Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Legislating The Family: Heterosexist Bias In Social Welfare Policy Frameworks, Amy Lind

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article addresses the effects of heterosexist bias in social welfare policy frameworks on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals and families in the United States. It discusses the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), federal definitions of family and household, and stereotypes about LGBT individuals. It argues that poor LGBT individuals and families lack full citizen rights and access to needed social services as a result of these explicit and implicit biases.

Review Of Western Welfare In Decline: Globalization And Women's Poverty. Catherine Kingfisher. Reviewed By Silvia Borzutsky., Silvia Borzutzky

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Catherine Kingfisher, Western Welfare in Decline: Globalization and Women's Poverty. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. $49.95 hardcover, $21.95 papercover.

Homosexuality In Fushigi Yuugi And Gravitation: An Investigation Into The Cultural Background Of Homosexuality In Japanese Animation, Michele Gibney

Michele Gibney

This paper will delve into the following issues: how the Japanese view homosexual males and how the agency of the reader and/or viewer impacts the depictions of visual displays of intimate behavior by homosexual males. The purpose of this paper will be an attempt to define some sort of answer to each question within the context of the Japanese cultural products of manga and anime. I am going to dissect shifting sexualities as they are represented in two different examples of Japanese anime aimed at slightly differing audience groups. The two shows that I will focus on are: Fushigi Yuugi …

A Response To Marriage Made In Eden: A Pre-Modern Perspective For A Post-Christian World, John Tarwater

Business Administration Faculty Publications

In their most recent work on marriage, Alice Mathews and Gay Hubbard—professor and guest lecturer at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary respectively—explore Godʼs design and purpose for marriage. Having received positive reviews from several leading evangelical scholars, such as Stanley Grenz, Gordon Fee, and Vernon Grounds, Marriage Made in Eden warrants considerable attention. Because Mathews and Hubbardʼs book represents a significant argument supporting egalitarianism, it also deserves a serious response. In this article, I will concentrate my analysis on the bookʼs contribution as it relates to the role of women, which appears to be the driving issue for the authors. I will …

Screening For Diabetes In An African American Community: The Project Direct Experience

Linda A. Treiber

AIM: To report the results of a community-based screening program associated with Project DIRECT, a multi-year diabetes mellitus prevention and control project targeting African-American residents of southeast Raleigh, NC. METHODS: Between December 1996 and June 1999, 183 screening events took place in community settings.Screening was by capillary glucose concentration. Participants with a positive screen were referred for confirmatory testing and physician follow-up. MAIN RESULTS: Risk factors for diabetes were prevalent, including ethnic minority race (88.2%), obesity (45.6%), and family history of diabetes (41.7%). In all, 197 persons had an elevated screening result; the prevalence of diabetes in the screened population …

What Mothers Want: Welfare Reform And Maternal Desire, Patricia K. Jennings

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In this study I use participant observations,face-to-face interviews, and focus group interviews to examine how women on welfare read and negotiate culture-of-poverty discourse and the imagery that this discourse spawns. I spoke with two groups of young single mothers receiving welfare. The first group included young mothers between the ages of 18 and 23 who were attending high school in a community-based program that served women on welfare. The second group included mothers in their early to mid 20's who were attending either a local two-year college or research university. Education was a path of resistance for the women in …

Review Of Men Who Believe In Feminism. Amanda Goldrick Jones. Reviewed By Cheryl A. Hyde., Cheryl A. Hyde

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Amanda Goldrick Jones, Men Who Believe in Feminism. Westport, CT: Praegar, 2003. $64.95 hardcover.

Chronic Pain: The Extra Burden On Canadian Women, Marta Meana, Robert Cho, Marie Desmeules

Psychology Faculty Research

Health Issue

Chronic pain is a major health problem associated with significant costs to both afflicted individuals and society as a whole. These costs seem to be disproportionately borne by women, who generally have higher prevalence rates for chronic pain than do men.

