“留守”对西部农村妇女社会性别观念的影响

本文根据较大规模问卷抽样调查的结果,分析比较西部农村留守妇女与非留守妇女的社会性别观念。结果发现,留守妇女自身能力意识和事业价值观要强于非留守妇女,而非留守妇女在忠贞观、生育观方面要比留守妇女更加传统保守。回归分析结果表明,在对农村妇女自身特征如文化程度、年龄、家庭年收入等变量进行控制之后,留守对农村妇女的社会性别观念仍然有独立影响,这种影响主要表现在留守促进了农村妇女事业能力观、婚育贞节观以及总体社会性别观念从传统到现代的转变。     

西部农村留守妇女家庭压力及其影响因素分析

本文采用西部地区24个行政村千余名农村妇女的调查数据,探讨了农村留守妇女的家庭压力及影响因素。研究发现,留守确实增强了农村妇女的家庭压力,留守妇女承受的精神压力、经济压力、抚养赡养压力都要大于非留守妇女;留守妇女的年龄、家庭特征、当初择偶时对般配的重视程度、夫妻异质性、与外出丈夫的沟通状况、社会支持等因素对其家庭压力有不同程度的影响。提出建立夫妻间良好的沟通机制和构建社会支持网络的建议。     

高校图书馆女性馆员外在形象之我见

高校图书馆主要的职责是给读者提供服务,服务过程中馆员的形象直接或间接影响者服务质量。高校图书馆女性馆员占60%以上,女性馆员的形象在一定程度而言代表着高校图书馆的形象,文章从女性馆员的仪表风度、谈吐举止、着装搭配等等几方面来探讨高校图书馆女性馆员的外在形象。     

由《说文解字》“女”部字看中国古代妇女非主流的社会地位

《说文解字》“女”部字的构建和内涵折射出古代先民的审美情趣、道德传统和文化观念等社会信息。通过对出现在经典文献和字书中的“女”部字进行研究和考证,认为女性在古代社会是一个特殊的、非主导地位的和非正统的非主流群体。具体表现在古代女性的名字称谓具有特殊性,表示女性构件的“女”部与表示男性的构字部件具有不平衡性和非对称性,古代女性相对于男性而言有极其苛刻严格的审美标准等文化现象。     

Bringing ‘invisible’ side activities to light. A case study of rural female entrepreneurs in the Veenkoloniën,the Netherlands

Over the past 20 years, rural areas in Western societies have transformed from a production to a consumption space. Much research on rural diversification and revitalization has focused on farmers and their wives. However, it is useful to examine side activities run by non-farm women which have slowly emerged in the last few years. In view of discussions about rural decline, the value of such activities should be looked at in a new light. Although these activities may not significantly reverse unemployment figures, they have the potential to provide the social and emotional ‘glue’ to motivate a household to remain in declining areas as small-scale economic activities contribute to a better quality of life and a higher level of well-being. In this article we draw on the personal stories of women who undertake side activities in the Veenkoloniën, the Netherlands. We explore the factors that enable these women to start a side activity and the related organizational and emotional struggles they face while running such activities within the perimeter of their home. We further highlight the importance of side activities for the empowerment of women in rural households.     

The challenge of creating ‘alternative’ images of ageing: Lessons from a project with older women

This article analyses two participatory projects designed to engage older women in the creation of new imagery of old age. While it was hoped that this imagery would offer an ‘alternative’ to mainstream depictions or indeed offer older women a presence amidst the much noted absence of images of older women, the brief left it open to the professional photographers recruited to the project and to the participants themselves to direct the representations. In recent years, critical gerontologists have repeatedly called for artistic challenges to conventional ways of imaging old age. By working with two groups of older women, the intention was that ‘ordinary’ older women (non-celebrity, non-artist) could be included in that challenge and imagery created which would show the lives of older women honestly. In the case of the two projects described here, professional photographers were enlisted to give visual form to the women's views on ageing and their lives as older women and deliver ‘exhibition quality’ images. Important factors in determining the types of images produced included the artistic style and preferences of the photographers and their respective ages, both of which are explored here. In-depth analysis of some of the images produced shows that while they did not succumb to the usual ‘heroes of ageing’/‘bodily decline’ binary (Featherstone & Hepworth, 2005), they did not escape other dualistic categorisations. The images can be broadly viewed as nostalgic/melancholic or humorously carnivalesque. This finding is evidence of how difficult it is to create ‘alternative’ images of older women which defy established modes of categorisation.     

