How Does Divorce Affect Iranian Women's Sexual Well-Being?

Sexuality and divorce are two interwoven subjects with complex effects on women's sexual well-being in Iranian culture. Results of this exploratory study using focus group discussions and individual interviews revealed how the sexual well-being of women was influenced by the divorce experience through common patterns and recurring themes. A total of 26 women participated voluntarily in the study. They were approached through a selected social support group in a center in West Tehran in 2011, and all had been divorced for less than 10 years. For the majority, sexuality-related matters became complicated and jeopardized their overall well-being in postdivorce life. This finding, along with the fact that the majority were seeking financial and emotional support, implies that counseling women and providing economic support for postdivorce life might improve women's sexual well-being.     

GENDER,OCCUPATIONAL CLASS AND WORK–LIFE CONFLICT

Although people from different countries may report similar scores on measures of work–life conflict, the factors which give rise to conflict may in fact be very different. Full-time working respondents to the 2002 Family module International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) in both Portugal and Britain were assessed for country, gender and occupational class differences in work–life conflict, focusing on both work and domestic spheres. Two distinct groups emerged as having very high levels of work–life conflict: routine and manual women in Portugal and professional and managerial women in Britain. It is suggested that very long hours of domestic work, combined with worries over unsatisfactory childcare arrangements and a lack of support from partners and informal networks, contribute to the high levels of conflict experienced by women working in routine and manual occupations in Portugal. The pressures of very long working hours, combined with a perception of increasing work demands, as well as additional domestic work, contribute to the high levels of work–life conflict for women working in professional and managerial occupations in Britain.     

Feminist In(ter)ventions in Family Therapy†

Family therapy is often receptive to new ideas but so far it has only engaged with the second wave of feminisms in a restrained and conditional way. In this article we map the influence of feminisms on the life of family therapy and conclude that its dominant conceptual frameworks have so far resisted feminist revision. Ironically, while feminist post-modernist thought has helped to loosen the modernist grip on family therapy, family therapy's embrace of post-modernism synthesizes and displaces rather than centres feminist concerns. Since post-modernism is not post-patriarchal, the result may be exclusion of feminist perspectives that offer a principled and liberating way through current dilemmas in family therapy. Feminist perspectives are not mere voices among others; they hold promise for the development of a more inclusive theory and practice based on a valuing of inter-connectedness and an ethics of care and responsibilty.     

Single Mothers and Supermyths

Past theories concerning the causation of ex-nuptial pregnancy are reviewed. Current claims that large numbers of single women are deliberately setting out to become pregnant so they will have something to love and something to live on are critically considered. Each of these theories is likely to explain why some women become pregnant, but it is argued that none of them is generally applicable. Statistical and survey evidence supports the argument that the ‘Superdoll Syndrome’ is as mythical as its predecessors.     

Two Approaches to Seeing People with Disabilities

This study tests the possibility that attitudes to people with disabilities can be divided into two types: attitudes at the societal level and attitudes at the personal level. This distinction was made with the aim of clarifying ambiguities from previous research. One test of the proposed distinction rests on the assumption that personal contact with people with disabilities will influence attitudes at the personal level but not at the societal level. Sixty subjects were assigned to either a control group or intervention groups which experienced interventions involving a person with a disability. The attitudes of all subjects were measured one month before and at the time of the intervention. Data on prior contact were also collected. The results, which supported the two level approach, are discussed in terms of their implications for improving attitudes to people with disabilities.     

Urbanization, caring for elderly people and the changing African family: The challenge to social policy

An inquiry into the role of social welfare in the development process in Africa must start by determining the position of the family in the face of all the social changes that are taking place. The role of the traditional African family may be broadly subdivided into its social role, its economic role and its role as an agent for the transmission and renewal of sociocultural values. Intraditional African societies, there is a complex interaction between the members of the family and the community. Social organization centres on the kinship group and the age group. The economic, political and sociocultural values of present-day Africa, with its sprawling urban centres and industrial zones, differ increasingly from its traditional values. In Africa, the concept of development has been greatly influenced by the colonial experience and Western modernization theory which posited that economic development and growth, mainly through industrialization, would automatically raise the living standards and meet the social needs of the population. Social welfare was viewed as a non-productive activity and therefore accorded a low priority in national development planning and resource allocation. In such a context, the scope of social policy is limited and cannot deal with the critical problems of mass poverty and deprivation afflicting the majority of African peoples, especially in rural areas. The family is disintegrating and social change has brought in its wake a host of new social problems which remedial social welfare services are not adequate to meet. Using Ghana as an example, this paper will critically examine these key issues and make recommendations for effective social policies and programmes that must be incorporated centrally into national development plans.