Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluation Of Filles Eveillees ("Girls Awakened"): A Pilot Program For Migrant Adolescent Girls In Domestic Service, Sarah Engebretsen

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Filles Éveillées (Girls Awakened) program was designed to increase social networks and skill building among migrant adolescent girls in domestic service in urban Burkina Faso. The program was piloted over two cycles: 2011–2012 in Bobo Dioulasso, and 2012–2013 in Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso. According to this evaluation report, process evaluation was conducted between the two cycles to assess program effectiveness and suggest improvements for program structure, implementation, and content before launching the second cohort. Changes resulting from this process evaluation included simplifying the sexual and reproductive health program content; reordering the modules and introducing financial capabilities earlier so that …

Girls On The Move: Adolescent Girls & Migration In The Developing World, Miriam Temin, Mark R. Montgomery, Sarah Engebretsen, Kathryn M. Barker

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Adolescent girls in developing countries are migrating to urban areas in ever greater numbers. While migration can be risky, for the majority of girls, migration can increase opportunities and economic stability and provide them with the autonomy to make decisions about their lives. Preventing the worst outcomes and helping girls succeed are essential to unlocking the benefits of migration. When migrant girls can take advantage of the benefits, they can be a powerful force for change in the developing world—improving lives and reducing poverty in their communities and countries. This Girls Count report examines the social and economic determinants of …

The Adolescent Girls Vulnerability Index: Guiding Strategic Investment In Uganda, Sajeda Amin, Karen Austrian, Michelle Chau, Kimberly Glazer, Eric P. Green, David Stewart, Marie Stoner

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Adolescence (from the ages of 10 to 19 years) is a critical stage of human development during which children experience rapid social, physical, psychological, and emotional changes on the path from childhood to adulthood. The decisions that are made during this period of life affect not only the individual well-being of young people, but also the well-being of the entire society. The Adolescent Girls Multilevel Vulnerability Index (AGI) was developed based on a growing recognition of the need to channel resources to vital—yet highly vulnerable and vastly underserved—populations of adolescent girls in Uganda specifically, and the East and Southern Africa …

Étude De Suivi Des Adolescentes Migrantes Employées De Maison Ayant Participé À La Première Cohorte Du Programme Filles Éveillées, Sarah Engebretsen

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

La migration circulaire (du milieu rural au milieu urbain et retour), est courante parmi les adolescents et adolescentes d'Afrique occidentale, la principale motivation étant la quête de débouchés économiques, y compris le travail domestique. Les données d’efficacité programmatique disponibles s’interrompent généralement au moment de la conclusion des programmes, sans suivi des adolescents à plus longue échéance. Cette étude suit un sous-échantillon d'adolescentes migrantes employées de maison au Burkina Faso après leur participation à la première cohorte du programme pilote Filles Éveillées. Ce programme a été conçu pour offrir aux filles migrantes employées de maison l’occasion de renforcer leurs réseaux sociaux …

Breaking The Silence: Learning About Youth Sexual And Reproductive Health In Egypt [Arabic], Nahla G. Abdel-Tawab, Sally Saher, Nora El Nawawi

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This collection of research (supported by the Ford Foundation office in Cairo) documents the Population Council’s efforts to build the capacity of young Egyptian researchers to study youth sexual and reproductive health. Understanding the needs of young Egyptians, including their sexual and reproductive health needs, is crucial for developing policies and programs that can help bring about desired changes and improve their health and well-being. Young people must be given accurate information and access to services to protect their sexual and reproductive health and to prepare them for taking on family responsibilities as they get older. This report sets the …

Assessment Of The Availability And Use Of Maternal Health Supplies In The Primary Health Care System In Amhara Region, Ethiopia, Sarah Raifman, Sisay Mellese, Kelemua Hailemariam, Ian Askew, Annabel Erulkar

Reproductive Health

Maternal mortality in Ethiopia remains among the highest in the world. A UN Commission Report in 2012 identified 13 life-saving commodities—defined as medicines, medical devices, and health supplies—that effectively address avoidable causes of death during pregnancy and childbirth that, if more widely accessed and properly used, could significantly reduce preventable deaths among women. This assessment, conducted by the Population Council, evaluates the availability of these life-saving commodities that are essential for basic emergency obstetric and neonatal care, and safe and clean delivery services within primary health care in Ethiopia. The report concludes that Ethiopia’s pharmaceutical procurement and supply system is …

Introducing Medical Mr In Bangladesh: Mrm Final Report, Ismat Ara Hena, Ubaidur Rob, Nargis Sultana, Md. Irfan Hossain, Reena Yasmin, Tapash Ranjan Das, Farid Uddin Ahmed

