Feminist and empowerment theory and social work practice

Feminist and empowerment theories are especially important to the understanding of individual and sociopolitical levels of social work assessment and intervention. Incorporating feminist and empowerment approaches in practice will provide social workers with the knowledge, values and skills most likely to promote human rights and social justice. In this paper, we present an overview of both theories and illustrate them with a case example.     

Middle School Children's Perceptions on Welfare and Poverty: An Exploratory, Qualitative Study

This study was undertaken to determine how middle school children assess the effects of welfare reform on their daily lives. The study consisted of thirty interviews with children and their mothers recruited from a middle school in a large, metropolitan area. From the children's perspective, multiple jobs and evening/night hours interfered with the child-parent relationship. Other consequences included grades going down and not getting to school on time. All the children stated that mothers should work, but most children felt mothers should only work when their children are in school. Welfare and poverty were issues about which children were teased at school.     

Presidential Address: Heroes,Warriors, and Burqas: A Feminist Sociologist's Reflections on September 11

My presidential address looked back at the gendered imagery of American heroes and warriors, Muslim terrorists, and oppressed Islamic women as they appeared in comparatively sophisticated media sources in the first 6 months after September 11. The imagery was conventionally gendered, but the actions of women and men reported in the same sources showed multiple gendering—heterogeneity within homogeneity. Making this multiplicity of gendering visible blurs and undermines gender lines and the inequities built on them. The social constructions of heroism, masculinity, and Islamic womanhood are core parts of the gender politics of September 11, a politics deeply embedded in the current debates over the causes and consequences of terrorism and war.     

Living Arrangements, Employment Status, and the Economic Well-Being of Mothers: Evidence from Brazil, Chile, and the U.S

Using data from Brazil, Chile, and the U.S., we estimate country specific models of household income that characterize mothers according to their marital status, living arrangement, and employment status. We assess the predicted economic well-being of each type of mother relative to a benchmark of married mothers in the same country, and at various points in the income distribution. We find dramatic cross-country differences in the distribution of mothers across categories, but few differences in each type's relative economic status. In all three countries and at all points in the income distribution, mothers who are the only adults in their households have the lowest levels of predicted income, while married mothers—followed closely by cohabitors—have the highest levels.     

西方女性主义文论与中国的女性文学发展

西方女性主义文论的背景(女权主义运动)及其理论成果对中国女性意识的崛起和女性文学的发展有着或深或浅的影响作用。通过梳理西方女性主义文论的兴起和中国女性文学的发展，指出这种影响作用是相互的，它不仅对促进中国文学创作的发展、审美价值观念的更新和批评话语的重建，乃至中国的妇女解放，都有着十分重要的现实意义，而且对世界范围内的女性主义文论的成熟和进一步发展，也能起到一定的促进和参照作用。     

女性主义与基础教育课程建设——一个本土化的理论思考

女性主义思想最早进入教育领域是在美国的课程概念重建运动中,如何将西方的女性主义课程理论引入我国基础教育是作者思考的问题.本文主要结合理论梳理和现状分析,从课程设置和课程实施两个方面探索变革当下基础教育课程的思路,以期推进我国基础教育课程的建设.     

林语堂的女性观探源

林语堂的小说把女性的地位提到了一个相当的高度.其创作模式受到多方面的影响首先,受到西方女权主义运动和西方主流文化的影响;其次,西式的教育和所处的位置使林语堂美化着古老中国的一切,包括一些糟粕;最后,作为一个男性作家,林语堂难以摆脱男权文化的影响,在创作中不自觉地歧视女性.可以说林语堂的女性观是一种不正确的女性观,他笔下的女性是被男人欲望化的女性.     

African American Children's Adjustment: The Roles of Maternal and Teacher Depressive Symptoms

This study examined the unique and interactive roles of mother and teacher depressive symptoms in child adjustment in 277 African American single mother‐headed families, as well as whether the associations differed depending on the age and gender of the child. Findings revealed a significant association between maternal depressive symptoms and child depressive symptoms in girls, but not boys. Moreover, the combination of higher levels of both mother and teacher depressive symptoms was associated with the highest level of child depressive symptoms and, for younger children, externalizing symptoms. The importance of considering the multiple social contexts in which children interact is discussed.     

美国女性主义文化研究述评

女权主义在欧美作为一种思想活动和一种政治策略已经有了一段很长的历史。虽然女性主义一开始就不是传统意义上的独立学科,因为它既在现存学科之中,又在现存学科之外,曾一度被称为是只有观点,没有理论和方法的非学术政治。如今,在文化研究和文化社会学的领域,人们对大众文化中的女性形象表现出与日俱增的兴趣,使之成为广泛复苏的女权主义和女权主义理论的组成部分。美国女性主义文化研究在这方面提供了有力证明。     

西方思想的传入与中国女性主义的崛起--新文化运动时期女性主义的思想来源

新文化运动时期的女性主义的产生,受到了西方思想的启迪和影响:西方女性主义开辟的话语系统,提出的讨论范畴,如婚姻自主、人格独立、参政权、教育权、产儿制限等,被直接用于新文化运动前期女性主义的建构中;马克思主义女性观随着马克思主义在中国的广泛传播也进入中国,并以其阶级的视角而成为新文化运动后期女性主义的指导思想。