Women's Studies Commons^™

Allen Keiswetter On Women In The Middle East: Past And Present By Nikki R. Keddie. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. 416pp., Allen Keiswetter

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Women in the Middle East: Past and Present by Nikki R. Keddie. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. 416pp.

Crawling Out Of Poverty: Recollections From Women Who Succeeded Against The Odds, Crystale M. Marsh

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A multiple-case-qualitative approach was used to examine the lives of women who overcame lives of poverty. Participants were chosen from a pool of students in the Midwestern portion of the United States who previously participated in the Educational Talent Search program, a division of Upward Bound, that assists low income and at-risk students in attending college. Numerous themes were obtained from the data; however, the overarching theme for this study included the process of change. Specifically, the women spoke about the decisions they made to overcome poverty and thus begin referring to themselves as "successful." In order to provide further …

The Voting Rights Act And The Election Of Nonwhite Officials, Pei-Te Lien, Dianne M. Pinderhughes, Carol Hardy-Fanta, Christine M. Sierra

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

Voting Rights Act (VRA) is one of the most important—if not the most important—public policies developed over the last half century to increase access to the U.S. political system for people of color. The VRA also provides an important context for understanding the ascension of nonwhite groups into the elected leadership of the nation (Browning, Marshall, and Tabb 1984; Davidson and Grofman 1994; Menifield 2001; Mc-Clain and Stewart 2002; Segura and Bowler 2005; Bositis 2006). This essay assesses the present-day significance of the VRA for the political representation of communities of color by examining the implications of majority-minority districts and …

A Seat At The Table? Racial/Ethnic & Gender Diversity On Corporate, Hospital, Education, Cultural & State Boards, Carol Hardy-Fanta Phd, Donna Stewartson

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

As part of its larger Diversity Initiative, the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at UMass Boston has undertaken a number of projects. The first was a public opinion survey conducted around the time of the November 2006 elections. The report, Transformation and Taking Stock: A Summary of Selected Findings from the McCormack Graduate School Diversity Survey, included a comprehensive look at race relations in the Commonwealth at a time of significant transition—demographically and politically. This report was followed by A Benchmark Report on Diversity in State and Local Government, which focused on the percentage of positions filled …

The Professional Development Experiences Of African American Women: The Ace Fellows Program, Waltrina E. Defrantz-Dufor

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study focused on the experiences of five African American women senior administrators employed at five predominantly White institutions in the Midwest ,1ml lhc Northeast. There are few African American women in senior and chief executive administrative positions. These African American women were chosen as research subjects because they completed the American Council on Education (AC'I~) Fellows Program and cun-ently serve as senior and chief executive administrators of' higher education institutions. The goals of this study were to explore how mentoring and leadership development, specifically the ACE Fellows program, impacted the careers of the African American women. Additionally, this study …

The Limits Of “No-Limit”, J. Peter Pham

Human Rights & Human Welfare

One must acknowledge and even admire the passion that writer and photographer Ann Jones brings to the different causes she embraces as she meanders along the paths of her rather eclectic career, now spanning over three decades. Her first book, Uncle Tom’s Campus (1973), examines how her students, in a predominantly African-American college, were being shortchanged by the system. In the late 1990s, she took off across Africa in search of a legendary tribe ruled by women and supposedly noted for its embrace of “feminine” principles of tolerance, diplomacy, and compromise, and returned to publish a travelogue-cum-utopian Weltanschauung set in …

The Trouble With Rights, David L. G. Rice

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Do human rights imply enforcement powers? Do they require police or armies? How many soldiers would it take to secure universal human rights? What sort of weaponry would suffice?

Low-Income Women's Access To Education? A Case Study Of Welfare Recipients In Boston, Erika Kates

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

In 2003 and 2004, the Massachusetts legislature dramatically changed state law to allow welfare recipients to engage in education and training to fulfill their mandatory work requirements. The research reported here had as its goal to document whether women who received welfare benefits between 2003 and 2006 knew about, and took advantage of, these historic changes. A fundamental supposition of the research described here is that low-income women should have access to substantive educational opportunities to improve their employment and earnings; raise children with educational aspirations and achievements; enhance their civic participation; and contribute to the state’s human capital resources.

April Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Women Come Last in Afghanistan ” by Ann Jones. Salon.com. February 6, 2007.

Global Health And Global Hegemony, Randall Kuhn

Human Rights & Human Welfare

As the new director of a unique graduate program in Global Health Affairs, coming from the world of basic research, I have been faced with the need to reconcile a central paradox of American power and hegemony: I conduct my work as an American citizen and often with U.S. government funding in the hope that it will make a positive or at least neutral impact on my world. Yet my government (not only under the present administration) initiates imperial adventures that cause untold damage to the health, welfare, and survival of individuals throughout the world.

