Digital Commons Network^™

(Mis)Appropriated Liberty: Identity, Gender Justice And Muslim Personal Law Reform In India, Cyra Akila Choudhury

Faculty Publications

This article argues that in order to emancipate Indian-Muslim women from an outdated family legal code, their position at the intersection of gender and a minority religion must be taken seriously. Proposals for reform that have been suggested by Western liberal, secular feminists that ignore the importance of women's religious affiliation fail to do this. Moreover, by making assumptions about the strength of secularism in India, the willingness of the state to enact legal reforms driven by gender concerns, and by failing to acknowledge the limits of formal rights alone in changing norms, these scholars do not account for the …

Zouave Stories: Gender, Catholic Spirituality, And French Responses To The Roman Question, Carol E. Harrison

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Do You Have The Time? Changes In And Implications Of Spouses' Time Together, Jeffrey P. Dew

Faculty Publications

Many Americans say they do not spend enough time with their families. Social changes such as increased productivity expectations in the workplace and the movement of mothers into the paid labor force have added to the feeling that family time is scarce. Time is perceived to be an extremely rare commodity in the U.S., and families desire to spend more of it together.

Steeplechase Barriers Affect Women Less Than Men, Tyler D. Bushnell, Iain Hunter

Faculty Publications

Women began contesting the 3000 m steeplechase during the 1990’s using barriers of different dimensions than men. Whenever a new event is introduced for women, consideration should be taken as to whether different technique or training methods should be utilized. This study investigated three aspects of hurdling technique: 1) Differences in the ratio of the landing step to the penultimate step between men and women around each non-water jump steeplechase barrier, 2) differences in step lengths between the four non-water jump barriers, and 3) changes in the step lengths around the barrier throughout the race. The step lengths around the …

Gendering The City, Gendering The Nation: Contesting Urban Space In Fes, Morocco, Rachel Newcomb

Faculty Publications

An actor-centered approach to the gendering of urban spaces demonstrates how individuals respond to competing ideologies in determining the rules that surround women’s presence in urban, Muslim spaces. This article examines how women in the Ville Nouvelle of Fes, Morocco draw on local conceptualizations of hospitality, kinship, and shame as they debate the gendering of four urban areas: the street, the café, a cosmopolitan exercise club, and cyber space. Women’s tactics for occupying social space indicate the resilience of local culture in the face of ideologies that attempt to posit a specific vision of women in the Moroccan nation state.

Mi Mama Es Bonito: Acquisition Of Spanish Gender By Native English Speakers, Scott M. Alvord, Lisa Griebling Mccowen

Faculty Publications

For an adult, learning a second language can be a complex and demanding task. Differences between one’s native language and the target language can contribute to the complexity of the task. One significant way in which languages can differ is the system of gender. The difference between gender in English and Spanish provides a challenge for adult native English speakers learning Spanish as a second language. The aim of the current study is to examine gender marking on a variety of tasks by adult NS of English as beginning learners of Spanish, with hopes that such examination will provide insight …

The Persistence Of White Privilege, Stephanie M. Wildman

Faculty Publications

Most discussions of white privilege emphasize the individual benefit to the holder of privilege. Yet dynamics beyond the individual combine to reinforce and reinvent white privilege. Socio-cultural factors operate in conjunction with material forces, enabling whites to self-perpetuate as a dominant racialized identity. Material forces such as the distribution of societal goods and resources, the division of labor, and immigration policies, create a world that privileges whiteness. Socio-cultural factors, including discursive practices, patterns of behavior, and the thinking patterns that language creates, further strengthen white privilege, contributing to its endurance.