Reproductive Health

The Population Council Bangladesh, in collaboration with the Directorate General of Family Planning and Marie Stopes Bangladesh, with funding from the World Health Organization and the DFID-supported STEP UP project, conducted an 18-month operations research study from January 2012 to June 2013. This operations research tested the feasibility of introducing menstrual regulation with medication (MRM) in Bangladesh and assessed accessibility of the combination regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol in urban and rural health facilities. Based on this study’s results, the feasibility of introducing MRM services in Bangladesh is clear, and women receiving MRM were satisfied with their overall quality of …

Understanding Unintended Pregnancy In Bangladesh: Country Profile Report, Fauzia Akhter Huda, Sabiha Chowdhuri, Yolande Robertson, Noushin Islam, Bidhan Krishna Sarker, Ashrafi Jahan Azmi, Laura Reichenbach

Reproductive Health

The objective of this report is to identify the determinants of unintended pregnancy and unmet need for family planning in Bangladesh and therefore provide a strong body of evidence that will contribute to issue identification, evidence generation, and communication for use of evidence in policy and programming. The evidence generated can be used to find ways to reduce the rate of unintended pregnancy and hence reduce the risk of abortion-related morbidity and mortality; ultimately this will aid Bangladeshi couples in reaching their fertility goals. Results demonstrate that Bangladesh has shown progress and promise in several areas of family planning and …

Insights Into Unmet Need In Ghana, Kazuyo Machiyama, John C. Cleland

Reproductive Health

This study aims to establish the relative importance of lack of access and attitudinal resistance toward use of family planning for different population and geographical strata in Ghana. It is intended to inform policymakers on the priority that should be given to behavior change communication or improved access/information, and also helpful to interventions to reduce health concerns and fear of side effects, such as provision of broader method mix and better counseling. The most far reaching implication concerns the reproductive behavior of the best educated women and those living in the capital or surrounding areas. The results suggest an enduring …

Insights Into Unmet Need In Senegal, Kazuyo Machiyama, John C. Cleland

Reproductive Health

Results presented in this STEP UP Research Report show that over half of women having unmet need for family planning in Senegal did not intend to use family planning in the future and this was consistent across all population strata. Reasons for non-use confirm the existence of widespread opposition to the use of modern contraception. Unfamiliarity and lack of information is likely to be a reason for such opposition; initial suspicion of contraception has also been documented. Thus a first policy priority, and one that is relatively easy to achieve, is to increase knowledge through the mass media and localized …

Unmet Need And Unintended Pregnancy: The Bigger Picture, Ian Askew

Reproductive Health

Prevention of unintended pregnancy is often considered the key outcome of reducing unmet need; it is the basic right of women and couples to become pregnant only when intended. This paper explores this relationship by reviewing the definition and measurement of unintended pregnancy, identifying key trends in its distribution within and between populations, and analyzing the relationship between unintended pregnancy, demand for family planning, and family planning program performance. The determinants and consequences of unintended pregnancy are reviewed to further understand the implications of using it as a policy and programming goal. The paper concludes by reviewing the broader policy …

The Effectiveness Of Educational Support To Orphans And Vulnerable Children In Tanzania And Uganda, Mary Shann, Malcolm Bryant, Mohamad Brooks, Paul Bukuluki, Denis Muhangi, Joe Lugalla, Gideon Kwesigabo

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

Little evidence is available to assist policy makers and donors in deciding what kinds of programs in developing countries are more likely to be effective in supporting the entry and continuation of OVC in secondary schools. This is particularly important for females whose education has direct bearing on child mortality in the next generation. This study gathered four kinds of educational outcome measures in two East African countries ravaged by the AIDS/HIV pandemic. The goal was to determine whether direct scholarship aid to individual students versus various forms of block grants would be more effective in promoting lower rates of …

Normalizing The Deviance: The Creation, Politics, And Consumption Of Sexual Orientation And Gender Identities In Online Fan Communities, Dianna M. Fielding

Departmental Honors Projects

Communities of fan producers have been creating and consuming works labeled deviant by both laypeople and academics for decades. Fan producers take the popular media they enjoy and rewrite it to fit their needs and desires. Online, these fan producers have found a new space to re-write what it means to be normative. These fan producers often write about slash, which depicts homosexual relationships as normal, and genderswap, which plays with the idea of gender by physically switching characters’ sex. Understanding how norms are created within fan productions can help us understand how norms are created more broadly. Through content …

Grounding The International Norm On Women, Peace And Security: The Role Of Domestic Norm Entrepreneurs And The Challenges Ahead, Ma. Lourdes Veneracion-Rallonza