Oppressing Women: Who Benefits And How?, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Women are the world’s oldest marketable commodity. “Good” women are marketed by their fathers, or brothers, to other men as wives. “Bad” women are incarcerated, raped, killed, or prostituted. Methods of marketing women range widely in kind: from simple one-on-one bargains, where two men exchange daughters or sisters; to exchange of women for material goods; to use of women to pay debts; to renting out women by the hour or minute to other men for sex.

A Benchmark Report On Diversity In State And Local Government, Carol Hardy-Fanta Phd

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

The Pipeline to Public Service Initiative asked the McCormack Graduate School’s Center for Women in Politics & Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston to ascertain the racial diversity in state and local government. The project had the following three goals:

--To identify the race (and gender) of those holding top-level positions filled through gubernatorial appointments, e.g., secretaries, commissioners, directors, deputy commissioners/directors, and undersecretaries, in the Commonwealth’s executive offices and major departments.

--To compile the same information for members of the most influential boards and commissions in the Commonwealth filled through gubernatorial appointments.

--To assess the diversity of elected …

Gender And Human Rights, Lisa Weilminster

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Russia’s historical transition from a communist society to a system of democracy and free market practices has resulted in major social changes affecting the rights of men and women. Analysis of gender and human rights in Russia requires an evaluation of the changing social relations within post-Soviet society, which are shaped by the complex factors of ethnicity, economic class, gender norms, and the role of the state in shaping present gender inequities that hinder the realization of universal human rights. Looking particularly at how gender issues relate to changing identities, employment opportunities, health care and conditions, and public and private …

Minority Women In The Healthcare Workforce In New England, Carol Hardy-Fanta, Erika Kates, Helen Levine, Kate Peery-Wolf

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

Research on health disparities affecting people of color typically focuses on their health status, health treatment and health outcomes with a particular emphasis on the relatively high rates of morbidity and mortality from selected diseases for ethnic and racial minority groups. This fact sheet offers a different but related focus on gender and race/ethnicity in the health care workforce. Our rationale is that the Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce concluded that the lack of minority doctors, nurses and dentists is a significant cause of racial/ethnic health disparities and that the ability to recruit, train and retain minority …

Women And Homelessness In Massachusetts, Michelle Kahan

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

Ninety percent of the 1,100 families who utilize the state's shelter system annually are headed by women, as are approximately 20% of the 19,000-29,000 individuals who stay in Massachusetts emergency shelters each year. In total, a minimum of 5,000 women and 2,000 children annually stay in Massachusetts homeless shelters.

These figures do not include over 3,000 women in domestic violence shelter (60% of whom enter shelter with their children), not the 50% of families seeking emergency shelter who are turned away each year. Over a period of three years, women also make up a quarter of Boston's 1,400 street dwellers: …

“As Tough As It Gets”: Women In Boston Politics, 1921-2004, Kristen A. Petersen, Carol Hardy-Fanta Phd, Karla Armenoff

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

This study seeks to answer the question: Given the wealth of talent and resources women possess—and the state offers—why is it so tough for women to gain representation in Boston City Hall? To answer this question, and to document the efforts women have made over almost 100 years, we examine the history of women who have run for and won—or lost—election to the Boston City Council in the 20th century. How does the structure and culture of a given urban political arena (i.e., “Boston politics”) affect women’s opportunities as elected officials? What is women’s political culture and how has it …

The Maidens Of The Maiden City, Lauren Herman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No abstract provided.

Time To Make History, Time To Educate Women: A Narrative Of The Life And Work Of Christiana Thorpe Of Sierra Leone, Whitney Mcintyre Miller

Education Faculty Articles and Research

An examination of the life of Christiana Thorpe, a former nun from Sierra Leone who worked to improve education for girls and served as the only woman in a cabinet of nineteen members (as Minister of Education), then worked with the United Nations Development Programme and UNESCO amidst war and rebellion in her country.

Growing Inequities Among Women In Massachusetts: Income, Employment, Education And Skills, Erika Kates

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

Massachusetts women compare very favorably to women in other states in earnings, education, and employment. However, these general trends mask a substantial and growing divide between women in these areas.

