of nature. Feminism and environmentalism both reflect egalitarian and nonhierarchical systems. This analysis tests whether women are the central actors of environment and whether women's and environmental interests can be advanced simultaneously. The Indian experience reflects the class and gender process that results in loss of knowledge and livelihoods among poor rural women. The impact is related to the interaction between ideology and political and economic power. Grass-roots resistance to environmental degradation is strong, and women are engaged due to threats to survival. Sudanese women's role, position, status, and relation to the environment is shaped by the patriarchal order, class, ethnicity, and the sexual division of labor. The Shiva concepts apply to Sudan and the Kordofan region. The marginalization of traditional farming and pastoralism has pushed the growing population into marginal environmental zones. The focus on cash-oriented development, political instability, and insufficient and corrupt bureaucracies have aggravated the environmental crisis. Social inequality has increased. Shiva's theories do not fit Sudanese society and Agarwal's perspective is too general. Some Sudanese women have accumulated wealth, commercial interests, and exploited land.     

The Tale and the Novel: Pasternak and the Politics of Genre

This paper examines Soviet regional periodicals for women from their beginning as special stranichki in newspapers to the end of the 1930s, when they became instruments for publicizing mass campaigns. In the 1920s—when these periodicals were subject to market mechanisms and had to be profitable in order to survive—they presented a vibrant blend of practical advice, fashion, and emancipatory promises. With the advent of the First Five-Year Plan, the contents of women’s magazines changed dramatically and came to include an ever greater emphasis on the Party leadership and the latest propaganda campaigns. However, a close examination of the periodicals also reveals that the transmission of information, tropes, language, and images from the centre to the periphery was not always smooth or unidirectional. Local periodicals could initiate campaigns, delay publicizing them, and sometimes virtually ignore them.     

"MY PROBLEM AND HOW I SOLVED IT":

Social scientists have generated a vast literature on domestic violence, a small part of which has entered the popular media and the consciousness of its consumers. As yet there has been little scholarly investigation of this popular body of knowledge on domestic violence. Using a qualitative analysis of popular women's magazine articles and magazine writers' guidebooks, I investigate the content, creation, and impact of this popular discourse. In this study, I demonstrate that the majority of articles in popular women's magazines continue to portray the public issue of domestic violence as a private problem. Not only is it portrayed as a private problem but most often it is the victim's problem. The dominant individual perspective that places responsibility on the victim normalizes the idea that victims should be held responsible for solving the problem. Finally, I demonstrate how the writing and editorial practices of these popular women's magazines contribute to the dominance of assigning responsibility for domestic violence to individuals.     

“Order three advertisements and get one news story free”: Public relations ethics practices of Turkish and international companies in Turkey

This study investigates the ethics of communication in print media in Turkey by exploring the potential incidences of publishing custom-made news stories and editorials by newspapers and magazines about Turkish and international businesses for promoting their advertising space. The study establishes that the incidence of corresponding news stories or editorials in newspapers and magazines and related paid advertisements increased by more than 100% between 1994 and 2004. In the second stage of the research, key informant interviews reveal that, in general, business officials and media executives have a teleological view of ethics.     

Framing Identity Politics: Right-Wing Women as Strategic Party Actors in the UK and US

ABSTRACT

Women’s political underrepresentation in right-wing parties remains a global phenomenon. Despite their rejection of “identity politics,” the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party and the United States’ Republican Party have launched formal initiatives to recruit women legislative candidates. In this article, we ask: How do right-wing women advocate for increasing women’s representation within parties that explicitly reject group identity politics? More specifically, we examine 1) how party elites frame the UK’s Women2Win and the US’s Project GROW campaigns, and 2) the role that women play in each of these initiatives. Through interviews with party elites and content analyses of news articles and campaign materials, we show that right-wing women in both countries function as strategic party actors, advocating for women’s representation tactically within the specific ideological and electoral context of their party.     

Enforcing women's rights through law

Because women have to be equal partners in development to insure its sustainability, the human rights of women must be foremost on development agendas. Ratification of and adherence to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (the Women's Convention) would be a powerful international tool in this regard. In various countries, progress towards legalizing rights for women is passing through a first stage which focusses on the protection of specific rights to a second stage in which sex is included as a prohibited ground of discrimination to a third stage which addresses the pervasive and structural nature of the violation of women's rights. It is expected that governments will renew their commitment to the Women's Convention at the Fourth World Conference on Women (WCW) and, thus, take more seriously their obligations to report progress and remove reservations. Regional initiatives, such as the Organization of American States' 1994 Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence Against Women, can also be used to protect women's rights, and the application of national constitutions and domestic laws remains the first line of defence for women. Particular attention must be paid to laws which apply to property rights, nationality, equality within the family, reproductive and other health issues, and violence against women. The Draft Plan of Action prepared for the WCW challenges states to specify their plans to eliminate discrimination. While this Plan may prove to lack vision, women's nongovernmental organizations are playing a major role in accelerating the movement of international and domestic law towards justice for women.     