Key findings

Data obtained from 125,574 respondents to the Canadian Community Health Survey (2000–2001) indicated that 18% of Canadian women suffered from chronic pain, compared to 14% of men. This gender discrepancy, however, seemed to be linked primarily to differences in age, income, and education between adult men and women in this large sample. Age, income, depression …

Sexing Capitalism: Condoms And Industrial Change, Peter Chua

Faculty Publications, Sociology

In the late 1700s, condoms were luxury items for the affluent in Western Europe, but by the 1970s, the US government gave free condoms out to poor women in Third World areas. Moreover condom availability has increased dramatically since the global emergence of the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s, adding to the already fervent social stigmatization and political contentions on morality, sexuality, and wellbeing that condom use brings. This paper focuses on the strategically joint-relationship between manufacturing firms and governments to foster distinct profit-oriented condom social relations and moral-symbolic regimes of sexual cultures. Proposing a sex-situated theory of capitalist firms, …

Like Your Classes, Know Your Professors? Predictors Of Talented College Students’ Science And Technology Careers, James Lee, Christina Stow

Faculty Publications

In the US, there is great loss of academically talented college-level science and technology students as many decide not to follow through with their initial career choices. Following research that has implicated personal relationships in career decision-making, we study the effects of college course experiences, relationships with professors, and individual characteristics on career plans of 58 talented university students by analyzing interview data gathered in 1999. Among other things, we find that students who dropped out have few positive science course experiences and no relationships with faculty. Life sciences students report that they do not like science courses, but they …

A Study Of Menarche In Athletes Participating In Common Public School Sports, Kristi R. Shirley

Graduate Theses

The number of women and young girls participating in sports has grown significantly since the passage of Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. The female athlete derives many benefits from exercise; however, women are also a group that is at special risk because of the few negative effects of exercise on the reproductive and skeletal systems. Risks involved in increased physical activity include several forms of menstrual irregularities. The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship existed between athletic training, at a less intense level than those in previous studies such as ballet dancers …

The Lesbian Connection: The Negotiation Of Individualism In A Unique Community, Emily E. Lenning

Masters Theses

This research explores the issue of how individualism is situated within and expressed through a progressive, alternative, and constitutive community. The Lesbian Connection, a lesbian owned and operated publication, will be considered as it relates to the individual-focused dialogue that recent radical theorists claim to be of great importance to the formation of "ideal" communities. Content analysis will be used to investigate how lesbians choose to shape their own community identity while maintaining a sense of personal individualism. Additional attention will be afforded to how lesbians use interaction through text to shape community norms and identify common goals.

Institutionalizing Gender And Sexuality In A Call-In Radio Advice Program: A Characterization Of Loveline, Meagan P. Storey

English Theses & Dissertations

Previous studies of advice characterized it as a discourse in which authority is afforded to the giver by virtue of being asked for advice. As an authoritative discourse, advice sets the standards by which interlocutors base their judgments of normalcy. The consequences of these judgments are multiplied when advice is given as part of public, institutional talk, such as with radio call-in programs. This thesis examines how the authoritative discourse of global advice (public, commercial advice) is used to construct and normalize human experiences, specifically gender and sexuality. This study is based on an analysis of ten audio-taped episodes, each …

Best Practices To Address The Demand Side Of Sex Trafficking, Donna M. Hughes Dr.

Donna M. Hughes

Each year, hundreds of thousands of women and children around the world become victims of the global sex trade. They are recruited into prostitution, often using tactics involving force, fraud, or coercion. Criminals working in organized networks treat the victims like commodities, buying and selling them for profit. This modern-day form of slavery is called sex trafficking.

This report will describe efforts to address the demand side of sex trafficking. It will define the demand and describe its different components. It will describe laws, policies, and programs aimed at reducing the demand for prostitution in communities and entire countries. It …

Queer Studies In Eastern Europe: Lgbtq Scholars Convene In Fifth Conference In Poland, Tomek Kitlinski, Pawel Leszkowicz

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

The International Conference of LGBTQ Studies was held in Poland from May 24-26, 2004. Themed as "Europe without Homophobia," the conference at Wroclaw University brought together an international group of scholars and activists to discuss homophobia, both in its global and East European forms.

From The Executive Director, Paisley Currah

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

CLAGS joins other LBGT groups in condemning the sexual humiliation and other forms of torture inflicted on Iraqi detainees by US military forces. As the AI-Fatiha Foundation for LGBTIQ Muslims noted in a press release last month, "forcing men to masturbate in front of each other and to mock same-sex acts or homosexual sex is perverse and sadistic, in the eyes of many Muslims."