Miss America Contesters And Contestants: Discourse About Social “Also-Rans”, Mari Boor Tonn

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

Although feminism, of course, emerged out of the actual personal experiences of discrimination and other forms of subordination, ameliorating such obstacles required and requires a collective politics, most identifiable in liberal feminism’s focus on equality of opportunity in the public domain, such as Title IX or the push for the ERA I described. Whatever Debra Barnes’s individual achievements, those obviously neither did have nor could have had bearing on the eventual opportunity of young women to participate in intercollegiate athletics, as I did, or to make the legal reproductive decisions occasioned by Roe v.Wade. As Dow argues, the mobility or …

Only Friendship, Farideh Dayanim Goldin

English Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) My Jewish daughter befriended a Muslim woman in her Islam class last Fall. She asked me where she could buy rosewater, saffron, and cardamom to make halwa. My kosher daughter was celebrating the end of Ramadan, Eide-fetr, with her first Iranian, her first Muslim friend.

Top Female Hospital Executives In Las Vegas, Nevada: An In Depth Case Study, Caroline R. Copeland

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This paper will review the findings of in depth interviews with the four top female executives for the acute care hospitals in Las Vegas, Nevada, with regards to the ‘Glass Ceiling’ phenomenon, stereotyping and gender role behaviors, and how these elements have affected their careers. Out of seventeen (17) local senior executive positions, women hold four of these positions, or twenty-three percent (23.5%), compared to six percent (6%) nationally. The healthcare system changes were also a consideration for theses female executives, and how these changes have influenced their careers.

The Perceptions Of Women Superintendents Regardlng Their Leadership Practices And Uses Of Power, Susan Katz

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In public schools a limited number of women have attained the position or superintendent. Limited resemch exists that focuses on understnnding the position from n woman's perspective. The purpose of this study, then, was to understand how women public school superintendents describe their leadership practices and uses or power in leading their school districts. The study was both quantitalivc and qualitative in methodology. The problem under study was approached from the conccpltial framework or five leadership practices. Challenging the Process, Inspiring a Shared Vision, Enabling Others to Act, Modeling the Way, and Encouraging the Heart are the practices that Kouzes …

A Study Of The Factors That Impact Female Military Beneficiaries Obtaining Preventive Health Services, Cynthia Andrea Chargois

Health Services Research Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine what factors predict whether female military retirees or the female beneficiary of a military retiree, ages 40 to 64, will obtain preventive health services, specifically, Pap smears, mammograms, and clinical breast examinations. Based on the findings of the study, it is suggested that it may be important for the Department of Defense to broaden their scope of interest to include those areas that are most prominent in affecting female military retirees or the female beneficiary of a military retiree, particularly those 40 to 64, in obtaining preventive health services.

The study comprised …

Report On The Minors’ Abortion Rights Project, J. Shoshanna Ehrlich, Carol Hardy-Fanta, Jamie Ann Sabino

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

The goal of this study was to learn more about the experience of minors in states with parental involvement laws who do not involve their parents in their abortion decision, and must therefore seek judicial authorization for an abortion, and to use this knowledge to explore ways to minimize the burden of these laws. At the outset, it should be made clear that having this goal does not indicate that we support imposing third-party involvement requirements on teens seeking to abort. Our research, as well as the work of others (much of which is cited in this report), raises serious …

Ua3/4/8/6 Harriett Downing Oral History, Harriett Downing, Sue Lynn Mcdaniel

WKU Administration Documents

Harriet Downing interviewed by Sue Lynn McDaniel regarding student life during World War II and her experiences as wife of WKU's fourth president, Dero Downing.

Common Circle For Human Rights, Vol.5, No.1 (March 2000), M. Lichtman

Common Circle for Human Rights (1997-2000)

No abstract provided.

Unsung Heroines: Women And Natural Disasters, Mary Schwoebel

Conflict Resolution Studies Faculty Articles

Although women play crucial parts in disaster preparedness, mitigation, and recovery, their roles in disasters are often overlooked or ignored. However, history shows that when disasters strike, women sometimes form spontaneous associations to assist relief and recovery efforts. At other times, women's organizations direct their resources for disaster relief and recovery. Women's organizations also partner with international disaster assistance agencies to expedite relief efforts. Are women more vulnerable to disasters? What are women's capabilities for responding to disasters? What can international organizations do to integrate women more effectively into disaster planning and recovery? Vulnerabilities and Risks The circumstances of women's …

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 …

Race, Poverty And Education In The 21st Century, Joan Wallace-Benjamin

Trotter Review

I am here as the president of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts. I am here as a woman. I am here as a partner in the struggle for equal opportunity and access for - women, men, young people, the elderly, Black, white, Latino and Asian, who are not able to fully enjoy the educational, economic and social benefits of our American society. I am here as a colleague of Mary's, [Mary Lassen, Executive Director, Women's Educational and Industrial Union] who works with commitment and passion on these same issues and with whom I have collaborated and will continue to …