Gender and Sexuality Commons^™

The Prevention And Management Of Hiv And Sexual And Gender-Based Violence: Responding To The Needs Of Survivors And Those-At-Risk, Sarah Raifman, Ian Askew, Sajeda Amin, Jill Keesbury, Saiqa Mullick, Judith A. Diers, Meiwita P. Budiharsana, Chi-Chi Undie, Mary Zama, Mantshi Menziwa, Sherry Hutchinson, Naomi Rutenberg

Reproductive Health

The Population Council seeks to understand the social, economic, political, and physical context of risks for sexual and gender-based violence and HIV. Among the top priorities of Council research are supporting and evaluating efforts to prevent violence and HIV, including creating safe spaces for adolescent girls, and working with men and boys to change gender norms within the community; and comprehensively responding to the needs of survivors (including those who are HIV-infected) by strengthening health systems and integrating services. The purpose of this guide is to provide practical guidance on the steps necessary to establish and strengthen sexual violence (SV) …

Women As Subject And Audience In World War Ii Venereal Disease Posters, Kyra Whitton

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

Internationally, venereal disease first became a major health concern during World War I. Venereal diseases were some of the most common infections and led to more hospitalizations among soldiers than wounds or battle-related illness. The Selective Service discovered that almost fifteen percent of those who were eligible for the draft were already infected with a venereal disease, sparking an intense anti-venereal disease campaign across America. Red-light districts were shut down, and American cities sought new laws that would criminalize prostitution to protect young men from contracting a venereal infection.

Though venereal disease rates were still high during World War II, …

Percepciones De Género En La Medicina Mapuche: Machi, Matriarca, Y Colonización, Krista Douglass

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Gender is a social ordering principle; a definition of masculinity and femininity according to an individual culture. While in Chile gender identity is often shaped by machismo, the Mapuche cosmovision is without gender disparities. Rather, relationships between men and women are governed by principles of equality and duality, just as the Mapuche deities balance both male and female energies. Women hold very important roles in the community as the leaders of the medical community. Although both men and women participate in various roles within this profession, machi, the spiritual healers, are mostly women. Males, or wentru machi, …

More Than Just Biology: Creating An Informational Website For Teens On Sexuality And Lifelong Sexual Health, Sarah Cyr-Mutty

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

“More Than Just Biology – Creating an informational website for teens on sexuality and lifelong sexual health” is the product of four weeks’ research in Amsterdam, NL on sexuality education and the use of the Internet as an educational tool for youth. The research defied a “Dutch approach” to sexuality education and used it to create a website for American teenagers to get confidential and accurate information regarding their sexual lives and health. Information was gathered primarily through personal interviews, as well as a review of existing literature on the subject. Through this research, it was found that the Dutch …

Bridging The Gap: Identifying Social Factors That Affect The Knowledge Of Sexually Transmitted Infections And Use Of Prevention Methods In Young Women, Ariel Spigel

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study investigates the social factors that affect the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STIs) in young women, focusing on their knowledge of the subject and use of prevention methods in order to discover why STIs, though preventable, are still prevalent in the lives of young adults, and more often, young women. Sixty-one anonymous, closed questionnaires were distributed to female students of at least eighteen years at the Colegio Estadual Francisco da Conceição Menezes in Santo Antônio de Jesus, Bahia, Brazil, and six structured interviews were conducted with students from the same pool. Results showed varying levels of knowledge, educational …

Life History And Narrative Analysis: Feminist Methodologies Contextualizing Black Women's Experiences With Severe Mental Illness, Marya R. Sosulski, Nicole T. Buchanan, Chandra M. Donnell

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper discusses a methodological approach to research that enhances critical analysis by contextualizing qualitative research findings within participants' individual experiences. We demonstrate the combined use of life history methods and feminist narrative analysis to explore Black women's everyday experiences with mental illness, from their perspectives. These interpretive methods reach beyond pathologized conceptions of identity and adjustment that often narrowly characterize mental illness among Black women. Instead, these methods holistically describe a participant's experiences and strategies she uses to pursue goals and enhance her life. The use of the methods is illustrated with examples from the life narrative of "Maria," …

The Feminization Of Hiv: Patriarchy As A Threat To Public Health In Ecuador – A Trans-Feminist Perspective, Fabián Espinosa Ma, Academic Director

