Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Recent African Immigrants’ Fatherhood Experiences In America: The Changing Role Of Fathers, Zacharia N. Nchinda

Trotter Review

This article examines the lived experiences of recent African immigrant fathers in the United States. It focuses specifically on recent African immigrant fathers with African women as wives and children below the age of 18. Its aim is a better understanding of these fathers’ involvement in the life of their children and the changes immigration has forced upon the fathers. Information for the study emanates from interviews carried out with African immigrant fathers in the Milwaukee area, supplemented by my knowledge of African immigrant communities. The categorization of the data uses a construct established by the mid-1990s DADS Project initiative …

Commentary: Creating A Pipeline For A More Inclusive Democracy, Joyce Ferriabough

Trotter Review

After the 2010 elections, the number of women holding elective office in Massachusetts plummeted to 1998 levels, with women comprising only 24 percent of all officeholders and 20 percent of local elected officials.

The figures for women of color who were officeholders were even starker: They held only 2 percent of elected offices, despite people of color comprising more than 20 percent of the state’s population. Women of color who are current officeholders in Massachusetts are typically the “first and only.” In the state senate, there is one woman of color, Sonia Chang-Diaz. She is the first Latina woman to …

Introduction, James Jennings

Trotter Review

We are proud to share with our readers the second annual issue of the Trotter Review. Since the first issue in 1984, the Trotter Review has grown to become a popular journal with a national and international readership. The journal has been particularly praised for its presentation and balance of scholarship informed by activism. We are currently planning future issues along the following themes: the experiences of Black children and the Black community with public schools; the historical and contemporary relationships between the Black and Native-American communities in the United States; and the role of Black educators in community …

Business Ownership Patterns Among Black, Latina, And Asian Women In Massachusetts, Russell E. Williams

Trotter Review

Using data from the most recently released Survey of Minority Businesses, this article explores the significance of businesses owned by minority women in Massachusetts. I describe the number of such businesses, the rates at which the number of such businesses are expanding, and the average sales and receipts of women-owned businesses — and I compare these statistics for White, Black, Latino and Asian businesses.

Women Creating Social Capital And Social Change, Marilyn Gittell, Isolda Ortega-Bustamante, Tracey Steffy

Trotter Review

As Community Development Organizations (CDOs) are the primary vehicle for development in low-income neighborhoods, scholars have begun to examine them in terms of the degree to which they increase citizen participation, increase civic capacity, as well as stabilize and revitalize neighborhoods through the creation of social capital. According to Putnam, civic action requires the existence of social capital; he defines social capital as "norms, trust, and networks." As Gittell and Vidal note, there has been a "virtual industry of interest and action created around the implication of Putnam's findings for the development of low-income communities."

This article is an excerpt …

Democratic Economic Participation And Humane Urban Development, Jessica Gordon-Nembhard

Trotter Review

Humane economics, democratic economic participation, and democratic economic control are words not often combined and terms rarely used by traditional economic developers and urban planners, especially when addressing inner-city redevelopment. Most often, discussions about economic development and the elimination of poverty focus on job creation, workforce development, and access to job opportunities - promoting the corporate model of growth and fortifying big business's penetration into and control of community economics. Income receives a bit of attention, in the peripheral discussions about "living wages' or family-supporting wages and "good" jobs. However, concepts such as a guaranteed income or payment for the …

Kenyan Women And The Harambee: Community Development Or Unpaid Work?, Anne Gathuo

Trotter Review

Since gaining independence from Britain in 1963, the Kenyan government has encouraged self-help activity, known as "harambee" which is aimed at supplementing government efforts in the provision of social services. The term harambee conjures positive images of community spirit and people pooling together for a common cause. Indeed, the term is synonymous to community development. The United Nations Report on Community Development and Economic Development defines community development as the process by which the efforts of the people themselves are combined with those of government authorities to improve the economic, social and cultural conditions of communities, to integrate these communities …

The Social And Economic Status Of Eritrean Women: Advances And Reversals, Asgedet Stefanos

Trotter Review

In assessing the post-independence status of women in Eritrea, I want to pose two questions. First, how did the leadership of the national liberation movement, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), embark on promoting women's emancipation, given the attitudes firmly rooted in the minds of both men and women that ran counter to the idea of an emancipated woman? Secondly, what changes were established in Eritrean women's public and personal lives during the national liberation struggle — in politics, economics, and the social realm?