Prevention and treatment of osteoporosis in women

Osteoporosis affects one in three women. There has been some confusion among women and health professionals about the management of osteoporosis since the publication of the Women's Health Initiative and Million Women studies. This guidance regarding estrogen-based and non-estrogen-based treatments for osteoporosis responds to the controversies about the benefits and risks of individual agents. Treatment choice should be based on up-to-date evidence and targeted to individual women's needs.     

New Pride and Old Prejudice

The determinants of women's political orientations are explored in terms of two perspectives: ambition and gender role and their interrelationship. A sample of 1336 Democratic and Republican delegates to the 1972 national nominating conventions was used to compare the political expectations and aspirations of men and women. Women were found tohave less interest in holding public officebut equalled men in aspiring to party careers. Party as well as sex differences affected the political ambitions of female elites, with Democratic women more likely to pursue public office holding and Republican women remaining committed to the party sphere. Women's roles in the family and at work were also found to influence the development of political ambition among women. In addition, gender roles had an impact on the type of ambition women developed and the styles of activism they pursued.     

Failure of integration or symbol of racism: The case of soccer star Mesut Özil

In May 2018, Mesut Özil, a third-generation Turkish immigrant, was photographed with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. This incident was constructed by the media and politicians as an endorsement for Erdoğan in the upcoming Turkish election and resulted in a public discussion about Özil's loyalty to German democratic values. The debate intensified especially after the World Cup and led to Özil's resignation from the national team via social media on 22 July 2018, where he cited racism against him as one of his reasons. Newspapers, news magazines and tabloids all over the world covered the story, discussing racism and the failure of German integration policies. Through a qualitative media content analysis of German national newspapers and tabloid press articles following the publication of the photograph of Erdoğan and Özil on 14 May 2018, this paper will analyse how Özil was portrayed in the media.     

时尚杂志对青年女性美学观的影响

时尚杂志充斥着靓丽的图像、知性的文字和体贴的语气,它们在给读者带来视觉快感的同时,也向读者传达了一种新鲜的美学判断。在时尚杂志所引导的女性美学观中,身体是女性美的中心,而时间美学观和空间美学观是女性美的两个基点,背后隐藏着现代性的追寻、安全感的诉求、消费观念的刺激、男性凝视的快感等美学缘由。时尚杂志潜移默化地向青年女性传达了一种新鲜的美学判断,但其所倡导的美学观是病态的、不健康的,在批判这种美学观的同时,青年女性应该在自我独立的基础上追求一种健康的、朴素的、自然的女性美。     

Women's voluntarism and philanthropy in pre-revolutionary Russia: building a civil society

Historically, civil activism was primarily shaped illegally in Russia, through the revolutionary underground under tsarism, and via dissident movement under the Soviet regime. Among legal enterprises, philanthropy maintained an orientation toward gradualist social change and mutual support. Women have played a major role in philanthropy and voluntary activities in Russia. Compared to European and American women, Russian women enjoyed far more extensive property rights which defined different strategies for gaining access to public space. Women's philanthropy made its greatest impact on public policy-making agendas not through maternalistic programmes for mothers and children but through education of women and girls, and support of women entering the job market. However, their contribution, especially in its civic aspects, has been undervalued for many reasons, particularly in the interpretation of a powerful ethos of female self-sacrifice peculiar to Russian women as a basic motive of women's voluntarism. This article challenges this interpretation and instead portrays women in philanthropy and voluntary activity as agents of social change.     

Conference report: Fifth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA), Hamburg,Germany, 1997

In 1997, the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education convened with 1500 participants. This Conference was marked by a new involvement of the broader adult education community in all stages of the planning process and by the inclusion of representatives of nongovernmental organizations as official participants. The conference specifically sought a sex balance among delegates, included women's issues in all of the planning meetings, and convened a seminar on the promotion of female empowerment through adult learning to elaborate on strategies for the Conference. This led to an almost 40% participation rate by women in the conference where women also held highly visible positions. Women's issues were highlighted by individual women in these positions and by the fact that the Women's Caucus created the most active and productive network. This allowed the highlighting of women's education concerns and a gender perspective in the conference outputs: the Hamburg Declaration on Adult Learning and the Agenda for the Future. The Agenda calls for the advancement of women's learning opportunities along with increased gender sensitivity and justice and seeks to reduce female illiteracy in 2000 to half of 1990 levels. The Conference also noted the necessity of communicating the adverse effects of globalization and structural adjustment policies on women and the need to help women protect themselves from domestic and sexual violence.     

