Museums, friends, and lovers in the New South: Laura's Web, 1909-1931

Laura Bragg, a member of the first graduating class at Simmons College, journeyed to Charleston as a New Woman in 1909. As the first woman director of a major scientific museum in the United States, Bragg transformed the Charleston Museum into a public education institution and became an innovative leader in museum education. This article documents Bragg's contributions within the context of antebellum culture where the Southern Belle was placed on a Victorian pedestal and Boston marriages were an unknown phenomenon. Using extensive and hitherto unpublished correspondence, the authors detail Bragg's lesbian relationships and describe her network within the homosexual male community during the era of the Charleston Renaissance.     

Wife killing: risk to women as a function of age

Younger women, relative to older women, incur elevated risk of uxoricide-being murdered by their husbands. Some evolutionary theorists attribute this pattern to men's evolved sexual proprietariness, which inclines them to use violence to control women, especially those high in reproductive value. Other evolutionary theorists propose an evolved homicide module for wife killing. An alternative to both explanations is that young women experience elevated uxoricide risk as an incidental byproduct of marriage to younger men who commit the majority of acts of violence. We used a sample of 13,670 uxoricides to test these alternative explanations. Findings show that (a) reproductive-age women incur an elevated risk of uxoricide relative to older women; (b) younger men are overrepresented among uxoricide perpetrators; and (c) younger women, even when married to older men, still incur excess risk of uxoricide. Discussion examines competing explanations for uxoricide in light of these findings.     

Aggressive behavior among women sexually abused as children

Although research shows that sexually abused children appear to be at risk of subsequent aggressive behavior, few investigations address whether such behavior persists beyond childhood. This research describes the self-reported adolescent and adult fighting behavior of 136 women sexually abused as children and examines the role of intervening variables in the risk of such behavior. The women are part of a longitudinal study of 206 primarily low-income, urban women whose abuse was documented at the time it occurred. Fighting was common, particularly during adolescence. Adult aggression was strongly associated with being a victim of violence by an intimate partner. A history of exposure to other forms of violence significantly increased the risk of fighting while strong maternal attachments mitigated the risk, primarily by reducing the likelihood of involvement in an abusive intimate relationship.     

Navigating the job search superhighway

The recent Cyberforum on "Navigating the Job Search Superhighway" gave 131 American College of Physician Executive members the opportunity to discuss the job search process, addressing questions and sharing what they've learned through their experiences in the medical management job market. Several comments that convey the essence of the discussion are listed, representing the various viewpoints of the participants. The words are from physician executives who have gone through the job search process and from some who have been involved in hiring decisions. The topics range from the value of experience to the importance of having a management degree to tips on networking to preparing for the interview. The final section on contract negotiation is a composite of comments on the subject during the Cyberforum.     

IntroductionExposing Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors

This article introduces a special volume on misinformation about child sexual abuse. Despite extensive research findings on the long-term effects and consequences of child sexual abuse, misinformation on this topic is widespread. Several forces have worked to support and disseminate this erroneous information. Because it is difficult to comprehend the horror of sexual crimes against children, society's denial and disbelief have often unwittingly supported the agendas of those who want to discount or minimize the impact of these crimes. The media has also contributed to the aura of skepticism surrounding claims of sexual abuse and its mental health impact, and has reported favorably on controversial and unproven claims such as the “false memory syndrome.” In the hope of countering misinformation and thus raising the level of discourse to the engagement of real scientific issues, a number of well known and respected researchers and clinicians examine various facets of the problem.     

Crisis or creation?a systematic examination of "false memory syndrome"

In 1992, the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF), an advocacy organization for people claiming to be falsely accused of sexual abuse, announced the discovery of a new syndrome involving iatrogenically created false memories of childhood sexual abuse. This article critically examines the assumptions underlying “False Memory Syndrome” to determine whether there is sufficient empirical evidence to support it as a valid diagnostic construct. Epidemiological evidence is also examined to determine whether there is data to support its advocates' claim of a public health crisis or epidemic. A review of the relevant literature demonstrates that the existence of such a syndrome lacks general acceptance in the mental health field, and that the construct is based on a series of faulty assumptions, many of which have been scientifically disproven. There is a similar lack of empirical validation for claims of a “false memory” epidemic. It is concluded that in the absence of any substantive scientific support, “False Memory Syndrome” is best characterized as a pseudoscientific syndrome that was developed to defend against claims of child abuse.     

Lesbian Identity Management at Various Stages of the Coming Out Process: A Qualitative Study

This qualitative study is designed to explore how women at various stages of lesbian identity development make decisions about managing their identities. Management of identity was studied in terms of how women came out or stayed hidden and how they made decisions both to disclose and to conceal. The Cass (1984) Stage Allocation Measure was used as a means to categorize women at various stages of lesbian identity development. Twenty-five adult women were individually interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule. A journal was kept by each woman for one month. The major findings indicated that women at different stages of lesbian identity development use both disparate and similar identity-management and decision-making strategies. Underlying and connecting lesbian identity management and development was the need to maintain self-esteem and safety.     

"At my age I should be sitting under that tree": the impact of AIDS on Tanzanian lakeshore communities

In 1992, the author led a participatory rural appraisal (PRA) exercise for a community fisheries project in Kagera region, on the western side of Lake Victoria, Tanzania. The PRA team visited four settlements: the prime harbor settlement on Kerebe Island; N'toro beach, in Bukoba district, near the Ugandan border; Chamkwikwi landing site in Muleba district; and Buzirayombo bay settlement in Biharamulo district in the south. This article draws on that research, to give an outsider's analysis of the ways in which AIDS was changing livelihoods in poor fishing and farming communities. On the lakeshore and islands, adults were falling ill and dying. This loss of men and women in their prime was causing major economic and social stresses for the single parents, grandparents, and orphans whom the authors met. They showed resilience and adaptability in the face of this threat to their already precarious livelihoods. The article ends by suggesting ways in which development policy makers and practitioners should support livelihoods in the era of AIDS.