Sociology Commons^™

U.S. Women And Hiv Infection, P. Clay Stephens

New England Journal of Public Policy

Women are inadequately provided with HIV services and education and are differentially denied access to these. Divisions of race, ethnicity, economic class, and religion, among others, are compounded by sexual discrimination within each of these categories.

Review of current data on women with AIDS reveals that the reporting methods used convey a false impression that women are not at significant risk. Moreover, the persons indirectly affected by AIDS are predominantly women — mothers, sisters, partners, family members, teachers, and human service workers. Thus, AIDS is more of a women's issue than the statistics imply.

Women, as a gender-defined class, face …

Friendship Between Women: The Influence Of Incest, Laurie Lockert

Dissertations and Theses

This study focused on the mother/daughter relationship in father/daughter incest and how that relationship influences women's friendships with other women. Many researchers have concluded that females who were sexually abused by male authority figures, i.e., father, step-father, grandfather, older brother, minister, babysitter, will have impaired relationships with men. Clinicians surmise that the enormous betrayal of trust involved in the incest leads the child to generalize from her experience with one male to all males. Victims express feelings of distrust, fear of intimacy, and fear of personal expression in all male/female relationships. Studies suggest that in families where father/daughter incest has …

Forest Conservation In Nepal: Encouraging Women's Participation, Augusta Molnar

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This issue of SEEDS focuses on ways in which women have been involved in a government forest conservation and restoration program in Nepal. As is common with many large-scale projects with a general impact, women were not a direct focus of the project's original design. As activities got underway, however, both the Nepali staff and their expatriate colleagues quickly realized that the direct involvement of women was crucial to the success of the project's participatory strategy. Over the initial five years, 1980 to 1985, a number of approaches to addressing women's needs and generating their active participation were tried. The …

Socioeconomic Indicators Of Women's Status In Developing Countries, 1970–1980, Constantina Safilios-Rothschild

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

From 1970–1980, several conferences were held and publications produced regarding the need to improve data collection on indicators of women’s status, as well as a number of publications offering concrete proposals for such improvements. During this period, the disaggregation of statistics by sex has expanded in many countries and indicators, and such disaggregated statistics are presented with increased frequency in international data compiled by United Nations specialized organizations. In addition, two major sets of statistics on the status of women have appeared. These statistics on socioeconomic indicators of the status of women in developing countries include statistics on men as …

The Women's Construction Collective: Building For The Future, Ruth Mcleod

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This edition of SEEDS focuses on a project developed to integrate low-income women into Jamaica's construction industry. In two years, 34 women passed through the project's basic training and skills upgrading courses. More than 90 percent of these women became employed, the majority as masons and carpenters. The story of how this field was identified as a potential source of income for women, and how the project developed and evolved in response to changing circumstances, presents many useful lessons. These should be of particular interest to those seeking to identify employment areas where women's participation is feasible and in helping …

Learning About Women And Urban Services In Latin America And The Caribbean, Marianne Schmink, Judith Bruce, Marilyn Kohn

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

In 1978 when the Population Council formulated a program to learn more about low-income urban women’s access to services, the dearth of information was striking, particularly in contrast to the emerging body of information delineating access to credit, extension, membership in rural institutions, and representation in local governments. Access to services was much less well-defined owing to the diverse cultures that meet in the urban environment, the mobility of city life, and the fluidity of households. Urban development planners, researchers, and those involved in community action projects in a number of South American cities were approached to find out what …

Women In Ministry: 1853-1984, Leah Matthews

Honors Papers

The status and role of women in organized leadership positions in the Protestant church has reflected an American cultural basis for sex-typing the professions. Specifically, the ministry as an occupation has traditionally been thought of as a male occupation. Although the obstacles faced by women are usually justified or explained on doctrinal or theological grounds, it is my thesis that they are better accounted for by reference to secular conditions and status structures. This paper is concerned with the Christian ministry as a profession and the ways in which cultural attitudes and social forces have worked together to prevent women …

A Review Of Explicit And Implicit Propositions About Women As Terrorists, Ineke Haan Marshall, Vincent J. Webb, Dennis Hoffman

Publications

The purpose of this paper on women as terrorists is threefold. The first aim is to examine a portion of the existing literature in order to identify explicit and implicit propositions and hypotheses about the causal dynamics involved in female terrorism. The second is to make a critical examination of these propositions and hypotheses and to categorize the nature of prevailing explanations of women as terrorists. Finally, the policy implications of the various approaches to explaining female involvement in terrorist activities are examined.