Fostering Multicultural Competence and Global Justice: an SIT Symposium

This article attempts to analyze male sexual conduct in Ecuador and its determining role in the feminization of HIV. Male promiscuity, not only tolerated but celebrated by sexist discourse, severely impairs public health initiatives and remains one of the critical issues for both individuals and collectives struggling for structural changes in sexual politics. The exercise of citizenships, sustained by a new constitutional framework, embraces the principle of “subversion from within”, the only significant way of challenging heterosexist imaginaries and practices. This type of activism focuses on the formal and normative political dimension of sex and gender, but also and most …

Lgb-Affirmative Therapists' Use Of Developmental Models Of Lgb-Identity In Therapy. A Phenomenological Investigation, Victoria E. Cane

Dissertations

Socially sanctioned hostility toward sexual minority persons continues to be a reality in the United States and worldwide. Therapists working with sexual minorities have responsibility to provide non-pathologizing, affirmative therapy to these clients. A central aspect of affirmative therapy is therapists' recognition and understanding of sexual orientation (SO) identity and developmental models of sexual minority identity have a played a vital role in promoting this understanding. Although such models have been central to the practice and training of affirmative therapy, therapists' applied use of the models has not been empirically investigated. For this phenomenological study, nine affirmative therapists were interviewed …

Female Condom Knowledge, Attributes And Behavior: Barriers To Use And Potential For Acceptance Among Sexually Active Undergraduate Students, Paige Nuzzolillo 6368479

Honors Scholar Theses

Minimal research has been conducted on the acceptability of the female condom among college populations despite its existence in the world market since 1992. The FC2, an improved version of FC1, has recently been released in the United States, thus prompting the need for further acceptability studies. Due to increasingly high rates of STDs among those aged 15-24, every method of protection against STDs/HIV and pregnancy must be utilized. This study involved a campus-wide survey which examined University of Connecticut (Uconn) main campus (Storrs) undergraduate students’ knowledge of the female condom, perceptions of and attitudes towards the female condom as …

Alcohol Problems In Young Adults Transitioning From Adolescence To Adulthood: The Association With Race And Gender, Karen G. Chartier, Michie N. Hesselbrock, Victor M. Hesselbrock

Social Work Publications

Race and gender may be important considerations for recognizing alcohol related problems in Black and White young adults. This study examined the prevalence and age of onset of individual alcohol problems and alcohol problem severity across race and gender subgroups from a longitudinal study of a community sample of adolescents followed into young adulthood (N = 166; 23–29 yrs. old who were drinkers). All alcohol problems examined first occurred when subjects were in their late teens and early 20s. Drinking in hazardous situations, blackouts, and tolerance were the most common reported alcohol problems. In race and gender comparisons, more …

Social Categories And Health Care Outcomes: African American Women And Hiv Survival In The Urban South, Alyson J. O'Daniel

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This ethnographic research examines the daily life and institutional conditions under which low-income Black women in urban North Carolina perceived and attended to HIV health-related needs. I focus specifically on the interplay among women’s living conditions, programmatic service needs, and their strategies for navigating the local system of care to explore and refine the categorical label “low income.” I found that there were significant differences among study participants in terms of their monthly incomes and financial resources, housing quality and status, and personal experiences with incarceration and substance abuse. The economic differences among women translated into social differences within the …

A Step-By-Step Guide To Strengthening Sexual Violence Services In Public Health Facilities: Lessons And Tools From Sexual Violence Services In Africa, Jill Keesbury, Jill Thompson

Reproductive Health

Sexual violence (SV) is a serious health and human rights problem across Africa that disproportionately affects women and girls. Survivors require comprehensive and sensitive care to mitigate the negative health consequences of SV, minimize psychological trauma, and promote long-term reintegration and recovery. Despite high levels of sexual violence and a growing recognition of the need to improve the management of rape and sexual assault, many public health facilities in Africa do not currently have capacity to provide comprehensive, patient-centered SV care to adult and child survivors. Public facilities face numerous challenges including lack of specialized SV training, general understaffing and …

Building Programs To Address Child Marriage: The Berhane Hewan Experience In Ethiopia, Eunice N. Muthengi, Annabel Erulkar