This article focuses on four socio-cultural factors that reinforce white …

Paradoxes Of Health And Equality: When A Boy Becomes A Girl, Noa Ben-Asher

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In the fall of 2000, six-year-old male Zachary from a small town in Ohio, claimed that s/he was a girl and requested, from now on, to be called Aurora. When the child's parents honored this unusual wish and made efforts to make official the child's feminine identity, the case turned into a custody battle between the parents and the state of Ohio. Although the child was occasionally treated as a girl at home from the age of two, the attempt to register the child in public school as a girl motivated the state dissolution of this family. At the …

Onset Of Major Depressive Disorder Among Adolescents, John P. Hoffmann, Scott A. Baldwin, Felicia G. Cerbone

Faculty Publications

Objectives: To examine the association between parental affective disorders and psychoactive substance use disor- ders and the onset of major depressive disorder (MDD) among adolescents and young adults and to determine whether this association is affected by stressful life events, family cohesion, self-esteem, or gender. Method: Prospective cohort study of 804 adolescents, aged 11–17 years, and their parents who were followed for seven consecutive years. The sam- ple was drawn from the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. Parental diagnoses were based on Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R administered during study screening stage. Diagnoses of MDD and age of onset were based …

Reinforcing The Myth Of The Crazed Rapist: A Feminist Critique Of Recent Rape Legislation, Christina E. Wells, Erin Elliott

Faculty Publications

Part I of this article reviews these new legislative provisions, discussing their requirements as well as the general impetus behind their enactment. Part II discusses both the history of rape prosecution and feminist efforts in the 1970s and 1980s to eliminate barriers to successful rape prosecutions. This part also elaborates upon the myth of the crazed rapist and its relationship to feminist reform efforts. Part III explains how the current legislation is rooted in and reinforces that myth by encouraging unsupportable distinctions among rape defendants. Finally, Part IV discusses the feminist response to such laws and argues for a more …

Gender And Bilinguals' Creativity, Wendy Baker

Faculty Publications

Research on the influence of gender on language across different cultures has mostly concentrated on qualitative measures of analysis. These measures demonstrate that there are differences in rhetorical and literary style across world Englishes in both and outer circle. Using Biber's multidimensional analysis (1988) to examine a large corpus of world English literatures written in Indian, West African, Britain, Anglo-American and Mexican American varieties of English, this paper examines whether quantitative analyses can also be insightful and useful in the examination of the influence of gender on language and in expanding our understanding of what "bilingual creativity" entails. The results …

Varieties Of Religion-Family Linkages, John R. Snarey, David C. Dollahite

Faculty Publications

The 4 articles in this special issue make important contributions to both family and religious studies as well as to their interface. This commentary begins by considering 4 unifying themes present across all of the articles, including meaningful religion-family linkages, the importance of gender differences in the faith-family interface, the significance of intergenerational relationships, and the need for better theory. The authors then discuss the unique major strength and secondary limitations of each study. Finally, the commentary focuses on two challenges inhibiting the contemporary study of religion and the family–a relative lack of racial and religious diversity in samples and …

Gender Differences In Sexual Behaviors And Factors Associated With Nonuse Of Condoms Among Homeless And Runaway Youths, Duncan A. Mackeller, Linda A. Valleroy, John P. Hoffmann, Donna Glebatis, Marlene Lalota, William Mcfarland, Johnny Westerholm, Robert S. Janssen

Faculty Publications

Few studies have examined gender-specific factors associated with the nonuse of condoms among homeless and runaway youths (HRYs)–a population at high risk for HIV infection. In this article, we evaluate these factors and explore gender differences in background experiences, psychosocial functioning, and risk behaviors among HRYs from four U.S. metropolitan areas. Of 879 sexually active HRYs sampled, approximately 70% reported unprotected sexual intercourse during a 6-month period, and nearly a quarter reported never using condoms in the same period. Among males and females, having only one sex partner in the previous 6 months had the strongest association with nonuse of …

Statutory Rape Law And Enforcement In The Wake Of Welfare Reform, Rigel C. Oliveri