Political Science Department Faculty Publications

One of the gaps in the study of international norms is the process by which they are institutionalized and accepted at the national level. As the international norm negotiates its way through various national (and even grassroots) levels, a point of inquiry would be how domestic norm entrepreneurs have enabled its localization. This study looks at the narrative of a loose network of peace and women’s human rights groups that worked together to localize United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on women, peace and security in the Philippines. Specifically, it reviews how the network evolved to become a domestic …

Mormonism And The Family (Forum), Terryl Givens

English Faculty Publications

When we speak of the family in Mormonism, the term can mean many things. There is an idealized Mormon family, the one described in church magazines, General Conference talks, and Mormon public service commercials. There is the family of the Mormon theological tradition, stretching endlessly off into the eternities, bound together with temple ordinances, the forever family of Mormon bumper stickers. There is another family, product of a more speculative bent in Mormon theology, which comes of an eschatological reading of the Abrahamic covenant, and which imputes to a temple-sealed Mormon couple the right to an endless seed, a posterity …

Assessing Retention And Motivation Of Public Health-Care Providers (Particularly Female Providers) In Rural Pakistan, Ali M. Mir, Gul Rashida Shaikh, Saleem Shaikh, Neha Mankani, Anushe Hassan, Maqsood Sadiq

Reproductive Health

The main objectives of this project in Pakistan were to explore the core issue of availability of health providers, especially female providers who are required for provision of maternal and neonatal healthcare, and to determine the range of factors that either constrain or motivate providers to serve in key positions in public facilities in rural areas. The study, conducted by the Population Council with funding from the Maternal and Newborn Health Programme ‐ Research and Advocacy Fund, identifies a number of problems faced by healthcare providers working in the public healthcare system in Pakistan and makes the following recommendations for …

Symposium: Introduction: The Fortieth Anniversary Of Title Ix, Erin E. Buzuvis

Faculty Scholarship

The five articles in this Symposium issue reflect on harassment and bullying in schools, the equal treatment of a high school girls basketball team, and an annotated bibliography on the subject. The articles speak to the effectiveness of Title IX legislation.

Untangling Neoliberalism’S Gordian Knot: Cancer Prevention And Control Services For Rural Appalachian Populations, George F. Bills

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

In eastern Kentucky, as in much of central Appalachia, current local storylines narrate the frictions and contradictions involved in the structural transition from a post-WWII Fordist industrial economy and a Keynesian welfare state to a Post-Fordist service economy and Neoliberal hollow state, starving for energy to sustain consumer indulgence (Jessop, 1993; Harvey, 2003; 2005). Neoliberalism is the ideological force redefining the “societal infrastructure of language” that legitimates this transition, in part by redefining the key terms of democracy and citizenship, as well as valorizing the market, the individual, and technocratic innovation (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999; Harvey, 2005). This project develops …

"A Song For You" As Tribute To The Daughters Of The South: Illuminating The Work Of Black Women Principals, Beverly Cox

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Curriculum can be understood as a place of both struggle and possibility, where curriculum workers engage in complicated conversations about self, society, and the purposes of education (Pinar, 2004). Although curriculum theorists have contributed much to discussions of how to improve the current state of education, little attention in the field is given to the role that leadership can play in educational transformation (Ylimaki, 2011). This study contributes to the field of curriculum studies by exploring the ethics of care of Black women public school principals in the South.

By exploring the life experiences of Black female principals from the …

Feminism, Breastfeeding, And Society, Jen Bracken-Hull

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

A dichotomy exists among feminists regarding the views and contributions of breastfeeding. Across several waves of feminism women have argued for and against breastfeeding. Until recently, breastfeeding (regarding the bearing and nurturing of children) was seen as a responsibility that prevented women from participating in public circles. This article delineates the general contributions made by women who breastfeed including biological, social, emotional, and personal factors. Changes and accommodations are required for women who choose to breastfeed to not be disadvantaged.

Quick And Dirty: Some Psychosocial Costs Associated With The Dark Triad In Three Countries, Peter K. Jonason, Norman P. Li, Anna Z. Czarna

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The current study provides the first examination of the relationship between life history indicators and the Dark Triad traits in an international sample drawn from the U.S. (n = 264), Singapore (n = 185), and Poland (n = 177). In all three samples, the Dark Triad traits were associated with psychosocial costs, although there were more links in the Singaporean and Polish samples than in the American sample. In the U.S., the quality of one’s romantic relationships and psychopathy were negatively correlated. Narcissism was higher in the Polish and American samples than in the Singaporean sample. Men scored higher than …