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The development of a context-appropriate program to delay marriage in rural Ethiopia took place over many years and in stages. The program that ultimately became known as “Berhane Hewan” was developed by building an evidence base of understanding on the populations being served and developing partnerships between the Population Council and like-minded agencies with complementary expertise. The Berhane Hewan pilot demonstrated that significant impacts can be made on the social, educational, and health status of adolescent girls in a short period of time, through well designed and implemented support programs. However, high levels of exposure to all project components, make …

Girl-Centered Program Design: A Toolkit To Develop, Strengthen And Expand Adolescent Girls Programs, Karen Austrian, Dennitah Ghati

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

"Girl-Centered Program Design: A Toolkit to Develop, Strengthen and Expand Adolescent Girls Programs" is a set of tools and guidelines for strengthening programs for adolescent girls in urban Kenya. Based on discussions from a 2010 meeting of the Kenya Adolescent Girls’ Brain Trust, hosted by the Binti Pamoja Center and the Population Council, the toolkit is written for those interested in working with adolescent girls ages 10–24. It can be used by anyone who is designing or running a program, writing a proposal to work with girls, or seeking innovative ideas on how to strengthen program activities. The toolkit has …

Down Syndrome And Sexuality, Maria José Carvalho Sant'anna, Bruna Marques Bononi, André Chao Vasconcellos De Oliveira, Tadeu Silveira Renattini, Carla Franchi Pinto, Maria Lucia Passarelli, Veronica Coates, Hatim A. Omar

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

In recent years important gains and changes have been observed in the life of teenagers with Down syndrome (DS) with increased inclusion into society. This chapter will discuss adolescence and sexuality in teenagers with DS from a descriptive study of 50 patients with DS between the ages of 10 and 20 years. The mean age was 13.5 years, 50% females. 86% went to school with 62.2% in school for over six years. Of the patients that attended school, 60% went to special education school and only 10% read and wrote correctly. In evaluation of autonomy, 66% took shower, 78% performed …

Romance And Sex Before Marriage Among Young Women And Men In Andhra Pradesh, International Institute For Population Sciences (Iips), Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This policy brief documents the extent of pre-marital romantic and sexual relations experienced by young men and women in Andhra Pradesh, India and the extent to which pre-marital sexual experiences among young people are informed, safe, and wanted. Findings clearly highlight that many young men and a small minority of young women in Andhra Pradesh had engaged in sex before marriage and that many of them had initiated sexual activities uninformed, had engaged in unsafe relations, and/or had experienced unwanted relations. Findings that relatively few youth had been exposed to family life or sex education emphasize the need for increased …

Assessing Abortion-Related Experiences And Needs In Four Districts Of Maharashtra And Rajasthan, 2006, Shireen J. Jejeebhoy, A.J. Francis Zavier, Shveta Kalyanwala

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Recognizing the urgent need to enable rural women to acquire accessible and high-quality abortion services in India, a consortium of organizations—including the Population Council—has come together with the goal of increasing access to legal, safe, and comprehensive abortion services, including postabortion family planning, in the public health system, especially among the rural poor. One of its key activities was to develop a comprehensive and evidence-based abortion care model suitable for rural women. The aim of this report is to shed light on community-level perspectives about abortion services and probe the experiences of women who had undergone abortion, to better understand …

L'Adolescence Des Filles Au Burkina Faso: Une Clé De Voûte Pour Le Changement Social, Martha Brady, Lydia Saloucou, Erica Chong

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Although a number of innovative programs have been created to meet their needs, Burkinabé adolescent girls continue to face many threats to their well-being. They still need considerable support and opportunities to improve their social and economic status and health status. This report, using a number of data sources, including Population Council studies and programs, and the Demographic and Health Survey of Burkina Faso, aims to provide a general overview of these young girls’ adolescence—the realities of life and the policy and program initiatives designed for them. The Population Council hopes that this report will make a significant contribution to …

Poverty, Marriage Timing, And Transitions To Adulthood In Nepal: A Longitudinal Analysis Using The Nepal Living Standards Survey, Ashish Bajracharya, Sajeda Amin

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This working paper examines the influence of household poverty experienced during early childhood on early marriage and outcomes in schooling and workforce participation during adolescence for girls in Nepal. Much of the evidence concerning these relationships is drawn from cross-sectional data that cannot be used, and has not been able, to address causality. This Population Council study uses longitudinal data from the Nepal Living Standards Survey (NLSS), a two-wave panel in which the waves were conducted eight years apart to address these questions. Analyzing the data by household-wealth quintiles reveals surprisingly nonlinear results indicating that these associations are largest for …