Critique [Of Women, Religion, And Peace In An American Indian Ritual By Kristin Herzog], Ernest Champion

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

Kristin Herzog's journey into the past is a necessary journey for serious students of ethnic and American studies; she establishes the relevance and validity of oral literature which has been relegated to an inferior status by scholars in the western world. The attempt to impose an inferior status on oral literature is rather sinister when one considers the absence of a written literature has been taken to mean an absence of intellectual activity on the part of such people. Not only American Indians but also Africans have suffered a great deal because of the tendency to regard such people as …

Critique [Of Women, Religion, And Peace In An American Indian Ritual By Kristin Herzog], Linda Jean Carpenter

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

Herzog's article is organized around three threads which she proposes as useful for strengthening the fabric of contemporary U.S. society. The three threads, teased from an exploration of a portion of the Dekanawida-Hayonwatha stories (narrative and ritual of the Haudenosaunee) are: 1. the high status of women in Haudenosaunee society 2. the understanding of statecraft as a sacred responsibility toward all creation 3. peace as justice and wholeness in the social order. The threads found in stories dating back to about the 15th century provide a view of beliefs denominated by the Haudenosaunee society as being praiseworthy and of good …

Critique [Of Women, Religion, And Peace In An American Indian Ritual By Kristin Herzog], Alice Deck

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

After a lengthy description of the various facets of Haudosaunee ritual, Kristin Herzog makes some interesting statements on the parallels between our modem day social arguments and those which plagued them centuries ago. The unique feature of Haudosaunec social organization is its systematic balance of power between the sexes. Although it is doubtful that American women who are currently engaged in a struggle for political and social power will achieve quite the same degree of equity, just studying a society in which such a balance was achieved is helpful for those in the process of defining women's goals and objectives.

Women, Religion, And Peace In An American Indian Ritual, Kristin Herzog

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

The poem prefaces Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Ceremony, the story of a young American Indian who regains the wholeness and meaning of his life by rediscovering his ancient tribal roots and rituals.[1] It is a story of the American Southwest, especially the Pueblo-Laguna people. Anyone even vaguely familiar with American Indian culture knows that the groups were originally as different from each other as modern-day Swedes are from Albanians or Catalans, if not more so. There were more than 2,000 independent culture groups in Columbus's time, and they spoke 500 different languages belonging to fifty distinct language groups, some as …

Critique [Of Women, Religion, And Peace In An American Indian Ritual By Kristin Herzog], Karl J. Reinhardt

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

The value of Herzog's study, in addition to the factual information presented, is a tragic reminder of two interrelated truths: 1) by studying history we could learn how to make a better world in which to live; and, 2) we do not learn from history. The women's movement of recent years has two aspects which do not, for all times, go together. One moving force in its genesis is the demand that physical and emotional abuse and misuse of women by men cease. The other, not necessarily related to the first, is that of equal status, which includes equal access …

Administración Comunitaria Del Reciclamiento De Desechos: El Sirdo, Marianne Schmink

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

A comienzos de 1978, un grupo de famílias esperaba que le adjudicaran una de las casas comprendidas en un proyecto de viviendas económicas en Mérida, una ciudad de la costa sudeste de México. Algunas casas contaban con un sistema de drenaje nuevo llamado SIRDO (Sistema Integrado de Reciclamiento de Desechos Orgánicos), y las familias interesadas en vivir en la manzana experimental donde se instalaría el SIRDO, podrían ocupar su casa inmediatamente. Tres años más tarde un otro grupo de familias de una comunidad situada en el populoso Valle de Mexico resolvieron ensayar el sistema en su propio vecindario. Las mujeres …

Developing Non-Craft Employment For Women In Bangladesh, Marty Chen

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Too often when development planners or practitioners plan income-generating schemes for women they consider only handicrafts. While in some situations craft production may provide a secure source of income for women, in many cases it results in poor returns and proves more complicated an undertaking than expected. The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) is one agency that has developed a successful program of non-craft employment opportunities for women. Some 10,000 poor women have been engaged by BRAC in viable economic schemes: 9,000 in non-craft production. This issue of SEEDS reviews BRAC's experience in developing non-craft employment opportunities and participatory associations …

Les Coopératives Des Vendeuses De Marché: Accorder Crédit Aux Femmes, Judith Bruce

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

En 1972, la Fondation Nicaraguayenne de Développement (Fundación Nicaraguense de Desarrollo—FUNDE), I'un des deux programmes patronnés par l'Institut Nicaraguayen de Développement, prit connaissance du fait que les vendeuses de marché avaient besoin de d'argent liquide pour poursuivre leurs activités. Ce numéro de SEEDS décrit les efforts de FUNDE pour répondre à ce besoin par la création et la mise en place de cooperatives d'épargne et de crédit. Ce rapport insiste autant sur les aspects humains que ceux financiers et techniques du projet. Le succès obtenu s'explique par la manière dont les coopératives se sont formées, respectant les systèmes de valeurs, …