Gender And Hiv Risk Behavior In China, Yelan Guo

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Gender differences in prevalence of HIV risk behaviors are well established. Gender differences in major causes leading to HN risk behaviors are much less researched in China. Using data from a large and population-based survey conducted in 2003, in southwestern China, this paper examined gender-specific correlates of HIV risky drug using and sexual behaviors in the general population. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted for males and females separately. The results suggest that men are more likely to inject drugs and share needles than women while women are more likely to exhibit RN risk sexual behaviors than men. Socio-economic …

Reading Filipina Migrant Workers In Hong Kong : Tracing A Feminist And Cultural Politics Of Transformation, Aida Jean Manipon

Lingnan Theses and Dissertations (MPhil & PhD)

For Filipino migrant workers , the journey overseas in search of contractual employment marks a profound turning point in their lives. It registers the crossing of spatial and cultural borders that leads to the shifting of terrains from which they make sense of their selves and the world of ‘others.’ It signifies a rupture in time that alters their sense of history, giving shape to new vantage points from which they reflect on the past and project an imagination of future. This research explores the question of how Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong make sense of their experiences as …

The Demand: Where Sex Trafficking Begins, Donna M. Hughes Dr.

Donna M. Hughes

In light of shared moral responsibility to help the millions of people who are bought, sold, transported and held against their will in slave-like condition, a conference entitled “A Call to Action: Joining the Fight Against Trafficking in Persons” was held at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome on June 17, 2004. The event was part of the 20th anniversary celebration of full diplomatic relations between the United States and the Holy See, and their shared work to promote human dignity, liberty, justice, and peace.

Battered And On Welfare: The Experiences Of Women With The Family Violence Option, Judy L. Postmus

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Noting the incidence of battered women on welfare, lawmakers passed the Family Violence Option (FVO), which allows states to offer waivers from welfare program requirements. Assumptions were made that many women would seek relief under the FVO. However, reports indicate that less than 5 percent of welfare recipients are receiving waivers. This paper presents the findings from a qualitative study that sought to explore the experiences of 29 battered women with the welfare system and the FVO in New York State. Their experiences suggest that changes in FVO screening process are necessary to fully implement the program in the way …

Is Feminist Humor An Oxymoron?, Janet M. Bing

English Faculty Publications

Is the subject of feminist humor male oppression or a celebration of the female experience? This paper argues for the latter and suggests that inclusive jokes can be more effectively subversive than divisive ones. As long as women's jokes focus on men, male definitions, and male behavior, women are marginalizing females, even if their jokes target males. In addition, divisive jokes can strengthen prevailing beliefs about essential female-male differences. However, when straight feminists make jokes and laugh about the shared experiences of females rather than on oppressive male behavior, then feminist humor, like lesbian humor, becomes an agent for change.

Assessing The Gender Component In Coronary Heart Disease; A Comparative Analysis Of Osteopathic And Allopathic Rural Physicians' Medical Approaches To Diagnosing And Treating Female Coronary Heart Disease, Victoria S. Curtis

Dissertations

Heart disease is the number one killer among women in the United States. This dissertation examines how the knowledge base of rural physicians affects his/her approach to diagnosing female heart disease. It compares the knowledge base of doctors trained in osteopathic medicine with doctors trained in allopathic medicine to determine if knowledge base affects how women are diagnosed in comparison with men. Current data suggests that a male model of recognized heart symptoms is most often used to diagnose heart disease, that women and men experience different cardiac symptoms, and those physicians more often overlook and/or misdiagnose women presenting with …

The Social Construction Of Rape Research: Exploring Epistemologies And Evaluating Methods, Edith M. Fisher

Dissertations

The most widely known national study of rape found that one in four college-age women has been the victim of rape or attempted rape. Conservative writers have criticized that study for overestimating the possible prevalence of rape in the U.S. My research uses more sensitive instruments and administration techniques, seeking to estimate the prevalence of rape in the lives of women at a large midwestern public university. I address questions about the validity of previous rape research and compare methods of collecting sexual violence information by questionnaire (322 mailed surveys and 300 interviewer-administered surveys). Additional interviews with 62 of the …

Constructing The “Social Evil”: An Analysis Of Anti-Prostitution Crusades In Progressive-Era Chicago, 1907-1915, Mandy J. Swygart-Hobaugh M.L.S., Ph.D.

