A Dynamic Model of Welfare Reform

A dynamic structural model of labor supply, welfare participation, and food stamp participation is estimated using the 1992, 1993, and 1996 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Details of various policies including welfare time limits, work requirements, and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) are incorporated formally in the budget constraint. Policy simulations reveal that the economy accounts for half of the increase in the labor supply of female heads of family between 1992 and 1999. A time limit results in a larger efficiency gain than a work requirement or a direct reduction in welfare benefits. A reform package can lead to both a reduction in the government expenditure and an improvement in utility. The EITC expansion results in a substantial efficiency gain among individuals with the lowest expected wage. These individuals are almost unaffected by the economic expansion, but their income and utility increase significantly under the reform package.     

Exile,gender and identity: the short stories of Afghanistani author Maryam Mahboob

The last two decades of the twentieth century witnessed the largest migration of the Afghanistani population in modern history. More than six million people migrated to neighbouring countries, and to North America, Europe and Australia. Among them were almost all of Afghanistan's female authors; some eventually returned, but others chose to remain in diaspora. Some stopped writing, while others have continued. Maryam Mahboob was the first Afghanistani female author to leave Afghanistan (in 1981). Her major works since then have dealt chiefly with the issues of women living in ‘Outlandia’. Having been treated as second-class citizens in Afghanistan, how do Afghanistani migrant women perceive their social status in a new environment? How has migration affected the lives of Afghanistani women of different generations? Have they assimilated with the new culture and adopted new identities, or have they retained their cultural identities and stayed in closed communities? How do these women perceive their ‘new home’ vis-à-vis the ‘old home-land’. What does it mean to be a female author from a Third World Islamic society living and writing in the First World? Why does Mahboob still write overwhelmingly about themes from her place of origin and in her native language, after so much time abroad?     

托马斯·霍布斯财产权利理论的政治哲学解析

托马斯·霍布斯的财产权利不仅仅具有实现自然权利的工具性价值,而且对其具有构成性价值。在霍布斯的政治哲学中,政治合法性开始从财产权利中获得依据,个人自由是财产权利的一个功能,并且社会正义是基于财产权利的一种分配正义。     

“We Can Have It All”

Focusing primarily on films made in 2008 and 2009, this article examines the phenomenon of the girlfriend flick. Films such as Sex and the City, Baby Mama, The Women, and Bride Wars depict female friendship's priority in intimate culture, celebrating supportive and loving relationships over heterosexual romance. Exploring these films through the intersection between feminism and postfeminism, this article asks whether the girlfriend flick transcends limited understandings of sisterhood to include difference and to constructively explore conflict between women. This article argues that these films advocate a retreat into a segregated female sphere; not as radicalisation, but as a space where women monitor each other's drive for physical perfection and/or marriage and motherhood. Ultimately, they depict female friendship as maintaining “representable” femininities and producing sameness.     

Discursive manoeuvres and hegemonic recuperations in New Zealand documentary representations of domestic violence

This article examines the production and promotion of A&;E's Rollergirls (2006), a US docu-soap featuring the Texas Roller Derby Lonestar Rollergirls (TXRD), the league that revived roller derby as a sport for female amateurs. Focusing on the representation of TXRD skaters in Rollergirls, as well as A&;E's promotional campaign for the series, this analysis is contextualized in relation to the role of female athleticism in contemporary US commercial culture. Relying on practices long used to trivialize women sports figures, Rollergirls' portrayals of TXRD skaters suggest ambivalence towards female athleticism as well as a desire to contain the gender-bent and sexually agential performances at the heart of women's roller derby. In addition to revealing the challenges television producers face in the representation of female athletes and other nonconformist women, the research offered here hopes to expand feminist television criticism beyond its conventional focus on fictional texts while also broadening feminist studies of sports media, which have centered primarily on news coverage.     

“Flawed Vessels”

The 2008 election was a watershed year in presidential politics, with two prominent women, Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, drawing national media attention to gendered themes during the election. This study investigates whether/how the media connected these historic female candidacies to feminism by evaluating the national news media's framing of feminism during the election. Using qualitative media discourse analysis, we analyze how discussions of these two prominent female candidates, as well as Barack Obama, were linked to framing of feminism in the news media. During the 2008 presidential election, the media recast evaluations of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Sarah Palin into a discussion of the status of modern feminism. The news media framed the movement as fractured, highlighting existing conflicts within the feminist movement, while legitimizing post-feminism and choice feminism through the perspectives of the Obama and Palin nominations. The news media also trivialized the movement by emphasizing style over substance in their assessments of whether candidates were (or were not) feminists. The results suggest feminist movement actors and goals may not substantially benefit from greater media attention prompted by increasing numbers of female candidates.     

Female Employment and Divorce: Taking Into Account a Social Multiplier

A model of interactions of marriage and labor markets, taking into account a feedback process from aggregate divorce rates on individuals' decisions, explains why small changes in men's attitudes towards sharing the breadwinner role with their wives may change female labor force participation rates and divorce rates considerably.     

适合女大学生特点的公共体育课程内容设置及体系构建

当前普通高校中女大学生人数比例已经超过了男生。公共体育课程对女大学生身体、心理及其健全人格的培养具有重要作用,因此,建立符合时代需要、适合女大学生身心特点发展需要的公共体育课程内容及体系十分关键。通过调查了解女大学生的需求,结合新时期对于人才的需要,以及培养女大学生健全人格等方面的要求,应该设置构建有特点的公共体育课程内容体系。     

建构与解构:民族女工性别化技能研究

“性别化技能”的核心含义是不同性别学习接受不同技能,由此形成的男女能力差异是造成性别不平等的直接原因。本文分析研究了少数民族女工性别化技能建构与解构的逻辑机理,认为性别技能是由家庭、社区、学校、工作单位、社会传媒等结构性力量与女工个体性因素相互作用所建构,其历史成因是民族习俗与父权制的安排,现实动因则是资本对父权红利、性别租金的追逐,而创造相同、维护差异、习得新技能则是民族女工解构性别技能的主要策略与路径。     

英语常见拼写错误心理分析

语言学习的过程从根本上讲是一个心理过程。人为什么会出错 ?这与个人异常心理有很大关系。本文拟从心理语言学的角度阐述个人异常心理因素对单词拼写负面的影响。