Community Management Of Waste Recycling: The Sirdo, Marianne Schmink

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

At the beginning of 1978, a group of families were awaiting access to low-cost housing in Mérida, a city on Mexico's southeastern coast. Some units were equipped with a new drainage system called SIRDO (Integrated System for Recycling Organic Wastes), and families interested in living in the experimental block where the SIRDO was to be installed could be given housing right away. Three years later, families in another community located in the crowded Valley of Mexico decided to try the system in their own neighborhood. Women have played a crucial role in learning to manage the technical, economic, and social …

Creación De Empleos Distintos De Las Artesanías Para Las Mujeres De Bangladesh, Marty Chen

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Con demasiada frecuencia los planificadores profesionales del desarrollo que diseñan proyectos destinados a producir ingresos para las mujeres, lo único que consideran son las artesanías. Si bien es cierto que en determinadas circunstancias éstas pueden proporcionarles una renta segura, en muchos otros casos las artesanías dan poco rendimiento y resultan ser una empresa mas complicada de lo que se esperaba. El Comité de Adelanto Rural de Bangladesh (BRAC—sigla de su nombre en inglés, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), es una organización que ha logrado desarrollar con éxito un programa de oportunidades de empleo femenino, distinto de las artesanías. De las 10.000 …

La Coopérative De Markala: Une Nouvelle Approche Des Rôles Economiques Traditionnaux, Susan Daughman, Mariam N'Diaye Thiam

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Ce numéro de SEEDS présente la cooperative de Markala, née de la détermination d'un groupe de femmes pauvres de la campagne Malienne à trouver un travail rémunerateur. Quand les vingt membres originaux s'associèrent en 1975, leur but était de gagner un salaire et d'apprendre des techniques reconnues et negociable sur le marché de l'emploi. En 1981, elles gèrent avec succès une cooperative qui produit et vend des pièces d'étoffe teintes et du savon de lessive. L'expérience des femmes de Markala a déjà aidé à la création d'autres coopératives dans la campagne Malienne. Cela démontre également que le fait de créer …

The Working Women's Forum: Organizing For Credit And Change, Marty Chen

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This issue of SEEDs tells the story of how the Working Women's Forum came into being in Madras, India and how it has brought together more than 13,000 poor, urban women around the issue of credit. It also describes how the Forum has not only provided its members with access to funds, but has expanded to include support services such as child care, education, health, and family planning and how the sense of strength and purpose that has grown up among the members is helping them to tackle the political and social problems that affect their lives.

Mujeres Y Artesanías: Mito Y Realidad, Jasleen Dhamija

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Este número de SEEDS analiza las artesanías como medio de crear ingresos para las mujeres. En algunos casos constituyen fuente sólida de ganancia; también pueden servirles de nexo con su propia herencia cultural. En la mayoría de los casos, sin embargo, las artesanías hacen que las mujeres se dediquen a un tipo de ocupación que requiere una labor muy intensa, con la que se las puede explotar y que resulta en entradas mínimas por largas horas de trabajo. Las artesanías pueden servir de medio de incrementar los ingresos femeninos en ciertos lugares, pero sólo en las condiciones que se describen …

Les Femmes Et L'Artisanat: Mythe Et Réalité, Jasleen Dhamija

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Ce rapport examine les travaux manuels et l'artisanat comme un moyen d'assurer un revenu aux femmes. Parfois ces métiers représentent pour elles une source importante d'argent et leur permettent également de rester en lien avec leur propre heritage culture. Dans la plupart des cas cependant, la production artisanale relègue les femmes dans un domaine où le travail est intense et exploiteur, n'offrant qu'un salaire dérisoire pour de longues heures de labeur. Les travaux manuels et l'artisanat peuvent être un moyen pour les femmes d'accroître leurs revenus dans certains environnements, mais seulement sous les conditions présentées dans le rapport, car ces …

Hanover Street: Un Experimento De Capacitacion Femenina En Soladadura Y Carpinteria, Peggy Antrobus, Barbara Rogers