Faculty Publications

The recent national efforts at reforming the welfare system and new research on the connection between teen pregnancy and statutory rape have led many states to enact stricter laws against statutory rape and to increase the enforcement of existing laws. Punitive statutory rape laws are being viewed more and more as a mechanism for shrinking the welfare rolls by reducing teen pregnancy. Rigel Oliveri documents the resurgence of statutory rape law and enforcement and explores the ramifications it will have on teen parents. In particular, Oliveri approaches the issue from several analytical frameworks, discussing arguments for consent-based standards, the privacy …

Childhood Aggression And Gender: A New Look At An Old Problem, Nicki R. Crick, Nicole E. Werner, Juan F. Casas, Kathryn M. O'Brien, David A. Nelson, Jennifer K. Grotpeter, Kristian Markon

Faculty Publications

Because of its deleterious effects on individuals and society, and the important role that it has been given in several theories of human behavior (e.g., psychoanalytic theory, social learning theory; Freud, 1930; Bandura & Walters, 1959; Bandura, 1986), aggression has been one of the most widely researched topics in the past several decades. Although many important advances have been made in our understanding of aggressive behavior, most of this knowledge has been gained through the study of aggressive males only (Crick & Dodge, 1994; Parke, 1992; Robins, 1986) and through the study of forms of aggression that are more characteristic …

Hypocrites And Barking Harlots: The Clinton-Lewinsky Affair And The Attack On Women, Christina E. Wells

Faculty Publications

This essay defends against the wholesale castigation of women who support the President. It reveals that such criticism is wrong and unfair. Specifically, it demonstrates that the critics have unreasonably characterized women's responses to Clinton as hypocritical or extremely naive, rather than as examples of astute political decision-making. The essay further exposes the sexism underlying the critics' arguments, revealing that stereotypes regarding (1) women's role as the keeper of morals and (2) women as non-political or non-rational beings are at the heart of much of the criticism. By reinforcing these stereotypes, the critics pose a greater danger to women than …

Crossing The Line: The Political And Moral Battle Over Late-Term Abortion, Rigel C. Oliveri

Faculty Publications

This paper focuses on the political and moral debate surrounding two pieces of federal legislation which sought to criminalize a particular late term abortion technique scientifically known as "intact dilation and extraction," and popularly known as "partial birth abortion." The Congressional "Partial Birth Abortion" Bans of 1996 and 1997 inflamed the already emotionally charged contest over abortion rights. The intense lobbying and advocacy efforts put pro-choice activists in the uncomfortable position of having to defend one of the most extreme positions on the abortion-rights spectrum. The advocacy was further complicated by the fact that very few women obtain late term …

Through The Looking Glass: Can Title Vii Help Women And Minorities To Shatter The Glass Ceiling, Rafael Gely, Ramona L. Paetzold

Faculty Publications

The employment patterns of “nontraditional” workers in the United States show two conflicting characteristics. On the one hand, researchers have observed a continuing increase in the rate of participation of nontraditional workers at multiple levels in the work force. For example, the proportion of women white collar workers increased from twenty-two percent in the late 1960s to forty-six percent in 1992. Similarly, the average job tenure for nontraditional workers has also increased. For example, although males in the thirty-five to forty-four year old age group have experienced a small decline in job tenure, women in the same group have seen …

The Effects Of Gender On Career Decision Problems In Young Adults, Jeffry H. Larson, Mark Butler, Stephan Wilson, Nilufer Medora, Scot Allgood

Faculty Publications

The authors investigated gender differences in psychological problems in the career decision-making (CDM) process of young adults. Specifically, problems with decision anxiety, life-goal awareness, luck-fate orientation, authority orientation, and secondary gain motivation were investigated. Methodology involved administering the Career Decision Diagnostics Assessment (CDDA) instrument to 1,006 college students from four universities. Results indicated no gender differences in global levels of problems in CDM. Women reported more problems with life-goal awareness and authority orientation than did men. Men reported more problems with secondary gain motivations than did women. The results are discussed in terms of implications for gender-differentiated career counseling.