Aging and identity politics

In this essay, I reflect on multiple identities—woman, lesbian, old—as they interconnect at different life stages. I raise an issue of identity politics (Is “old” as fundamental an identity as “woman”?) and suggest that critical gerontology offers a lens through which to interpret my personal journey from a core feminist identity to a questioning and ambivalent identity as an old woman.     

Colorstruck: Skin Color Stratification in the Lives of African American Women

This paper examines the stratification among African American women by skin color on indices such as education, income, and spousal status. How racial and colonial ideologies situate whiteness and blackness as symbolic representations in relation to one another and the subsequent systems of discrimination that develop from those ideologies is the crux of the theoretical argument in this paper. Infusing the concept of constructed notions of beauty into this racial paradigm further elaborates this process for African American women. I hypothesized that light-skinned women would have higher educational attainment, higher personal incomes, and would be more likely to marry high-status husbands than would darker-skinned women. Even when controlling for background variables, all three of the hypotheses are confirmed and the significance of skin color, particularly the privileging of lightness, is demonstrated.     

Absent and Problematic Men: Demographic Accounts of Male Reproductive Roles

Both men and women are important actors in bringing children into life, yet demographic studies on reproduction have tended to focus on women alone. The aims of this article are: 1) to describe why men have attracted limited interest as subjects of such research; 2) to evaluate existing research on men's roles in developing countries; and 3) to suggest directions for future research on male reproductive roles. Men, once neglected, are now included in research on fertility but from a narrow, overly problem‐oriented perspective. A review of the literature, however, raises questions about the adequacy of a problem oriented approach. The authors argue that demography should focus on men not only as women's partners, but also as individuals with distinct reproductive histories. In situations, now increasingly common, where the links between marriage and childbearing erode, the differences in men's and women's reproductive experiences and the costs and benefits of parenting will become more salient for future research.     

Professor Petcock, or How the Academy Turns on Queer Studies

As an intellectually out lesbian faculty member, the author is keenly aware of her ornamental function vis-a-vis lesbian/gay and straight colleagues alike. Academically cast as a kind of regulating valve, she, through her work in gay and lesbian literature, ostensibly opens up the possibilities for diesel research throughout the university. Yet, her status as Professor Petcock—the dyke with intellectual and other equipment—belies institutional willingness to allow queer research, together with opportunities for political and social change within the university, to evaporate, evanesce.     

Regulating Under Uncertainty: Newsboy for Exposure Limits

Setting action levels or limits for health protection is complicated by uncertainty in the dose-response relation across a range of hazards and exposures. To address this issue, we consider the classic newsboy problem. The principles used to manage uncertainty for that case are applied to two stylized exposure examples, one for high dose and high dose rate radiation and the other for ammonia. Both incorporate expert judgment on uncertainty quantification in the dose-response relationship. The mathematical technique of probabilistic inversion also plays a key role. We propose a coupled approach, whereby scientists quantify the dose-response uncertainty using techniques such as structured expert judgment with performance weights and probabilistic inversion, and stakeholders quantify associated loss rates.     

FATHERS,WORK AND FAMILY LIFE

This paper presents a policy analysis of fathers’ use of paternity leave, parental leave and flexible work practices across several industrialised countries. From the late 1990s there has been a rapid expansion of leave and flexible working provision targeted at fathers, especially in the Nordic countries. New evidence on predictors and patterns of fathers’ leave taking are reviewed. Findings suggest that paternal leave taking has the potential to boost fathers’ practical and emotional investment in infant care.     

Border crossings/translations: Resources of hope in community work with women in Greater Manchester

This article offers two case studies of community development work undertaken in Greater Manchester, United Kingdom, focusing on a Somali Women's Health Day and the work of a community arts project with Asian women, Black Issues in Community Arts/Karishma. The analysis of the operation of racialised borders and the role of women's work in mediating these definitions of community is taken as a critical aspect of community development. Theoretical development of ideas about community development across division and difference draws on recent feminist theory on themes of hybridity and community. In both the accounts of practice and the theoretical debates, translation is the central practice analysed. Este artículo ofrece estudios de dos trabajos de desarrollo comunitario que tuvieron lugar en Greater Manchester en el Reino Unido. Se centra en un Día de la Salud de Mujeres Somalias y en un proyecto artístico entre mujeres provenientes del subcontinente de India llamado ‘Temas de Raza Negra en Artes Comunitarias/Karishma’. Se considera que el análisis de la operación de fronteras racistas y del rol de las mujeres en mediar estas delimitaciones es un aspecto crítico de desarrollo comunitario. Se recurre a la teoría reciente femenista sobre temas de hibrididad y comunidad para el desarrollo teórico de ideas acerca del desarrollo comunitario a través de división y diferencia.     

The Place of Single Session Family Consultations: Five Years’ Experience in Canberra

Open Day, in the form of two half day single session family clinics, has operated weekly in the ACT Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service since April 1993 and over a thousand families have been seen. Clinicians are often resistant to the concept of single sessions and frequently overestimate the amount of assistance that clients feel they require. However in an era of sharply increasing demand for services, selective use of single family sessions for milder problems, screened by a telephone intake process, has value to both families and workers. Telephone follow-ups of 100 families in 1994 and 70 families in 1996 found that single session family interviews were well accepted by the large majority of families seen. Clinicians see the program as reducing pressure from clients for early attention, enhancing client motivation when seen at crisis times, providing readily available consultation support from peers, increasing learning opportunities and building inter-disciplinary team work.     

Rethinking the construction of welfare in Mexico: Going beyond the economic measures

This study utilized a multidimensional measure of social welfare composed of 26 social indicators integrated in nine categories: education, employment and social protection, income, health, housing conditions, subjective wellbeing, social capital, use of technology, and culture and leisure to help understand social welfare in Mexico. We also compared the integrated measure with the Human Development Index. Estimation was performed using the method. Our analysis indicated that the health and housing conditions categories contributed the most to social welfare across the 32 Mexican States. In relation to the indicators, income and trust in other people were associated with welfare. Further, results on the welfare ranking of Mexican states revealed variations between the two indices and the HDI). Specifically, only four states occupied the same position on both indices, ten recorded different positions on moving up or down from their levels of social welfare. Implications of observed correlations are presented.