Rural brewing,exclusion, and development policy-making

This article highlights the economic role of women in the brewing industry in rural and periurban areas of sub-Saharan African countries. Local beer drinking is a form of social exchange and a reward for time-intensive work. Modern beer brewing in rural areas is a family operation. Beer is produced for subsistence and for sale. Locally brewed beer has a lower alcohol content than commercial brews. The author refers to Pradervand's (1990) study of local brewing in five east and west African countries. Pradervand found that men spent an estimated CFAF 18 billion per year on local brews compared to the value of total national exports of CFAF 21 billion per year in 1996. The male Kitui in rural Kenya were found to spend 60% of their weekly income on beer. Women dominate brewing in eastern and southern Africa. Rural beers are grain based (maize, millet, or sorghum), but may also be made from bananas, bamboo, sugar cane, or coconut. An estimated 25% of women in a village survey in Tanzania reported that beer was brewed one to four times a month. Another survey in the 1980s found that 73% of women brewed beer at some time. Beer brewing is a very significant economic activity for rural women. It provides higher levels of income and employment. Urban brewing by women has a negative image that rural women's beer brewing does not have. Grain for brewing comes from family farms or markets. Women's clubs are used as income generation groups for loans and as support groups. Women's beer brewing is not supported by development interventions or recognized by UN agencies. There are resource implications due to an estimated 5%-30% of annual wood consumption used for beer brewing. If women's role in beer brewing is ignored, male-dominated commercial interests will further marginalize rural women.     

守望相助,共克时艰——寄语“三八”国际妇女节

2020年注定是不平凡的一年。新冠肺炎疫情发生以来,中国政府和人民全力以赴抗击疫情。外国妇女组织和机构、国际组织、港澳台妇女组织、海外华人华侨妇女组织以及在华留学生代表,纷纷向全国妇联发来慰问,为中国加油,为武汉加油。2020年也是北京第四次世界妇女大会25周年,在今年“三八”国际妇女节来临之际,他们将暖心的祝福,送给所有中国的妇女姐妹。     

Electorally Threatening Women? Understanding Gender Quotas in the French Socialist Party

ABSTRACT

Almost three decades ago, the French Socialist Party (PS) adopted a quota for women in the party leadership and for female candidates, and in the ensuing 25 years, the quota was increased and implemented at various times. The history of the PS' s gender-based quota raises the following questions: Why do party leaders adopt gender quotas at one time, increase quotas at another, and implement them in some elections, but not in others? In other words, how can we account for the decisions of political actors? This work seeks to answer these questions by examining the demands and actions of PS feminists. It shows that party women demanded gender quotas and frequently backed up their demands with ideational and electoral arguments that often appealed to male party officials. However, the success of these proposals did not depend on the ability of Socialist women to make convincing arguments; rather it depended on the presence of male party officials who had electoral incentives to support them. This work thus underscores the importance of taking party officials' electoral incentives into consideration when analyzing women's political representation.     

The politics of portrait photographs in southern Nigerian newspapers, 1945–1954

This paper focuses on the increasingly important role played by pictorial journalism in the struggle for Nigerian self-rule. From the late 1920s onwards, daily newspapers printed portrait photographs with a pro-colonial slant: members of the colonial administration, international heads of state, foreign ministers and, occasionally, the highest-ranking Nigerian politicians. To challenge a dominance of pro-colonial depictions, the anti-colonial West African Pilot introduced a new style of printed portrait photographs in 1937 that became a role model for other newspapers in the 1940s and the 1950s. This article focuses on the use of these portrait photographs for the political propaganda of party-affiliated newspapers, such as the Daily Service, the West African Pilot and the Southern Nigeria Defender, which were published in the southwest of Nigeria. The technological difficulties of printing photographs in newspapers in the 1940s meant that editors had a limited choice of which portrait photographs to include (mainly photographs of politicians, businessmen and chiefs were available). The editors were further constrained by the scarcity of photographs of ordinary people. In addition, photographs depicting the colonial administration’s personnel or edifices were not in line with the editorial policy of the anti-colonial newspapers. In the 1950s, when Nigerian newspapers were able to afford the technological equipment to reproduce their own photographs, a representative cross-section of Nigerian society was still rarely included in the portrait photographs. The photographs that were printed showed the self-fashioning of Nigerian leaders of democratic parties, ahead of the emergence of a new style of democratic and charismatic leaders in Senegal. Although these anti-colonial images were more democratic than the old colonial images in pro-colonial newspapers, they replaced the imperial hierarchies which editors rejected, with the new social hierarchies of local Nigerian elites foreshadowing the politics of independent Nigeria.     

MALE-FEMALE DIFFERENCES IN OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE AND THE DEMAND FOR GENERAL AND OCCUPATION-SPECIFIC HUMAN CAPITAL

A human capital model of occupational choice as demand for general and occupation-specific human capital is developed to show how women's occupational choices vary with their lifetime labor force participation patterns. The model is tested using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women. The major empirical finding is that women who take less home time choose occupations which require more human capital, especially specific human capital. Women's occupations and wages are quite responsive to changes in their labor force participation patterns. If women worked continuously, their occupations and wages would be much closer to those of men.