This is an excerpt of the speech delivered by Asgedet Stefanos at the 20th Anniversary of …

Women And Poverty, Carlos Ani

Trotter Review

The issue regarding relationships between the status of women, economic health for all people, and social justice is a challenge in every society today. Until fairly recently, poverty and under development were assumed to put all members of affected households - men, women, and children - at an equal disadvantage. "Households" were regarded as static entities where labor and resources are pooled and equally shared. The implicit conclusion was that changes thought of as beneficial for development would be neutral in their effects on the different members of the households. Empirical evidence reveals, however, that the costs and benefits of …

Responding To Poverty Through Community Development: The Role Of Women In South Africa, Junette Davids

Trotter Review

The World Bank reported that during the past three decades the developing world has made enormous economic progress. This is illustrated in the rising trend for incomes and consumption: between 1965 and 1985 consumption per capita in the developing world went up by almost 70%. Midgley, also reported that developing countries have recorded high rates of economic growth, achieved high degrees of industrialization and made significant social progress. Given this scenario one would assume that poverty has also decreased markedly. However, even though some developing countries have recorded high rates of economic growth, achieved high degrees of industrialization, and made …

Comparable Worth: Pay Equity And Women Of Color, Elizabeth A. Sherman

Trotter Review

The relationship between women of color and community economic development is fundamentally a question of income. And, for women, questions of income more often than not become questions of pay equity - whether or not women and men are receiving equal pay for equal, or comparable work. Because the economy retains entrenched vestiges of sexual discrimination, the solutions to such problems lie within the political realm, where laws to ensure equality are created and enforced. In this regard, women themselves have a vital role to play as activists focusing on mitigating the barriers to opportunity that have depressed women's well …

Disparities In The Health Care Status Of Women: Implications For Research, Marcia I. Wells-Lawson

Trotter Review

Even a cursory review of data on the health status of women reveals striking differences by race. According to data from the National Center for Health Statistics, death rates among Black women from the three leading causes of death (cardiac disease, cancer and cerebrovascular disease) exceed those of white, Asian, Native American and Latina women for each age category from 45-84. With the exception of Black women, the death rates among white women from these diseases exceed those of other ethnic groups of women. Data on two of the risk factors for cardiac and cerebrovascular diseases (hypertension and obesity), show …

Expanding The Pool Of Women And Minority Students Pursuing Graduate Study: The Development Of A National Model, Bernard W. Harleston

Trotter Review

The underrepresentation of women and minority students in certain disciplines in the graduate schools of American colleges and universities is a matter of great national concern. This concern has been intensified by the decline during the last fifteen years, especially from 1978 to 1988, in graduate school enrollments of all categories of American students. But, even before this most recent period of decline and during a time when the enrollment of women and minority students was at its highest (between 1968 and 1974, as a consequence, primarily, of the civil rights movement), the representation of women and minorities in the …

Women Of Color Reclaiming Power, Cheng Imm Tan

Trotter Review

The following is the address that was given at the Sixth Annual Women of Color Day Celebration at the University of Massachusetts at Boston on March 5, 1993.

In a racist and sexist world, our realities are hardly ever alluded to, let alone affirmed; the way we see ourselves and the way we experience the world is hardly ever reflected in the images we see around us or in the stories we read. We constantly have to translate information in order to make it relevant and applicable to our lives. Our realities, experiences are often discounted, overlooked and ignored. Both …

Black Women And The American Political System, Dorothy A. Clark

Trotter Review

Black women and politics—it is an association rarely made by the American electorate. As a group, black women have never been prominent players in the nation's political arena. In a system of decision making and power holding designed and dominated by white men, black women are an alien group in the formal political process. Their participation in that process has been limited—indeed often blocked—by a hierarchical system of race, gender, and class oppression that relegates black women to the lowest rungs of the political power ladder.