The Nature Of Mothers' Work And Children's Schooling In Nepal: The Influence Of Income And Time Effects, Ashish Bajracharya

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Using nationally representative cross-sectional data from the Nepal Living Standards Survey, this Population Council working paper examines the influence of the nature of mothers’ work on Nepali children’s schooling outcomes. It analyses whether the engagement of mothers (and fathers) in nonagricultural work has significant consequences for their children’s school attendance and grade attainment, compared with these consequences when parents’ work is in traditional subsistence agriculture. Results indicate that children of parents who both work in the nonagriculture sector are significantly more likely to have attended or currently be attending school and have higher grade attainment, compared with children whose parents …

Planning And Implementing An Essential Package Of Sexual And Reproductive Health Services: Guidance For Integrating Family Planning And Sti/Rti With Other Reproductive Health And Primary Health Services, Katherine Williams, Charlotte E. Warren, Ian Askew

Reproductive Health

The second goal of the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA’s) 2008–11 Strategic Plan is “Universal access to reproductive health by 2015 and universal access to comprehensive HIV prevention by 2010 for improved quality of life.” UNFPA identified a number of outcomes that will contribute to achieving this goal. Through an extensive search of the published literature and collation of unpublished literature on programmatic experiences with developing and implementing integrated packages of SRH services, the Population Council gathered a body of evidence from which this guidance for UNFPA staff and national counterparts has been developed. UNFPA identified two priority areas: integrating …

Manual On Financial Mechanism For The Health Facilities: Introducing Pay-For-Performance Approach To Increase Utilization Of Maternal, Newborn, And Child Health Services In Bangladesh, Laila Rahman, Dipak Kumar Shil, Md. Mamun-Or Rashid, Ismat Ara Hena, Md. Noorunnabi Talukder, Farhana Akter, Anup Kumar Dey, Ripa Ali, Joynal Abedin, Mursheda Rahman, Md. Ataur Rahman, Md. Julkarnayeen, Arifur Rahman, Md. Abdur Rab Sardar

Reproductive Health

The Population Council initiated an operations research study to test two Pay-for-Performance (P4P) strategies to improve maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) services in Bangladesh in 2010. The P4P study is being implemented as part of the two ongoing MNCH and maternal and newborn health (MNH) projects of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) implemented by the Directorate General of Health Services, Government of Bangladesh. The study has been testing two strategies. The first introduces incentives tied with performance for motivating service providers to improve the quantity as well as quality of services, and enable poor pregnant women, and mothers …

Executive Summary: A Step-By-Step Guide To Strengthening Sexual Violence Services In Public Health Facilities, Jill Keesbury, Jill Thompson

Reproductive Health

This document contains an executive summary of “A step-by-step guide to strengthening sexual violence services in public health facilities: Lessons and tools from sexual violence services in Africa.” Sexual violence (SV) is a serious health and human rights problem across Africa that disproportionately affects women and girls. Survivors require comprehensive and sensitive care to mitigate the negative health consequences of SV, minimize psychological trauma, and promote long-term reintegration and recovery. Despite high levels of sexual violence and a growing recognition of the need to improve the management of rape and sexual assault, many public health facilities in Africa do not …

Facility Assessment Report: Introducing Pay-For-Performance (P4p) Approach To Increase Utilization Of Maternal, Newborn, And Child Health Services In Bangladesh, Md. Noorunnabi Talukder, Ubaidur Rob, Laila Rahman, Ismat Ara Hena, Farhana Akter, Mohammad Ataur Rahman, Md. Julkarnayeen, Md. Akteruzzaman, Md. Sohel Rana, Ripa Ali

Reproductive Health

Under the leadership of the Directorate General of Health Services, the Population Council in collaboration with James P. Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University and with support from UNICEF is testing an innovative service delivery model to provide financial incentives to institutions to enhance their performance on maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) services in three districts of Bangladesh as part of GOB-UNICEF’s ongoing MNCH/MNH projects. A comparative analysis on the availability and condition of physical and human assets across 16 health facilities will inform what is needed in a facility in terms of inputs and processes. This report …