Hyper-Gender Roles In Relation To Sexual Aggression, Jaclyn May D'Andrea

Masters Theses

This study analyzes sexual aggression according to hyper-gender roles and fraternity/sorority membership at a midsize, midwestern university. The question examined through the research was whether hyper-gender roles affect an individual's sexual experience and whether fraternity and sorority communities are more likely to endorse hyper-gender roles. Secondly, it researched the risk factors behind fraternity and sorority groups through membership and traditions concerning these groups such as hypermasculinity male bonding and desensitization of sorority women. Hypermasculinity, hyperfemininity, and sexual aggression were collected using Koss and Gidycz (1985) Sexual Experience Survey, Mosher and Sirkin (1984) Hypermasculinity Inventory and Murne and Byrne (1991) Hyperfemininity …

Multidimensionality Is To Masculinities What Intersectionality Is To Feminism, Athena D. Mutua

Journal Articles

Committed to intersectionality theory in her feminist work, the scholar Juliet Williams expressed the sentiment that “multidimensionality is to masculinities theory, what intersectionality is to feminism.” She did so in the context of a debate about whether intersectionality theory might capture the complexity of men’s lives, particularly men of color’s lives, as well as does multidimensionality theory, given that the latter is based in large part on the former. This paper, briefly explores the intellectual history of multidimensionality theory, concedes that intersectionality, a powerful analytical tool that has matured and gone global, could easily be used and is in part …

The Ticking Of The “Biological Clock”: Worry About Future Fertility In Nulliparous Women, Karen E. Kersting

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Title: The Ticking of the “Biological Clock”: Worry about Future Fertility in Nulliparous Women

By: Karen Kersting, M.A., M.S.

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Virginia Commonwealth University, 2013.

Major Director: Kathleen M. Ingram, J.D., Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Psychology

Department of Psychology

Modern women are waiting until later in their lives to have children than women of previous generations, a trend influenced by a number of factors including financial stability, dating norms, and career goals and responsibilities. As women age, their fertility may decline …

Objects Of Desire: Toward An Ethics Of Sameness, Amber Jamilla Musser

Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies Faculty Research

Through an examination of objectum sexuality, an orientation in which people sexually orient themselves toward objects, this essay reflects on what constitutes sexuality, the nature of intimacy, and the agency of objects. Using the discourse of similarity, I suggest that we read objectum sexuality as a mode of understanding subjectivity under neoliberalism. I also suggest, however, that we read it as a phenomena that could open into an alternate set of ethics. More specifically, I argue that objectum sexuality allows us to think critically about the displacement of the subject, the animacy of objects, and understandings of attachment.

The Development Of Intimate Partner Relationships Among Men Sexually Abused As Children, Laura Beltran-Medina

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This phenomenological study sought to understand the experience of seven men who came forward to contribute and discuss their intimate partner relationships for what relational intimacy could reveal about themselves, the meaning of intimate partnership, and their understanding of being in intimate relationships. The theoretical assumptions applied to this study are: (a) Childhood sexual abuse interferes with the ability to achieve deeper experiences of idealized love; (b) Negative effects of adult relational attachment are manifested in anxiety related to sexual intimacy, fear of emotional intimacy, and inability to fulfill dependency needs such as trust, love, and security; and (c) There …

I'Ll Choose Which Hill I'M Going To Die On: African American Women Scholar-Activists In The White Academy, Muriel Elizabeth Shockley

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study explored the complexities of African American women scholar-activists' lived experiences in predominately white institutions of higher education. Existing scholarship on African American women's experiences in the academy locates these academicians in predominately white research universities and liberal arts colleges (PWI's) as well as historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU's) and focuses on the tenure process, recruitment and retention, evaluation, student relationships, career satisfaction, mentoring, survival strategies, and administrative leadership. Overwhelmingly the foci of the research are the challenges African American women scholars face and the concomitant strategies employed to militate the consequences. Less apparent are the ways African …

Men's Modesty, Religion, And The State: Spaces Of Collision, Karen M. Morin

Faculty Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Editor's Note, Brenda L. H. Marina

Journal of the International Association for the Study of the Global Achievement Gap (Archived)

No abstract provided.

Minority Women In Stem: A Valuable Resource In The Global Economy, Ezella Mcpherson, Diane R. Fuselier-Thompson

Journal of the International Association for the Study of the Global Achievement Gap (Archived)

While there is an expected demographic shift of the ethnic minority population in the United States to become the majority population by 2020, few minority women successfully attain baccalaureate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) fields. To address this gap, this article employs critical race feminism and narrative analysis methods to examine minority women’s challenges while pursuing undergraduate STEM degrees. Findings suggest that limited access to the field, isolation and alienation, and affordability create barriers that result in many minority women leaving STEM majors. Implications for practice include targeted institutional efforts to increase recruitment and retention efforts towards …