University Library Faculty Publications

This study analyzes anti-prostitution crusades in Chicago during the Progressive Era, using a social constructionist theoretical perspective to explore how crusaders constructed prostitution as a social problem. My multi-faceted theoretical framework drew on both social constructionist theories as well as social movement theories examining collective action frames as master frames. For organizational purposes, the separate analytical chapters examine different groups of crusaders: the crusaders against “white slavery,” those battling “vice,” and a group of Hull House women crusading against the “social evil.” My analyses revealed the following: (1) broader discourses present during the Progressive Era shaped the contours of the …

Indigenous Women: A Gender Perspective, Chandra K. Roy

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

No abstract provided.

Healing The War Between The Genders: The Power Of The Soul-Centered Relationship (Book Author, Linda Marks; Book Reviewer, Carroy Ferguson), Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

As humanity seeks to understand its next evolutionary journey and to evolve its consciousness, insightful thinkers and writers have emerged to identify where we must first heal and to provide guidance for how to heal. In her book Healing The War Between The Genders: The Power of the Soul-Centered Relationship, Linda Marks adeptly discusses what she calls a “cultural heart wound” as being at the center of the gender struggle. In this context, the struggle actually transcends heterosexual relationships, gender-role conflicts, and particular one-to-one dynamics per se. As each person has what are often called male and female energies, “the …

Constructing The “Social Evil”: An Analysis Of Anti-Prostitution Crusades In Progressive-Era Chicago, 1907-1915, Amanda J. Swygart-Hobaugh M.L.S., Ph.D.

Mandy (Amanda) Swygart-Hobaugh

This study analyzes anti-prostitution crusades in Chicago during the Progressive Era, using a social constructionist theoretical perspective to explore how crusaders constructed prostitution as a social problem. My multi-faceted theoretical framework drew on both social constructionist theories as well as social movement theories examining collective action frames as master frames. For organizational purposes, the separate analytical chapters examine different groups of crusaders: the crusaders against “white slavery,” those battling “vice,” and a group of Hull House women crusading against the “social evil.” My analyses revealed the following: (1) broader discourses present during the Progressive Era shaped the contours of the …

The Effect Of Female Server's Attractiveness On Restaurant Tipping, Anne M. Wisneski

Honors Theses

This paper presents the results of a field experiment designed to test the hypothesis that restaurant patrons (particularly men) would leave larger tips for an attractive versus unattractive female server. The author manipulated server attractiveness by varying her appearance before shirts as a food server at a popular restaurant. Contrary to the hypothesis, patrons (both men and women) left comparable sized tips in the attractive and unattractive server conditions. Explanations for this null effect are discussed in the contest of research on the effect of server attractiveness on tipping and perceived tipping norms.

Motivation To Manage And Status Of Women In Library And Information Science: A Comparative Study Among The United States, India, Singapore And Thailand, Sarla R. Murgai

The Southeastern Librarian

In most non-western societies, the self-system (personal standards of judging and guiding one’s actions) is much more inter-dependent on family and society, whereas in western societies, especially in the U.S., it is dependent on the individual self. Cross-cultural studies suggest that a person’s behavior should be understood in the context of their social experience and social roles. In all the cultures and countries studied, however, the status of women is universally lower than men; consequently there is a need to explore the causes. Professional women have made some strides in penetrating managerial ranks in the library and information science profession, …

Sexuality In Chile, Elana Jacobs

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper explores contemporary sexuality in Chile, through an analysis of the institutionalized rules and regulations, comprised of the many laws and regulations determined by Chile’s governing bodies and embodied by the words and actions of State Officials, and the police force: los Carabineros; to the societal norms and collective values, which include the position of the Catholic Church, the media, and the sociological investigations which analyze Chile’s collective understandings and dominant discourses, determining what is acceptable within the realm of sex and sexuality, and what is not. Additionally, this paper seeks to understand the efforts of the many organizations …