Future Of Family Planning Program In Bangladesh: Issues And Challenges, Ubaidur Rob, Md. Noorunnabi Talukder, A.K.M. Zafar Ullah Khan

Reproductive Health

Bangladesh experienced large population growth in the past, but due to a successful family planning program, the total fertility rate (TFR) declined rapidly until the mid-nineties. Over the last decade, the country experienced a slow pace in fertility decline with a small increase in the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR). This slow pace in fertility decline is causing serious concern for reaching replacement level fertility by 2015. CPR increased seven-fold from 1975 to 2000, but there was no significant increase from 2000-09, demonstrating the weakness of present program efforts. This raises concern among researchers, policymakers, and program managers about the prospect …

Urban Family Planning Program Of Bangladesh: Issues And Challenges, Ubaidur Rob, Md. Noorunnabi Talukder, A.K.M. Zafar Ullah Khan

Reproductive Health

Extremely inadequate government primary health care (PHC) structure exists in cities in Bangladesh. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play an important role in providing basic health and family planning services to a limited proportion of the urban population. However, NGO programs are time-bound and subject to the availability of development assistance. Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of growth of urban populations among developing countries. For this teeming urban population, there is no structured family planning service. To ensure continuous family planning services in urban areas it is critical to develop a sustainable primary health care structure with the thrust on …

Workshop Report: Introducing Pay-For-Performance (P4p) Approach And Increase Utilization Of Maternal, Newborn, And Child Health Services In Bangladesh, Md. Noorunnabi Talukder, Ubaidur Rob, Ismat Ara Hena, Farhana Akter, Mohammad Ataur Rahman, Md. Julkarnayeen

Reproductive Health

In Bangladesh, improving skilled birth attendance at delivery and access to facility-based obstetric and newborn care are vital to improving maternal and neonatal health. The health system in Bangladesh faces a critical challenge on the supply side: unavailability of quality services at public health facilities, due to inadequately motivated providers, vacant positions, and provider absenteeism. As well, salaries of public-sector providers do not depend on quality of work or quantity of services provided. Paying an incentive to facilities based on a performance benchmark has the potential of increasing the quantity and quality of maternal, neonatal, and child health (MNCH) care. …

Emergency Contraception: Idea To Program, Saumya Ramarao, John Townsend, Sarah Raifman

Reproductive Health

This report summarizes the role of the Population Council in generating evidence, providing technical leadership, and demonstrating at scale that emergency contraception (EC) can be easily integrated into national family planning programs and other reproductive health services. Since the 1990s, the Population Council, along with other partners, has contributed to the changes seen in the provision and availability of EC, now available in over 140 countries around the world. While much progress has been made in the campaign for access to EC, the Council is committed to improving existing methods of service delivery and to leading advocacy efforts and research …

Sexuality And Persons With Down Syndrome. A Study From Brazil, Bruna Marques Bononi, Maria José Carvalho Sant'anna, André Chao Vasconcellos De Oliveira, Tadeu Silveira Renattini, Carla Franchi Pinto, Maria Lúcia Passarelli, Verônica Coates, Hatim A. Omar

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

In recent years, important gains and changes have been observed in the life of teenagers with Down syndrome (DS) with increased inclusion into society. This review will discuss adolescence and sexuality in teenagers with DS from a descriptive study of 50 patients with DS between the ages of 10 and 20 years. The mean age was 13.5 years, 50% females; 86% went to school with 62.2% in school for over six years. Of the patients that attended school, 60% went to special education school and only 10% read and wrote correctly. In an evaluation of autonomy, 66% took showers, 78% …

Study Of The Four Factor Theory Of Women’S Sexual Function, Julie M. Merrell

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Tiefer, Hall, and Tavris (2002) described factors comprising four categories of female sexual function. They suggested that unique factors need to be examined to understand sexual function in women. Socio-cultural, political, or economic factors, partner and relationship factors, psychological factors, and medical factors were described as aspects of women’s lives that can be the source of sexual dysfunction. In a previous study, Merrell (2007) utilized Tiefer et al’s (2002) four factor model of sexual functioning to examine female sexual functioning looking specifically at body shame, relationship satisfaction, positive and negative affect, sexual self-schema, and overall health. Based on the results …