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

El Proyecto de Hanover Street, conocido oficialmente como United Women's Woodworking and Welding Project (Proyecto de Carpintería y Soldadura de la Unión Femenina), es un experimento destinado a capacitar a un grupo de mujeres en oficios que usualmente desempeñan los hombres. Se inició en 1976 y fue el primer proyecto de esta clase de la Oficina de la Mujer Jamaiquina, una dependencia creada por el Gobierno de Jamaica durante el Año Internacional de la Mujer, para garantizar la total participación femenina en el desarrollo del país. A pesar de encontrarse aún en una etapa de desarrollo, el proyecto ha demostrado …

Le Forum Pour Les Femmes Actives: Lutte Pour Le Crédit Et Le Changement, Marty Chen

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Ce numéro de SEEDS retrace les différentes étapes qui ont mené à la création du Forum pour les Femmes à Madras, Inde et comment plus de 13,000 femmes pauvres ont pu, grâce à cette organisation, avoir accès au crédit. II décrit également comment le Forum a diversifié ses activités pour fournir à ses membres d'autres services, notamment dans le domaine de l'éducation, la santé, et la planification familiale et montre comment le fait de se sentir solidaires et reconnues permet à ses membres de mieux faire face aux problèmes politiques et sociaux qui affectent leur vie.

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This issue of …

Cooperativas De Vendedoras De Los Mercados: Dan Préstamos A Las Mujeres, Judith Bruce

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

En 1972, la Fundación Nicaraguense de Desarrollo (FUNDE)—uno de los dos programas patrocinados por el Instituto Nicaraguense de Desarrollo—se dió cuenta de la necesidad que tenían las vendedoras de los mercados de obtener dinero prestado. Esta edición de SEEDS describe de la experiencia de FUNDE en el establecimiento de cooperatives de ahorro y préstamos destinadas a satisfacer esta necesidad. Este resumen hace hincapié tanto en los aspectos humanos del proyecto, como en los financieros y técnicos: El proyecto ha dado buenos resultados porque las cooperativas se han formado con base en la cultura de estas señoras, y utilizan toda la …

Women And Handicrafts: Myth And Reality, Jasleen Dhamija

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This issue of SEEDS reviews handicrafts as a means of providing income to women. In some instances, crafts are a solid source of income and can also provide women with a link to their own cultural heritage. In most instances, however, crafts production concentrates women in an area that is labor intensive and exploitative, providing a meager income for long hours of work. Handicrafts can be a means of increasing income for women in some settings, but only under the conditions outlined in this report, since crafts are specialized activities which have limited markets and offer limited potential as a …

Women's Status And Roles In Contemporary Japanese Society, Schon Beechler

Honors Papers

The combination of modernization and industrialization and the persistence of traditional attitudes serves to create a unique set of tensions and strains within the Japanese social system. The position of women is one such area in which the conflicting demands of this system are especially evident. Women in contemporary Japanese society are still expected to be "good wives and mothers" yet they are also often required to participate in the workforce in an economy beset by spiraling inflation. Even those women who are not forced to work by necessity have found that the importance of their wife/mother role has been …

Women's Liberation: Is It Smashing The Hothouse?, Wendy Tarnoff

Honors Papers

Since this paper has concentrated on the cultural and societal influences on women's roles, and how these affect their criminal behavior, these variables rather than exclusively economic ones, will be presented now in relatively economic homogeneous contexts. The remaining discussion will, therefore, compare the patterns and trends of female criminal behavior in England-Wales and Japan with those in the United States. A final note will be made on some research done by Safilios-Rothschild in Greece concerning socio-cultural changes which have occurred in Greece, and how they have affected the commission of "honor crimes."

Market Women's Cooperatives: Giving Women Credit, Judith Bruce

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

In 1972, the Nicaraguan Foundation for Development (Fundación Nicaraguense de Desarrollo—FUNDE), one of two programs sponsored by the Nicaraguan Institute of Development, became aware of market women's need for credit. This issue of SEEDS describes FUNDE's experience in developing savings and loan cooperatives to meet this need. This summary stresses the human aspects of the process as much as the financial and technical ones. The project has been successful because the cooperatives have built upon the existing market women's culture, utilizing all the subtle and complex interpersonal relationships established over the years. In essence what the cooperatives have done is …

Hanover Street: An Experiment To Train Women In Welding And Carpentry, Peggy Antrobus, Barbara Rogers

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Hanover Street Project, formally known as the United Women’s Woodworking and Welding Project, is an experiment in training women for jobs usually held only by men. Begun in 1976, this was the first such program of the Jamaica Women's Bureau, established by the government during International Women's Year to ensure that women participate fully in Jamaica’s development. The project demonstrated that low-income women can learn non-traditional skills and can work together to improve their lives. Through trial and error, the project is providing the Women's Bureau with a wealth of information about teaching technical skills, working with other government …