Rural ageing in the United States: Trends and contexts

This paper examines rural population ageing in the United States with a particular focus on the contrasting contexts in which older rural residents live. We compare the characteristics of the older population by rural versus urban residence, and explore challenges and opportunities associated with the ageing of rural baby boomers. The United States is a vast territory, and rural areas in the US are diverse regionally, in poverty and income, principal forms of employment, proximity to metropolitan areas, population size, density and composition, the history of change in these parameters, and a number of other factors that affect the ageing process. Hence, the diversity across rural areas is an important consideration in what affects the well being of rural elderly individuals, as well as the community-level impacts of rural ageing. Further, the characteristics of the older rural population help shape community and rural development outcomes for diverse rural communities. We use data from various US Census Bureau sources, and cite other studies to provide a demographic overview of ageing in the rural United States, and to analyze how this situation differs in varying socio-demographic and regional contexts. In the concluding section, we focus on policy implications associated with rural ageing.     

Understanding the High Rates of Employment among Low‐educated Women in Portugal: A Comparatively Oriented Case Study

This article addresses the question of why Portugal is an exception among southern European countries in having a high rate of female employment. Cross‐national data show an even greater gap between Portugal and its southern European neighbours in the employment rates for low‐educated women. This article presents case‐based evidence on the work orientations, gender relations and reconciliation strategies of low‐educated women working in the clothing industry in Portugal. The analysis reveals that while economic need plays an important role in their attachment to employment, their work decisions are forged by a complex set of attitudes regarding employment and the family. Traditional values regarding the role of women in the family co‐exist with more modern values regarding their employment participation. Moreover, the institutional arrangements of childcare and reconciliation also appear to be more supportive than might be expected in a southern Europe welfare state. By focusing on a particular group of low‐educated women, the findings suggest that the same welfare policies may have different impacts on the reconciliation strategies of women of different socioeconomic groups.     

Gender differences in faculty attrition in the USA

In this study, we examined possible gender differences in reasons for faculty attrition during the last 20 years at a small women's liberal arts college. The attrition rate was calculated from archival data collected through old college directories. As in earlier studies, the attrition rate was higher for women (31%) than for men (18.5%). Reasons for leaving the college were assessed in an online survey completed by 45 out of 66 tenure-track or tenured professors who left (excluding retirees). Work–family conflict was the most frequently cited reason for leaving, with disproportionately more women than men giving this reason. Open-ended responses revealed that work–family conflict typically referred to the difficulty of coordinating two careers. Female faculty who left were also significantly more dissatisfied than males with the support for balancing work and family life at the college. The need for colleges to create spousal policies to help faculty coordinate dual careers was discussed.     

Predictors of employment among sheltered homeless women

The effect of homelessness on the psychological and physical health of women is damaging and long lasting. Understanding of the personal factors that enable homeless women to secure employment and re-enter mainstream society is of utmost importance. A sample of homeless women residing in a US Midwestern nonprofit treatment and transitional living shelter for homeless women and their children were surveyed regarding the extent to which life satisfaction, social self-efficacy, and hopeful thinking predicted women's expected capabilities to obtain employment above and beyond social support provisions, while controlling for participants' age, ethnicity, and education level. Findings failed to reveal that social psychological (i.e., life satisfaction and social self-efficacy) and intrapersonal (i.e., hope) variables predicted homeless women's job procurement self-efficacy above and beyond perceived social support. The social support provision of social integration and younger age significantly predicted women's self-efficacy to secure employment. Implications of results for social justice initiatives and interventions are discussed.