Canonized Women and Women Canonizers: Gender Dynamics in The Norton Anthology of English Literature’s Eight Editions

This article addresses the gender dynamics of the included canonized literature of each edition of the Norton Anthology of English Literature as related to the gender dynamics of the editorial staff, the publication date of each of the eight editions, and the feminist criticism prominent at the time of publication. The project combines quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the construction of the literary canon. The project finds that there is a direct correspondence between the number of women editors and the percent of the total pages of each edition occupied by works by women writers. The project also finds a correlation between the gender makeup of the editorial staff and a leap in included women writers in the fifth edition and the emergence of gynocriticism in the 1980s. The project recognizes the establishment of a separate canon for women’s literature that corresponds with this shift. The research indicates that as time passes, the inclusion of women writers in the literary canon and the editorial staff of the Anthology generally increase.     

Deprivation, ill-health and the ecological fallacy

The use of ecological studies in explaining the relationship between deprivation and ill-health is widespread in many health applications. However, inferences drawn from these studies about individuals are susceptible to serious bias known as the ecological fallacy. Our paper demonstrates the ecological fallacy effect in this context but also shows how it can be considerably reduced by taking into account different population structures at the aggregate level. Two regression analyses of limiting long-term illness are performed, one at the individual level and one at the electoral ward level, using the 1991 UK census sample of anonymized records and the small area statistics. The analyses compare several measures of deprivation including the standard Carstairs index, with the separate variables which make up the indices, to determine their effectiveness in explaining rates of illness. Two of the deprivation scores are constructed using latent variable modelling techniques which enable a score to be generated at the individual level as well as at the ward level. It is shown that, given the right choice of socioeconomic variables and taking into account the age structure of the population, it should be possible to construct a single aggregate deprivation index that will explain most of the variation in rates of illness across the study region.     

Socioeconomic indexes and the new 1980 census occupational classification scheme

Because of their usefulness in a wide variety of research, socioeconomic scores have been revised several times to incorporate changes in the relevant components of the occupational structure and to conform with the changing census occupational classification schemes. The major purpose of this paper is to provide socioeconomic scores for the 1980 census occupational classification scheme. First, however, we review earlier versions of the socioeconomic index (SEI), summarize the relevant disparities between the 1970 and 1980 census occupational classificatory schemes, and then explain in detail the procedures used to reconcile the SEI with 1980 occupational codes. We also show that, although the 1980 occupational classificatory scheme differs radically from the 1970 occupational scheme, the socioconomic scores for 1980 occupational data replicate features found in 1970 data.     

Education in the Context of Conflict and Instability: The Palestinian Case

This paper draws on the results of a study carried out in the West Bank, in 1999, to explore the role of education as a coping strategy among the children of Palestinian refugees, and to examine how the state of being refugees affects perceptions of the value and importance of education. The paper first reviews the background to the development of a formal education system in Palestine and considers the different approaches to education in different political contexts, with ensuing particular reference to the West Bank. The findings of the regional study are then reported, with special reference to the various functions of education as a coping strategy—remedial, incentive‐mobilizing and identity‐building. Education, for those who have lost their property and whose identity is under threat, emerges as a key channel for maintaining consciousness of collective rights.     

Uniform stochastic orderings and total positivity

Uniform stochastic orderings of random variables are expressed as total positivity (TP) of density, survival, and distribution functions. The orderings are called uniform because each is a stochastic order that persists under conditioning to a family of intervals—for example, the family consisting of all intervals of the form (-∞,x]. This paper is concerned with the preservation of uniform stochastic ordering under convolution, mixing, and the formation of coherent systems. A general TP₂ result involving preservation of total positivity under integration is presented and applied to convolutions and mixtures of distribution and survival functions. Log-concavity of distribution, survival, and density functions characterizes distributions that preserve the various orderings under convolution. Likewise, distributions that preserve orderings under mixing are characterized by TP₂ distribution and survival functions.     

Women's experiences of male-perpetrated sexual assault by sexual orientation

This study examined differences in male-perpetrated adult sexual assault experiences among women of various sexual orientations using a large urban convenience sample (N = 1,022). Results showed many similarities in disclosure to others, perceived helpfulness, and attributions of blame, but there were also differences by sexual orientation. Heterosexual women were more likely to experience completed sexual assault than lesbian or bisexual women. Lesbians were more likely to be assaulted by relatives than bisexual or heterosexual women. Finally, bisexual women disclosed the assault to the greatest number of formal support sources, were most likely to tell a romantic partner about the assault, received the fewest positive social reactions overall, and had higher posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology.     

How Changes in Sending Countries Influenced Patterns of Interracial Families Through Intercountry Adoption

The racial characteristics of children adopted from abroad by American parents have fluctuated sharply over time in response to changing legislation and attitudes toward intercountry adoptions in the United States and the sending countries. This study investigates how the likelihood of parents adopting a White versus non-White child varies by the characteristics of the adopted child, the parents, and the household. Our analyses, using the 2008–2012 American Community Survey, show that parents consider the child's age, sex, and health; the presence of adopted and biologically related children in the household; and shifts in the availability of children across major sending countries.     

Politics and land in Matatiele 1844–1900: A report from the archives

This essay is concerned with some of the details of the history of Matatiele District, in its wider East Griqualand context, from the mid‐nineteenth century to the 1900s. The Griqua State (capital at Kokstad) is well documented as is the general history of a South African peasantry, a topic which has also inspired a number of specific regional studies. But the polity established by Nehemiah Sekhonyana Moshesh at Matatiele has not been studied and was sufficiently important and long‐lasting to deserve some attention.

Section 1 attempts to show the need to consider Lesotho's influence in the Drakensberg/Matatiele area as opposed to the more obvious Griqua connection; section 2 suggests how weak the Griqua link was in day to day practice. These case studies also provide good illustrations of a number of important themes in both colonial and South African history. Nehemiah's relationship with local and imperial authorities displays well the contrast between local ‘settler’ colonialism with its ‘white settler'concern, its farming vents herding tensions, anditsnearparanoiaaboutpowerful ‘native’ blocs;and long‐distance imperialism which sought ‘control’ without responsiblity (and therefore expense), an attitude that led to a greater tolerance (and sometimes a more realistic assessment) of existing political influence and powers. Land issues likewise seem to demonstrate the validity of the Wilson/Bundy thesis about the early prosperity of the black peasantry, which flourished beside and even ahead of white farming interests in some cases. One of the main themes of section 2 is the irrelevance of ‘colour’ where acquisition of land was concerned, the ability and desire of blacks to become farmers, the scarcity of white takers in an era of supposed ‘white’ preference.